Computer composers and the humans who loathe them...

As a musician myself, who plays piano, sings in a band, and composes music, I found that my gut instinct was to view this article with immediate apprehension and disdain.  What is more human than the act of creating music, with all of the emotion, creativity, and inspiration associated with?

David Cope, a professor, music composer, and computer genius at University of California, Santa Cruz, had created a computer program called Emmy that literally wrote classical music...on "her" own. 

From the article on www.miller-mccune.com:
"Emmy was once the world’s most advanced artificially intelligent composer, and because he’d managed to breathe a sort of life into her, he became a modern-day musical Dr. Frankenstein. She produced thousands of scores in the style of classical heavyweights, scores so impressive that classical music scholars failed to identify them as computer-created. Cope attracted praise from musicians and computer scientists, but his creation raised troubling questions: If a machine could write a Mozart sonata every bit as good as the originals, then what was so special about Mozart? And was there really any soul behind the great works, or were Beethoven and his ilk just clever mathematical manipulators of notes?"

Cope answers those questions with, amazingly enough, "not much" and "yes".  And predictably, he was criticized and ostracized by the music community at large...but only when he revealed the "creative process" behind the compositions.  Before Emmy was unveiled, the works were thought of as "superb" and could not be distinguished from the human composers.

For me, I am torn.  I cling to my human body and mind and initially am aghast at this.  As a lover of music, especially classical music, I am surprised that a computer could capture the inspiration, emotion, and dynamics of a classical piece.  In my opinion, Mozart and Beethoven (to take two composers) were geniuses.  Beethoven composed while deaf! 

But upon further thought, I begin to think of my own experiences with piano, music theory, and notation...with classical music, one music not always have inspiration, but a solid knowledge of music theory...the placement of notes, what notes and chords work well together, and the common transitions between notes and sections.  In the end, much of it does come down to having a genius grasp on what goes with what, and I can see how these relationships can be mathematically programmed.  So in the end, is writing music just an exercise in basic structures and common themes that can easily be programmed, taught, and manipulated to create something entirely new? 

The question isn't that easy to answer now.

Photo courtesy of Catherine Karnow.

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