Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical StyleVirtual Music is about artificial creativity. Focusing on the author's Experiments in Musical Intelligence computer music composing program, the author and a distinguished group of experts discuss many of the issues surrounding the program, including artificial intelligence, music cognition, and aesthetics. The book is divided into four parts. The first part provides a historical background to Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including examples of historical antecedents, followed by an overview of the program by Douglas Hofstadter. The second part follows the composition of an Experiments in Musical Intelligence work, from the creation of a database to the completion of a new work in the style of Mozart. It includes, in sophisticated lay terms, relatively detailed explanations of how each step in the process contributes to the final composition. The third part consists of perspectives and analyses by Jonathan Berger, Daniel Dennett, Bernard Greenberg, Douglas R. Hofstadter, Steve Larson, and Eleanor Selfridge-Field. The fourth part presents the author's responses to these commentaries, as well as his thoughts on the implications of artificial creativity. The book (and corresponding Web site) includes an appendix providing extended musical examples referred to and discussed in the book, including composers such as Scarlatti, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Puccini, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Debussy, Bartok, and others. It is also accompanied by a CD containing performances of the music in the text. |
Contents
Preface | vii |
The CD | xi |
FUNDAMENTALS | 1 |
Virtual Music | 3 |
Staring Emmy Straight in the EyeAnd Doing My Best Not to Flinch | 13 |
Response to Hofstadter | 63 |
Composing StyleSpecific Music | 73 |
The Importance of Patterns | 89 |
Experiments in Musical Intelligence and Bach | 195 |
Dear Emmy A Counterpoint Teachers Thoughts on the Experiments in Musical Intelligence Programs TwoPart Inventions | 211 |
Who Cares if It Listens? An Essay on Creativity Expectations and Computational Modeling of Listening to Music | 237 |
Collision Detection Muselot and Scribble Some Reflections on Creativity | 257 |
A Few Standard Questions and Answers | 267 |
RESPONSE AND PERSPECTIVES | 281 |
Response to Commentaries | 283 |
Perspectives and the Future | 297 |
Structure | 103 |
PROCESSES AND OUTPUT | 115 |
Databases | 117 |
Analysis | 121 |
Themes and Variations | 127 |
Interface | 151 |
COMMENTARY | 159 |
Composition Combinatorics and Simulation A Historical and Philosophical Enquiry | 161 |
Bibliography | 321 |
Mozart Databases | 329 |
An Experiment in Musical Intellegence Mozart Movement | 353 |
An Experiment in Musical Intelligence Mozart Reject | 359 |
Virtual Music | 365 |
The Game Key | 533 |
Index | 535 |
Other editions - View all
Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style David Cope,Douglas R. Hofstadter No preview available - 2001 |