Unlike most of the people of my generation, I don't really like modern music, and keep to classical music and original soundtracks from movies. Anyway, today I learned that David Cope had built an Artificial Intelligence software capable of composing classical music.
Sample music from Emily Howell
Emmy, from Experiments in Musical Intelligence, was born in 1981, when David Cope started research in computer music. Himself a composer, he wanted a software that could analyse his music, and tell him what should be the next note, or the next measure, or even all the notes to finish the music piece.
Now, after a few years of silence, Cope is back with Emily Howell, his new software whose aim is not too complete his work, but create her own compositions. The way Emily works is by conversing with David Cope, analyzing succession of notes and giving a rate.
Like many Algorists out there, David had to cope with people saying that computer generated music has no soul. But the same man (a chemistry professor) heard the same piece twice, the first time without knowing that it was composed by an artificial intelligence. The first time he heard it, he though this was the best piece of music ever, but the second time, when he knew it was computer generated, he simply said : You know, that’s pretty music, but I could tell absolutely, immediately that it was computer-composed. There’s no heart or soul or depth to the piece.
So I guess the problem is not the art made itself, but just the fact that it was not made by a human being. Anyway, Emily's music is the best computer generated music I've ever heard, with some kind of Philip Glass feeling (I think).
A composer is a guy who goes around forcing his will on unsuspecting air molecules, often with the assistance of unsuspecting musicians.Franck Zappa
Source : Korben
