David Cope

Tinman Too: A Life Explored David Cope

Continuing the insights into the creative processes of contemporary composer David Cope, Tinman Too presents another 150 vignettes from the author's life begun in his previous book Tinman. Some of the notable individuals discussed in this innovative autobiography are Alfred Hitchcock, Buckminster Fuller, Benoit Mandelbrot, Vincent Price, Jerry Lewis, and Philip José Farmer. Tinman Too offers a fond music journey including encounters with William Schuman, Max Mathews, Lejaren Hiller, John Adams, Donald Erb, Mort Subotnick, Walter Piston, Karel Husa, and Witold Lutos'awski. The title, borrowed from L. Frank Baum's book The Wizard of Oz, is an aphorism affectionately attached to Cope in the late 1990s. The reference reflects the many attitudes about his work with his computer music program, Experiments in Musical Intelligence; critics felt the results of this program lack heart. Though Tinman Too covers many other aspects of Cope's life-from his love of the cello, to his days as a graduate student at the University of Southern California, and to his work as a composer, author, and teacher-the main theme centers on his search for self-identity.