What they're saying

On Cope’s book, Experiments in Musical Intelligence:

“In twenty years of working in artificial intelligence, I have run across nothing more thought-provoking than David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence. What is the essence of musical style, indeed of music itself? Can great new music emerge from the extraction and recombination of patterns in earlier music? Are the deepest of human emotions triggerable by computer patterns of notes?

Despite the fact that Cope’s vision of human creativity is radically different from my own, I admire enormously what he has achieved. Indeed, this lovingly written book about a deeply held vision of musical creativity should, I think, earn its place as one of the most significant adventures of the late twentieth century.”

–Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach

On Cope’s book, Virtual Music: Computer Synthesis of Musical Style:

“If only Beethoven or Chopin could explain their methods as clearly as David Cope. So when Cope’s program writes a delightful turn of musical phrase, who is the artist: the composer being emulated, Cope’s software, or David Cope himself? Cope offers keen philosophical insights into this question, one that will become increasingly compelling over time. He also provides us with brilliant and unique insights into the intricate structure of humankind’s most universal art form.”

–Raymond Kurzweil

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