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American

1941 —2025

David Cope was a pioneering composer and educator known for his groundbreaking work in algorithmic composition. His development of systems like Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI) and Emily Howell expanded traditional ideas of creativity and authorship, leaving a lasting impact on both music and technology.

David Cope. Photo copyright artist's estate.

Full Bio

David Cope was born in San Francisco in 1941. He studied music composition at Arizona State University and the University of Southern California, where he was mentored by composers including George Perle, Ingolf Dahl, and Halsey Stevens. After early work as a composer, Cope joined the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught for over forty years and helped develop the university’s programs in music theory, composition, and computer music.

In the early 1980s, Cope began developing Experiments in Musical Intelligence (EMI), a program designed to analyze and replicate the compositional styles of canonical composers. The project emerged from a personal creative block and evolved into a broader investigation of musical structure and authorship. EMI deconstructed patterns in existing works and recombined them to produce new compositions in the style of Bach, Mozart, or Mahler, raising questions about originality, creativity, and the role of the composer. Cope’s later system, Emily Howell, extended this approach by generating music in a more independent, evolving style based on feedback loops and aesthetic modeling. His work was practical and philosophical, using algorithms as compositional tools and as a means to explore the nature of musical thought and invention. In addition to his software systems, Cope composed more than a hundred works, often engaging with scientific or conceptual themes, and published extensively on music theory and computer-assisted creativity.

Cope’s contributions were recognized across both music and technology communities. His books, including New Directions in Music, Techniques of the Contemporary Composer, and Computer Models of Musical Creativity, became core texts in the field. He received awards for innovation in digital arts and was invited to present his research internationally. His work has been exhibited and performed at academic and cultural institutions and continues to influence discourse around AI, authorship, and creativity in the arts. Cope passed away in 2025.