David Cope


David Cope is an American author, composer, scientist, and former professor of music at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involves artificial intelligence and music; he writes programs and algorithms that can analyse existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught a summer that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope is also cofounder and CTO Emeritus of Recombinant Inc, a music technology company.

Inventions

Cope is the inventor of Recombinant Music Composition Algorithm and Method of Using the Same.

Composition

His EMI software has produced works in the style of various composers, some of which have been commercially recorded —ranging from short pieces to full length operas.
His subsequent Emily Howell program models musical creativity based on the types of creativity outlined by Margaret Boden in her book The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms.
As a composer, Cope's own work has encompassed a variety of styles—from the traditional to the avant-garde—and techniques, such as unconventional manners of playing, experimental musical instrument, and microtonal scales, including a 33-note system of just intonation he developed himself. Most recently, all of his original compositions have been written in collaboration with the computer—based on an input of his earlier works. He seeks a synergy between composer creativity and computer algorithm as his principal creative direction.

Books