This is a thread in "rec.music.compose" that is similar to one
that appeared in the MMD recently.  I thought others would find it
interesting.

 - - -

 >> From: reet@ix.netcom.com(JEFFREY FREED)
 >> Newsgroups: rec.music.compose
 >> Subject: Experiments in Musical Intelligence
 >> Date: 17 Dec 1997 05:01:57 GMT

I thought this would make an interesting thread.  David Cope has
been developing software since 1987 which creates a database on any
composer, analyzes the musical examples for "signatures", and
recombines the non-signature elements while retaining the signatures to
produce new music which he claims accurately reflects the composer's
style without sounding like a pastiche.  Part of the analysis involves
application of Schenker's ideas.

His work is described in a book, "Experiments in Musical Intelligence",
which comes with a disc containing code (unfortunately, for Mac only).
This is the order information for those interested:

  A-R Editions, Inc.
  801 Deming Way
  Madison, WI  53717
  800-736-0070
  608-836-9000

There is supposed to be a CD with selections from these new
compositions, but I haven't heard it.

Let's make the assumption, based on an article in the New York Times,
that this computer-composed music is really of musical and emotional
interest.  What would this mean to flesh-and-blood composers?

Jeff Freed

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 >> From: Bryan Ho <bho@emerald.tufts.edu>
 >> Subject: Re: Experiments in Musical Intelligence
 >> Date: 17 Dec 1997 05:45:28 GMT

I heard about this too.  I could see how a computer could effectively
imitate the style of composers like Bach and Mozart with clear harmonic
structure and form but I don't think a computer would be able to
successfully compose in the Romantic style, much less 20th century
type of music.  I don't think any composer worth his or her salt would
be worried about competing with a computer (actually it might be
interesting to submit your own work and see what the computer comes
up with).

Bryan Ho

 - - -

 >> From: George Bogatko <gbogatko@intac.com>
 >> Subject: Re: Experiments in Musical Intelligence
 >> Date: 22 Dec 1997 14:48 GMT

Jeffrey Freed wrote:

 : David Cope has been developing software [ that ] produces new music
 : [ which ] reflects the composer's style ...

To which Bryan Ho replied:

 : I don't think a computer would be able to successfully compose in
 : the Romantic style, much less 20th century type of music.

This statement is similar to the one made in the early 80's when the
Musician's Union dismissed the Synclavier as a serious threat because
"Nothing can replace the sound of live music", or a corollary, "Nothing
could ever sound like a live trumpet".

They were, of course, referring to jingle and film music.  The Jingle
business is now littered with out-of-work musicians, and the film
industry now uses live musicians for only the biggest budget movies.
The fatal flaw being that nobody cares about the quality of the sound
of live instruments in jingle and film music -- it's used as an adjunct
during dialog or time-filling panorama sequences.  "War Games", the
first to use a synthetic score, proved that point.

I would agree that a computer could easily produce yet another Bach
piece, but I don't think it could produce the *next* Bach piece had he
lived past the Art of Fugue.  It is an imitative mechanism -- an idiot
savant, to be more precise.

However, it is precisely the idiot savant machine composer that the
jingle and film industry seek with the lust of a stock gambler on the
hunt.  Just imagine all that kitsch and wallpaper that could be
produced at the push of a button, with no composer fees and no player
fees.  Think of all those GUI buttons marked "thrill", "chase", "sex",
"fear"; subdivisions under "Korngold", "Elfman", "Williams",
"Stravinsky", "Copeland", "Schoenberg".  "Yanni".  Now *there's* a joke
-- Synthetic Yanni -- Would that qualify as an oxymoron or a redundancy?

While we may giggle at this, be warned that it is the jingle and film
businesses that are keeping the non-academic composers alive right now;
similar to the jingle and film businesses that kept the live players
alive.

 = = =

To which I would add for the MMD -- also imagine the hours of
uninterrupted piano kitsch that could result from integrating such a
mechanism into the guts of a Disklavier.  You could set it up to vomit
out endless Liberace arpeggios, or better yet program it for whole
buckets of "Soothing-Elton-John-Ballad" glop.  Enough maudlin Princess
Diana sobbing and weeping to fill even the deepest emotional pit.
Perfect for Cigar Bars and similar facilities.

George Bogatko