David Cope, 81 years old today, has led Silocon Valley and the musical world toward a convergence, through a long and progressive career. He began 40 years ago writing programs to extract stylistic information from databases of music and create new compositions in given style. This computer-generated piece starts out like a particular Mendelssohn Song without Words, then goes its own way, while continuing to sound unmistakably like Mendelssohn.
In recent decades, he has created the cyber alter ego named Emily Howell, whose musical compositions fill several albums. Here’s a prelude in its own unique style. Here’s some eerie movie music.
All of this is more original and more emotionally compelling than I would have thought possible.
Daily-Inspiration 