Emily Howell: From Darkness, Light

"Music professor, author and composer David Cope has been experimenting famously with computerized composers for years, dating back to a few decades ago when a particularly debilitating bout of writer's block got him thinking: Could a computer get my own brain working again? ... Out of that blockage came a program he affectionately named 'Emmy.' ... Though his Bach-emulating program has since been scrapped, his new program, affectionately named 'Emily Howell,' (the two programs 'are definitely related,' he says) has created some gorgeous original compositions of her own. ... The program's job, Cope said, is to create new styles of music by combining elements of his favorite composers. Every piece of music that has ever been recorded has its inspiration in another form, so why, Cope asks, is it so wrong if a computer program takes the same approach? 'Emily Howell is an interactive partner,' Cope said. 'We sort of speak to one another.' He says it's not about making computers operate on their own, it's about using what we know as human beings about music and the emotional effect a piece of music can have on an audience, and applying that to the power of computer science" (Lucas Kavner, "Musical Metacreation: Can a Computer Write a Song That Moves You?," Huffington Post, 6/20/12).

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