David Cope
// Author, Musician & ProfessorDAVID COPE is an author, musician, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz, California. His book “Computers And Musical Style” (1991), and “Experiments In Musical Intelligence” (1996) are both available from A-R Editions, “Techniques Of The Contemporary Composer” (1997) is available from Schirmer Books, “New Directions In Music (7th Edition)” (2000) is available from Waveland Press, “The Algorithmic Composer” (2000) is available from A-R Editions, “Virtual Music” (2001), and “Computer Models Of Musical Creativity” (2005) are both available from MIT Press.
Website: https://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/cope/
Photo: David Cope / University of California at Santa Cruz, California
Interview:
The following response is based on the assumption that we are talking about music without lyrics and music without universal context, for example, “Ode To Joy” in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. I have always believed that every person is unique, and thus each person receives from music something unique. To me the joy of music is that it does not in itself mean anything. The meaning, the joy, the sorrow, and so on, resides in the listener, not in the music. It would seem to me that “spiritual significance” falls into this same category. We get from music and assign it significance based on our own unique individual spirits. As an example, I see nothing on a page of music containing lots of black lines and dots that suggests anything more than lots of black lines and dots. Performers add their own individual spirit that will then be interpreted in an astronomical number of ways by listeners. If I want to communicate something spiritual to someone, I use language. If I want to incite something in someone, I choose music. Some of the most spiritual music I know was composed by composers whose diaries suggest they composed these works while involved in all sorts of debauchery. Spirituality is in the ear of the beholder. To me there is no spiritual significance in music, just in people.
“I have always believed that every person is unique, and thus each person receives from music something unique… The meaning, the joy, the sorrow, and so on, resides in the listener, not in the music… Spirituality is in the ear of the beholder.”
– David Cope, author of “New Directions In Music”
