Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computerprogram that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years todevelop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between musicby the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-likecompositions from Cope’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, whenCope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of newmelodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first thismusic was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink howhuman beings compose music. He realized that composers,brains work like big databases.First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take outthe music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left.According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the databaseaccurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He beganwith hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data:it broke it down into smallerpieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns.Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good,but it was a start.
Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a wholeopera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work,to the database.
A few years later,Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”,was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’smusical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took onlytwo weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success!Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactlyhow he had composed the work.
Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousandsof compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing thesedays!
詞匯:
original/??r?d??n?l / adj.有獨(dú)創(chuàng)性的
collaboration/ k??læb??re???n / n.合作
review/r?'vju:/ n.評(píng)論
feedback/'fi:dbæk / n.反饋
注釋
J.S. Bach約翰•塞巴斯蒂安•巴赫(德語:Johann Sebastian Bach,1685年3月31日一1750年7月28日),巴洛克時(shí)期的德國(guó)作曲家,杰出的管風(fēng)琴、小提琴、大鍵琴演奏家,同作曲家亨德爾和泰勒曼齊名。巴赫被普遍認(rèn)為是音樂史上最重要的作曲家之一,并被尊稱為“西方‘現(xiàn)代音樂’之父”,也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。
練習(xí):
1.The music composed by David cope is about ______.
A Classical music
B pop music
C drama
D country music
2.By developing a computer software,David cope aimed ______.
A to be like Bach
B to study Bach
C to write an opera
D to create a musical database
3.What did cope realize about a great composer’s brain?
A It forms new musical patterns allby itself
B It writes a computer program
C It can recognize any music patterns
D It creates an accurate database
4.Who is Emmy?
A a database
B a computer software
C a composer who helped David
D an opera
5.We can infer from the passage that ______.
A David Cope is a computerprogrammer.
B David Cope loves music.
C Bach’s music helped him a lot.
D Emmy did much more work than a composer.
答案與題解:
1.A 第一段的第一句:David Cope發(fā)明了一個(gè)可以編寫出古典音樂的電腦軟件。
2.C 從第二段的第一句可以看出,David編寫電腦軟件的目的是寫歌劇。A、B和D都屬于創(chuàng)作歌劇的一部分。
3.D 第二段的后半部分講的是偉大的歌劇作者與一般的歌劇作者的不同之處是通過對(duì)數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行準(zhǔn)確的構(gòu)建、記憶而后創(chuàng)作出新的音樂形式。
4.B 從第五段第一句可知Emmy是一計(jì)算機(jī)軟件。
5.D 從本文第一句可知David是一個(gè)作曲家,不是計(jì)算機(jī)程序員,所以排除A;B、C內(nèi)容沒有提及;從本文的第五段和第六段可知,Emmy大大提高了David的創(chuàng)作速度,最后一句,大部分困難的工作都由Emmy來做,所以作曲家只干一小部分工作。
中文:
我也能成為巴赫
作曲家大衛(wèi)•科普發(fā)明了一個(gè)電腦軟件,它能編寫出古典音樂的原創(chuàng)作品??破栈?30年才 完成這個(gè)軟件,現(xiàn)在,科普的電腦寫出的作品與德國(guó)著名作曲家J.S.巴赫寫的作品很相似,很少 有人能分辨出其中不同。
這一切始于1980年的美國(guó),那時(shí)科普正在寫一部戲劇,但是他無法創(chuàng)作出新的旋律.于楚他 編寫了一個(gè)電腦軟件來幫他編曲。最開始的時(shí)候,軟件寫出的樂曲并不動(dòng)聽。科普是怎么做的呢? 他幵始重新考慮人們作曲的方式。他認(rèn)識(shí)到作曲家的大腦就像一個(gè)大數(shù)據(jù)庫,他們先是吸收他們 聽過的所有音樂,然后去除他們不喜歡的,最后再根據(jù)留下的音樂來創(chuàng)作出新的旋律??破照J(rèn)為, 只有偉大的作曲家才能建立好的數(shù)據(jù)庫,并且能熟記于心,從而創(chuàng)造出新的音樂。
科普根據(jù)現(xiàn)有的音樂建立了龐大的數(shù)據(jù)庳,最開始的時(shí)候,數(shù)據(jù)庫包含了幾百部巴赫的作品。 科普的軟件將這些數(shù)據(jù)進(jìn)行分析:首先它將音樂拆解成小的片段,從中找出固定模式,然后將片 段組合成新的模式。不久,這個(gè)軟件就能夠?qū)懗龊桶秃诊L(fēng)格很像的小曲子。它們并不完美,但這 只是個(gè)開始。
科普知道,他要做的還有很多一他得寫出一整部歌劇。他進(jìn)一步完普他的軟件,不久它就 能夠?qū)懗龈鼜?fù)雜的音樂了。他還在數(shù)據(jù)庫中加人了一些其他作曲家的作品,其中也包括他自己的作品。
幾年后,科普的軟件“艾米”已經(jīng)能夠幫助他創(chuàng)作歌劇了。創(chuàng)作過程餹要作曲家和艾米共同 配合。科贅聆聽艾米寫出的音樂片段,從中選取他認(rèn)為好的。有了艾米的幫助,科蓊只用了兩個(gè) 星期就完成了這部歌劇,叫做《搖籃墜落》。演出獲得巨大成功,科普也得到了他有生以來最高 的評(píng)價(jià),但是沒有人知道他究竟是怎樣創(chuàng)作出這部歌劇的。
從那以后,艾米已經(jīng)寫了上千部作品??破宅F(xiàn)在依然會(huì)給艾米反饋,吿訴她自己哪些音樂是 他喜歡的,哪些是不喜歡的,但是現(xiàn)在大部分艱巨的工作是由艾米來完成的!
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