Why computer-generated music will never touch our souls

Musicians express the communication between humans, something Emily Howell will never be able to understand Imagine a Prom concert of the future. The audience in the Royal Albert Hall open their programmes to see the authors of the evening's music listed: between Richard Wagner and Olivier Messiaen lies a piece by Emily Howell. They might guess (correctly) that this is a young composer but, were they to call for a bow, the creator of the piece would need to be carried on to the stage. The bracketed life-dates would give it away: Wagner (1813-83), Messiaen (1908-1992), Howell (2009-infinity). The announcement from the University of California at Santa Cruz of what is claimed to be the first software which can produce original classical music intriguingly synthesises human fears of technology with long-running debates about the... [read full story]                    

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