New Music...

[simonthecat]

Here's a question I have been pondering:

There are a specific number of musical notes available to the range of human hearing.

Comments

[glowy_lovers]

I went to the Millenium Dome in 2000 and there you could write/play a piece of music to add on to what people had done before *they* reckoned it would be infinite and never any repitition ............I don't know how and I don't know what happened to that piece of music

Does any of that make sense? I know what I'm trying to say but not sure if it is coming across that way

[simonthecat]

It does...

However, I remember seeing an experiment done on TV, I think it was Richard Stilgoe doing it but I'm not sure. Basically he asked the audience to pick four numbers at random. He had assigned each note on the stave a number. He then proceeded to demonstrate that, no matter which four numbers were chosen, there was already a piece of music that started with those four notes!

The idea that there would never be any repetition in a piece of music written by random people is a fallacy. Most people, when "writing" music, will subconsciously draw on tunes they know and like, or have heard that morning on the radio on the way in... Given the limited number of notes available, you end up with a "chimps and typewriters" situation! Sooner or later, someone is going to type a passage that is pretty near identical to what has gone before.

Plus of course it is doubtful whether the piece could be considered "music": again, like the chimps and typewriters, there is going to be an awful lot of gibberish!

[glowy_lovers]

I guess but couldn't the same be said about words?

[simonthecat]

Well, yes... I think that's my point, isn't it?

[glowy_lovers]

Oh dear have I lost the plot again :)

[simonthecat]

There's a plot?

[glowy_lovers]

Well I always seem to be losing it *looks under bed to see if it's there*