David Cope has written a computer program that can analyze composers’ music and compose new music that sounds like them. “Some classical music geeks enjoy listening for a composer’s signature tendencies and picking out the flaws in Emmy’s fakes. Others see the algorithms as an insult to the composer and the music. Once, at a conference in Germany where Cope presented some virtual Bach, a professor seated beside him bellowed his disapproval, declared music dead, and jabbed an accusatory finger in Cope’s face.”
Tag: 09.04.06
MySpace Gets Into The Music Business
MySpace is gtting into the music business, offering music from “three million unsigned bands”. “MySpace is the latest company to try to take on Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes Music Store, but unlike many other start-up rivals, it already boasts 106 million users, as well as the backing of parent company News Corp.”
A Real Terrible Orchestra That Means To Be Bad
” ‘We are not professionals. We share our problems with our audience,’ said conductor Richard Neville-Towle, before a wobbly rendition of the Gavotte from Bach’s Fifth French Suite. It’s the kind of concert where a critic might be prevailed upon to make remarks during the concert, rather than saving them for the paper, where the principal bass could explain the role of her instrument and which could end, after a sing-along South Pacific, with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 complete with canon effects from the audience (bursting bags).”
Will Computers Replace Musicians?
“A skilled computer operator can now create a commercial soundtrack that the casual listener would accept as real – without the cost of hiring an orchestra, renting a studio and paying union scale for sessions. Good news for budget-conscious filmmakers. Bad news for musicians who rely on income from TV and film recording sessions.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Proms Concert Canceled Because Of Fire
“The Philadelphia Orchestra’s sold-out program featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 – which had been anticipated as one of the peaks of the BBC Proms season at Royal Albert Hall – was canceled hours before it was to start yesterday afternoon because of a minor fire in the hall’s canteen. Nobody was hurt, and the orchestra’s instruments are reported to be safe.”
The Robert Evans Story
“Having overcome financial misfortunes, a cocaine addiction and a series of debilitating strokes, Mr. Evans, 76, has also survived something as manageable as corporate regime change. His durability surely says something about the power of myth in the movie world. A boy wonder who ran Paramount in the early 70’s, he embarked on a personal odyssey that brought him back to the studio as a producer 15 years ago.”
Compleat Mozart For Pennies On The Disk
A new set of 170 CDs contains the complete music of Mozart. It costs about 70 cents per disk. “The complete recorded works of composers are nothing new, but this issue is rare for its low cost and popularity, at least in Europe. And there is something compelling about its compactness: your fingers can walk through Mozart’s entire output in a few minutes.”
A New Way To Look At Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright is “in many respects the Abraham Lincoln of architectural history, a figure who has inspired enough books to fill a small library. With “The Fellowship,” Friedland, a professor of religious studies at UC Santa Barbara, and Zellman, a Los Angeles architect, enter this crowded field with an unusually detailed account of the architect’s unorthodox design process.”