*第二十九篇 I’ll Be Bach
Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computer program that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years to develop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach1 (1685-1750) and the Bach-like compositions from Cope’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, when Cope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of new melodies, so be wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first this music was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink how human beings compose music. He realized that composers1 brains work like big databases. First,they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take out the music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left. According to Cope，only the great composers axe able to create the database accurately,remember it,and form new musical patterns firom it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. 1 he software analyzed the data： it broke it down into smaller pieces 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 whole opera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyze more 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 of collaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’s musical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took only two weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Fallingttind it was a great success! Cope received some of the best reviews of his career,but no one knew exactly how he had composed the work.
Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousands of compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’t like of her music,but she is doing most of the hard work of composing these days!
词汇：
original /9 Vicinal/ adj.有独创性coHaboration /ka丨laebdreijan / n.合作
review/ ri'vju:/ n.评论 feedback /'fi:db®k / n.反馈
注释：
1. J. S. Bach:约翰•塞巴斯蒂安•巴赫(德语:Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685 年3 月 31 日一 1750
年7月28 H),巴洛克时期的德国作曲家，杰出的管风琴、小提琴、大键琴演奏家,同作曲家亨德
尔和泰勒曼齐名。巴赫被普遍认为是音乐史上最重要的作曲家之一，并被尊称为“西方‘现代
音乐’之父”,也是西方文化史上最重要的人物之一。
练习：
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 Copeaimed
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 all by 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 DavidD an opera
第四部分阅读理解• 163 •
5. We can infer from the passage that
A David Cope is a computer programmer.
B David Cope loves music.
C Bach’s music helped him a lot.
D Emmy did much more work than a composer.
答案与题解：
1. A第一段的第一句:David Cope发明了一个可以编写出古典音乐的电脑软件。
2. C从第二段的第一句可以看出,David编写电脑软件的目的是写歌剧。A、B和D都属于创
作歌剧的一部分。
3. D第二段的后半部分讲的是伟大的歌剧作者与一般的歌剧作者的不同之处是通过对数据
进行淮确的构建、记忆而后创作出新的音乐形式。
4. B从第五段第一句可知Emmy是一计笄机软件。
5. D从本文第一句可知David是一个作曲家,不是计算机程序员,所以排除A;B、C内容没有
提及;从本文的第五段和第六段可知,Emmy大大提高了 David的创作速度，最后一句,大部
分闲X保的丁作都由Emmv夹做.所IU作丨干一/I、部分丁.作„
我也能成为巴赫作曲家大卫•科普发明了一个电脑软件，它能编写出古典音乐的原创作品。科普花了 30年才 完成这个软件，现在，科普的电脑写出的作品与德国著名作曲家J.S.巴赫写的作品很相似，很少 有人能分辨出其中不同。这一切始于1980年的美国，那时科普正在写一部戏剧，但是他无法创作出新的旋律.于楚他 编写了一个电脑软件来帮他编曲。最开始的时候，软件写出的乐曲并不动听。科普是怎么做的呢？ 他幵始重新考虑人们作曲的方式。他认识到作曲家的大脑就像一个大数据库，他们先是吸收他们 听过的所有音乐，然后去除他们不喜欢的，最后再根据留下的音乐来创作出新的旋律。科普认为， 只有伟大的作曲家才能建立好的数据库，并且能熟记于心，从而创造出新的音乐。科普根据现有的音乐建立了庞大的数据庳，最开始的时候，数据库包含了几百部巴赫的作品。 科普的软件将这些数据进行分析：首先它将音乐拆解成小的片段，从中找出固定模式，然后将片 段组合成新的模式。不久，这个软件就能够写出和巴赫风格很像的小曲子。它们并不完美，但这 只是个开始。科普知道，他要做的还有很多一他得写出一整部歌剧。他进一步完普他的软件，不久它就 能够写出更复杂的音乐了。他还在数据库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。几年后，科普的软件“艾米”已经能够帮助他创作歌剧了。创作过程餹要作曲家和艾米共同 配合。科赘聆听艾米写出的音乐片段，从中选取他认为好的。有了艾米的帮助，科蓊只用了两个 星期就完成了这部歌剧，叫做《摇篮坠落》。演出获得巨大成功，科普也得到了他有生以来最高 的评价，但是没有人知道他究竟是怎样创作出这部歌剧的。从那以后，艾米已经写了上千部作品。科普现在依然会给艾米反馈，吿诉她自己哪些音乐是 他喜欢的，哪些是不喜欢的，但是现在大部分艰巨的工作是由艾米来完成的！
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