Since the 1980s, composer and researcher David Cope has taught computers the art of music composition using his software Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI, or Emmy). Over the years, Emmy has evolved, writing pieces in the styles of composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Joplin, and even Cope himself. Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style ($45) is a collection of writings about Emmy, including descriptions of how it works and reactions, musical and philosophical, to the music Emmy composes and the idea of the computer as composer. An accompanying audio CD includes all of the book's musical examples, including several pieces written by Emmy.
Most writings in Virtual Music are taken from a colloquium on Emmy that occurred at Stanford University in late 1997, with other materials added later by Cope. Musicians and cognitive scientists who contributed to the book include Douglas Hofstadter, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Virtual Music's multiple-author format provides a pleasing variety of perspectives on Emmy.
Whither Computer Music?
The book is divided into four major sections: Fundamentals, Processes and Output, Commentary, and Response and Perspectives. The text begins by defining the concept of virtual music as “machine-created composition, which attempts to replicate the style but not the actual notes of existing music,” and traces its history from figured bass and musical dice games of the 17th and 18th centuries to today. That provides an interesting background for Cope's work.
Hofstadter offers his thoughts about Emmy in chapter 2. He feels amazed and even a bit fearful of Emmy because it seems capable of writing music that can touch his emotions just as strongly as music written by humans. He makes some of his argument in poetry: “Can one bypass the soul,/Can one sidestep all strife,/And produce wondrous music,/Without living a life?” Hofstadter's comments and novice's explanations of how Emmy functions are well stated and provide an intriguing counterpoint to Cope's own descriptions.
Cope follows in chapters 3 through 6 with a response to Hofstadter and an overview of how Emmy composes. Put simply, Emmy creates new music by sewing together bits from existing music that Cope inputs. Rather than patching together random chunks of music, Emmy recognizes, remembers, and recombines stylistic elements from its models and then creates new pieces from them. Cope focuses on the concepts that underlie Emmy and avoids long sections of programming code.
In chapters 7 through 10, Cope traces the complete process of using Emmy to create a new piano-sonata movement in the style of Mozart. He provides the reader with two contrasting movements composed by Emmy during that project: one that he labels a success and one that is a reject. The score and a recording of each are available for easy comparison.
Although that section clearly lays out Cope's methods, it dives into quite a bit of detail, possibly too much for many readers. Listening to the two Emmy compositions proves the value of Cope's research, though. Both compositions work as music, and if someone played the successful piece, I could really believe that Mozart composed it.
The next section, Commentary, examines Emmy's relation to music history, how it succeeds and fails in its imitation of master composers, how people should listen to Emmy's compositions, and how the music might be regarded in the future. Cope then ends the book in chapters 17 and 18 with a look into the future. Some predictions sound a bit too grandiose, but because his current work seems impossible to many people, I respect his opinions.
Emmy Awards
Virtual Music is a joy to read. It is written in a friendly style with the layperson in mind. Although knowledge of classical music and the ability to read music notation certainly help, neither is necessary to enjoy the story and discussions of Emmy within it. However, the text gives the reader no specific descriptions of how he or she might follow in Cope's footsteps and write similar composing software. This is a book to read for its intriguing ideas, not for learning practical skills, and thus it is clearly not for everyone. Lastly, though having a CD of Emmy's music with the book is wonderful, it would have been much more satisfying to hear live musicians play them rather than Cope's Performance algorithm and a sampler.
Overall EM Rating (1 through 5): 3.5
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