What Math Actually Sounds Like

cellophane writes "If Verdi had a math fetish and a computer, would he be John Greschak? Greschak composes music based upon the mathematical properties of various mathematical objects (e.g. a six-sided die or pentominoes). He writes computer programs to realize devised algorithms and uses the results of these processes as source material for musical pieces. Greschak's newest addition, Platonic Dice: Dodecahedron for 12 woodwinds, was created by using musical material derived from the mathematical properties of one of the Platonic dice. Well, its not Verdi, but its definitely interesting."

Comments

puhhhlleeeassseeee

[Monkelectric]

Music has mathmatical patters, that does not mean math makes good music. People have been trying to discover algorithims which can generate music for years, and this guy has not advanced the science any.

This is truely one of the worst things i've ever heard. And I own a gravel album so thats saying quite a lot.

You want math and music?

[Drunken Coward]

Listen to some Mozart. The man was a mathematical genius.

Re:You want math and music?

[hitzroth]

Bach. Not Mozart.

Where's the emotion?

[manly_15]

The poster was right - this is not Verdi. Music is not just an expression of mathematical equations. What these compositions are missing is the feeling, the tension, the journey that music should take you on. Serious music lovers like myself all would say that the best music is that which is filled with emotion. That includes classical music like Beethoven and Handel; it also (at least IMHO) includes newer music from bands like The Tea Party, Our Lady Peace, or my favourite indie band, Das Radio.

The true breakthrough will be when equations can be used to create music with emotion. Unfortunately, that will probably be years away...

Re:What die do I use

[CoolVibe]

Then get a decent wavetable synth capable sound card. Geez.

Wolfram !

[orcaaa]

It seems that the best music seems to come from a seemingly random composition of chords. While it would be computationally infeasible to write an equation that describes the chords for an entire song, it would be possible to generate cellular automata, based on rules devised by Wolfram and other people, which closely resemble the music we like. Some rules described in A New Kind of Science, by Wolfram predict cell patterns which are seemingly random but yet repeat at some intervals of time. Such kind of rules could be, IMveryHO, used to produce some rather melodious music.

Mathmatic music from others

[thefinite]

John Cage and Elliot Carter have been doing music from logical or random sequences and very math-like stuff since the 70's. (I claim no special personal knowledge; my wife was a cello performance major.) While this is interesting, it isn't totally new to music.

This is not Slashdot worthy

[Anonymous Coward]

or maybe it is, depending on just how artistically blind the /. reader population is. music based entirely on mathematics is nothing new, it's been relatively high-profile for the last hundred years. if you're going to give this guy lots of traffic from a slashdot post, the same thing should be done for all of the other computer music, algorithmic, and math-based composers out there. there are LOTS, and most of them are thousands of times more original than this guy.

Milton Babbitt

[gmaestro]

Ok, this is interesting, but nothing new. Composers hava been using math and science for centuries in their music. Guillame Dufay used the architectural proportions of Brunelleschi's dome in Florence in the mensural changes in his Nuper rosarum flores in the 15th century. Polish composer Yannis Xenakis saught to explain the music of J.S. Bach with geomentry. American composer and mathmetician Milton Babbitt focused on algorithmic composition decades ago. And John Cage used the I Ching to randomize his music. The last two are often seen as extreme ways of composing music more objectively, though from different ideological perspectives.

Granted, no one is writing about my music anywhere :-]

Re:AI composers? might not be far away.

[Anonymous Coward]

Music is based on math in about the same sense that great poems are based on typewriters. Well, it might not be that extreme, but there's much more to music than math. There is a lot of math in the form that music needs to work within, but that's not what the music is about.

On the other hand, great poems based on typewriters are fair game. Look at e.e. cummings. (Jumping outside the rules can be a way of expressing creativity too! Just as long as you don't do it because someone told you it was really cool and experimental and avante garde and stuff.)

So, while my knee-jerk reaction was to rant about how stupid an idea dodecahedron-based music is, perhaps it's a musical way for this guy to express how much he loves math. And that's cool, maybe, but it's not my taste exactly.