Cope, David (Howell)

Cope, David (Howell) , innovative American writer, composer, programmer, and teacher; b. San Francisco, May 17, 1941. He was educated at Ariz. State Univ. and the Univ. of Southern Calif, in Los Angeles, numbering among his mentors George Perle, Halsey Stevens, Ingolf Dahl, and Grant Fletcher. He then served on the faculties of Miami Univ. of Ohio and at the Univ. of Calif, at Santa Cruz. Cope is well known for his scholarly books on contemporary composition, several of which describe and document the computer program Experiments in Musical Intelligence he created in 1982. Select works created with this program are available on the CD recordings Bach by Design, Classical Music Com-posed by Computer, and Virtual Mozart.

Works

DRAMATIC Opera : Cradle Falling (1985); Mozart Opera (1992). OTHER: Out, filmscore (1981); Richard II, incidental music (1986). ORCH.: Tragic Overture for Strings (1960); Contrasts (1966); Music for Brass and Strings (1967); Streams (1973); Concerto (1976); Threshold and Visions (1977); Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1980); Afterlife (1982); Dedications (1994); Horizons (1994). WIN D ENSEMBLE/BRAS S CHOIR: Variations for Piano and Wind Orch. (1965); Requiem for Basque Redondo (1974); Re-Birth (1975). CHAMBER : Ens e m b l e : Five Pieces (1965); Towers (1968); The Deadliest Angel Revision (1970); Dragoon (1972); Margins (1972); Koosharem (1973); Vortex (1976); Vectors (1976); The Way (1981); Corridors of Light (1983). Other: 2 string quartets (1960,1963); Sonata for Solo Cello (1964); Sonata for Solo Horn (1964); Three Pieces for Clarinet (1965); Three Pieces for Bassoon (1966); Three Pieces for Trombone (1966); Alternatives for Contrabass (1969); Cycles for Flute and Contrabass (1969); Obelisk for Percussion (1970); B.T.R.B. for Trombone (1971); Probe 3 for Saxophone (1971); Angel’s Camp II for Violin (1972); Bright Angel for Trumpet (1972); Cedar Breaks for Contrabass (1972); Spirals for Tuba (1972); Extensions for Trumpet (1973); Indices for Oboe (1973); Triplum for Flute (1973); Arena for Cello (1974); Paradigm for Violin (1974); Clone for Saxophone (1975); FMS for Trumpet (1975); Rituals for Cello (1976); In Memoriam for String Quartet (1991). KEYBOARD : Piano : Soundpiece (1959); Three 2-Part Inventions (1960); 4 sonatas (1960,1960, 1962,1967); Iceberg Meadow (1968); Parallax (1974); Glassworks (1978); The Well-Tempered Disklavier (1991). Organ :Or (1976). VOCAL: A Christmas for Dismas for Chorus (1967); Ashes for Voice and Percussion (1972); Tyger, Tyger for Chorus (1985). ELECTRONIC: The Birds (1968); Teec Nos Pos (1975); K (1972); Weeds (1972). OTHER: Various works composed with Experiments in Musical Intelligence, including 15 Bach Inventions (1987), Chopin Mazurkas (1987), Joplin Rag 1 (1988) and 2 (1996), Beethoven Sonata (1993), Rachmaninoff Suite (1994), Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1995), and Five Songs (Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, Puccini) (1996).

Writings

Notes in Discontinuum (1970); New Directions in Music (Dubuque, 1971; 7th ed., rev., 2000); New Music Notation (1976); New Music Composition (N.Y., 1977); Computers and Musical Style (Madison, Wise., 1991); Experiments in Musical Intelligence (Madison, Wise., 1996); Techniques of the Contemporary Composer (1997); The Algorithmic Composer (Madison, Wise., 2000); Virtual Music (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire