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Ill 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 cant tell the difference between music by the famous German composer J. S. Bach and the Bach-like compositions from Copes 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 he 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 composers 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 are able to create the database accurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it. Cope built a huge database of existing music. He began with hundreds of works by Bach. The 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 werent good, but it was a start. Cope knew he had more work todo-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., | 
