Kurzweil's early computer music program produced melodies recognizable as in the style of Mozart or Chopin, though not quite as good.

The test is whether Kurzweil's early (teenage, c. 1965) computer music program wrote melodies in the style of classical composers that listeners could recognize as Mozart-like or Chopin-like, while being weaker than the originals. True: contemporaneous or reliable historical accounts (for example the 1965 'I've Got a Secret' TV appearance, press coverage, or biographies) show the program analysed composers' works and produced new melodies recognizably in those composers' styles, including Mozart and/or Chopin or comparable classical composers. Mostly true: the program did produce music in the style of classical composers, but the record names different composers or describes the style match a little differently. Mixed: the program wrote music modelled on existing music, but accounts disagree or are unclear on whether it imitated particular classical composers in a recognizable way. Mostly false: the program existed and composed music, but the evidence shows it wrote original or generic melodies rather than imitating particular composers' styles. False: the evidence shows no such program existed, or that it did not compose music. The 'not quite as good' part is a subjective judgment and does not affect the verdict.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 [PDF] Ray Kurzweil Interview - Computer History Museum - Archive Server Computer History Museum · 13 July 2009 Own record

   “And indeed, it would sound like a student, maybe a third-rate student, of Chopin or Mozart, depending on who I had analyzed.”

2. E2 The Playboy Interview With Ray Kurzweil Playboy · 19 April 2016

   “It coughed out original sheet music that could have been written by Brahms.”

3. E3 the Kurzweil Library Tracking breakthroughs in tech, science, and world progress. the Kurzweil Library (thekurzweillibrary.com) · 1 January 2019 Own record

   “A computer program that studies the patterns of songs by famous composers — and then composes original melodies in a matching style.”

4. E4 the Kurzweil Library Tracking breakthroughs in tech, science, and world progress. the Kurzweil Library (thekurzweillibrary.com) · 1 January 2019 Own record

   “Ray Kurzweil presents his teen science project on the television game show I’ve Got a Secret.”

The one independent source, Playboy's 2016 interview (E2), says the program "coughed out original sheet music that could have been written by Brahms". That supports the claim that it imitated classical composers in a recognisable way, but it names Brahms rather than Mozart or Chopin. Mozart and Chopin are named only in Kurzweil's own 2009 oral-history interview (E1), which is his own statement. The Kurzweil Library pages (E3, E4) describe a program that composed melodies in the style of famous composers and was shown on I've Got a Secret, but they are not independent of the subject. Because the independent record confirms style imitation of a different named composer, the verdict is mostly true.