The Algorithmic Composer (review)

The Algorithmic Composer. By David Cope. (The Computer Music and Digital Audio Series, 16.) Madison, Wisc.: A-R Editions, 2000. [xiii, 302 p. + 1 CD-ROM. ISBN 0-89579-453-3. $49.95 (pbk.).]

What is the role of technology in composing? How does the use of technology, specifically computer programming, shape artistic process? Are the tools we create with technology merely passive, or can they function as collaborative entities? What is it like to collaborate with a technological application? Can a technological application, in and of itself, possess intelligence and creativity? In The Algorithmic Composer, prolific composer and author David Cope addresses such questions with eloquence and insight.

The Algorithmic Composer is the concluding volume of a trilogy in which Cope, who has long been one of the most thoughtful and innovative voices in the field of computer-assisted composition, traces his extensive explorations. The first two books of the trilogy, Computers and Musical Style and Experiments in Musical Intelligence (Madison, Wisc.: A-R Editions, 1991 and 1996 respectively), focus on how the computational analysis of musical style in extant repertory can be used to compose new works bearing the imprint of the old. In The Algorithmic Composer, Cope personalizes this approach, describing the issues involved in building an interactive, collaborative composing partner--an entity able to intuit his artistic objectives and thus function as a "digital extension" (p. ix) of himself. As Cope explains, his goal is to create a "true composer's assistant" (p. 35). He envisions a helper that can create solutions to compositional problems, present options as requested, and thus extend the range of artistic possibilities. The assistant could even offer new musical ideas in the face of writer's block, "when inspiration temporarily wanes" (p. 36).

Cope's intelligent assistant is very different from passive editing tools like word processors, or the digital audio, image, or video editors used across many fields. Conceptually, it is at a much higher and more specialized level than MIDI sequencing programs or music composition languages, the majority of which function as toolboxes but certainly not as attentive, collaborative partners.

Alice, a program Cope wrote that he describes in great detail in The Algorithmic Composer, exemplifies his notion of a composer's assistant. As currently implemented, Alice --the name is an acronym for ALgorithmically Integrated Composing Environment --uses a rules-based approach to composing. What this means is that Alice can infer stylistic and structural principles from music contained in a database, and having identified such principles (known as "rules"), Alice can derive more rules based upon the original set, which it can then use to compose as much of a given work as needed.

The advantage of a rules-based approach is that Alice can create new musical relationships from those that are implicit in the materials it analyzes. In other words, it can identify, abstract upon, and learn from concepts it finds in a database. In so doing, it can extrapolate from musical ideas, yielding passages that Cope might describe as "situationally relevant" (p. 35)--sections of music that work stylistically within the context of an in-progress work. Alice can thus appear to be collaborative, creative, and intelligent.

Throughout The Algorithmic Composer, Cope displays a keen grasp of issues commensurate with his long involvement with computer-assisted composing. His strategy of juxtaposing technical concepts with the critical ideas that inform his research makes the book accessible to a broad spectrum of readers, including composers, theorists, musicologists, and computer scientists interested in artistic process. Particularly compelling is the way he builds to his overview of Alice. He provides a detailed explanation of the reasoning that underlies his implementation of a rules-based approach, and he gives a lucid analysis of the notions of creativity and intelligence, ultimately concluding that Alice is neither truly creative nor intelligent.

Many questions arise from Cope's work. While he implicitly strives to reaffirm and extend the canon, his arguments engender radical and subversive positions that he chooses not to pursue. For example, he notes...