Slashdot Mirror


Music Based on Fibonacci Sequence and Stock Market

Gary Franczyk writes "A band named Emerald Suspension has made an album named Playing the Market that is, as they put it: "structured based on patterns created by the stock market, economic indicators, algorithms". They have some songs based off of the Fibonacci sequence, the misery and consumer confidence indices, and the national debt. "

164 comments

  1. Some people by Timesprout · · Score: 2, Insightful

    really need to get out more

    --
    Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
    What truth?
    There is no dupe
    1. Re:Some people by the+linux+geek · · Score: 2, Funny

      Why do you say that? This kind of music is a lot better then random screetchings of tortured instruments!

    2. Re:Some people by thc69 · · Score: 1

      He obviously stays in and reads Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency when he's not making music...but maybe he works for WayForward Technologies...

      --
      Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
    3. Re:Some people by MK_CSGuy · · Score: 1

      You are on slashdot... like lawyers and sharks, we can't comment on grounds of professional courtesy :-\

    4. Re:Some people by graystar · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ummm, It is sunday afternoon and you manage a first post on slashdot....

      --
      -- Cheer, Cheer, The Red and the White.
    5. Re:Some people by buswolley · · Score: 1

      Ahhh a gimmick band. Well now we know not to go see that one.

      --

      A Good Troll is better than a Bad Human.

    6. Re:Some people by Heembo · · Score: 1

      Now, I almost never RTFA but in this case I *DID* LTFM (Listen to the BEEP Music). Check out the song on irrational exuberance/depression http://cdbaby.com/mp3lofi/esuspension-03.m3u It's a great chilling piece that goes from great cheers and you to utter depression. Very cool. :)

      --
      Horns are really just a broken halo.
    7. Re:Some people by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      WayForward Technologies? Well, I suppose writing crappy handheld games doesn't need a lot of attention...

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    8. Re:Some people by this+great+guy · · Score: 1

      And you a second (or close)...

  2. What? I can't hear that! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and the national debt.

    Somewhere dogs are barking.

  3. My ears hurt! by LinuxGeek · · Score: 5, Funny
    They have some songs based off of the Fibonacci sequence, the misery and consumer confidence indices, and the national debt.

    But only dogs can hear the song based upon the national debt...
    --

    Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
    1. Re:My ears hurt! by gstoddart · · Score: 1
      They have some songs based off of the Fibonacci sequence, the misery and consumer confidence indices, and the national debt.

      But only dogs can hear the song based upon the national debt...

      Don't kid yourself. With something that big, there's a lot of low frequency harmonics you can tap into for a good bass-beat. =)
      --
      Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    2. Re:My ears hurt! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a load of bull.

    3. Re:My ears hurt! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except it's not much a song. The intensity just keeps getting louder and louder until it blows up the speakers.

  4. 11:15, restate my assumptions by Carthag · · Score: 3, Interesting

    1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
    2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
    3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge.

    Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature

    1. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Gobelet · · Score: 2, Informative

      From that movie, for those wondering. I was it a few weeks ago, when I saw the title that was exactly my thoughts.

    2. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Gobelet · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      From that movie, for those wondering. I saw it a few weeks ago, when I saw the title that was exactly my thoughts.
      Corrected.
    3. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 1

      Perhaps a Slashdot poll on the favorite show with a number for a name:
      pi
      se7en
      thirteen
      24
      1984
      Cowboyneal is the one

      --
      Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
    4. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      errrrr - look again, the guy was correcting(bullying!?) himself.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    5. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and yet others can't read.

    6. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      I know I know I fucked up.

      It was a "DOh!" moment if ever there was one, and I realised the second I clicked submit.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    7. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot 2001!

    8. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Blublu · · Score: 1

      He also forgot One, Two, Three, Four, Five...

      You get the picture.

      --
      meh
    9. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Yes but this is a website for nerds. Maybe 23 would qualify.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    10. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by lucaslucaslucas · · Score: 1

      1. Mathematics is the language of nature.
      2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers.
      3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge.


      You forgot:
      4. ???
      5. Profit!

    11. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by DigiShaman · · Score: 1

      Offical website of the movie. http://www.pithemovie.com/

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    12. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How about this alternative? Mathematics is a language of the human brain. Patterns are creations of consciousness, they do not exist "out there" in nature independently. (Think of that famous black and white picture of the two white faces looking at each other, and the black vase between them created by the outline of the faces. Is it a vase or two faces "out there"?) The difference between a random number and a pattern is subjective. 123456789: is that random or a pattern? 49815761087: is that random or a pattern?

      Therefore: consciousness interacts with nature to create patterns everywhere.

    13. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by plastik55 · · Score: 1

      Not subjective -- the first sequence has a much lower Kolmogorov complexity.

      --

      I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!

    14. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From what I can tell I don't think that Kolmogorov complexity is not directly relevant to my point. I was talking about how randomness vs patterns is differentiated subjectively by consciousness. Like a Rorschach inkblot test. The fact that you saw those numbers differentiated by Kolmogorov complexity, and I didn't, just shows again that those patterns are subjective, and perculiar to each consciousness. The patterns are not independently "out there" in nature.

    15. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by plastik55 · · Score: 1

      I think, if a 'pattern' can be communicated accurately between observers, and the observers can independently look at the evidence and uniformly reach the same conclusion, the claim of 'subjectiveness' and 'peculiarity' of the pattern to each consciousness look rather weak. Mathematics is a reliable language for communicating patterns. That is, a mathematical statement can be interpreted true or false according to accepted rules of mathematics, and the judgement of veracity can be performed independently by any observer familiar with the rules, while still reaching the same result.

      There are many schemes for describing patterns in the world, but so far as I am aware none share the mathematical characteristic of precise definition independent of the particular consciousness observing. Perhaps this accounts for what Wigner calls 'the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences.'

      --

      I have a positive modifier on Troll. When I mod someone Troll their karma should go UP!

    16. Re:11:15, restate my assumptions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's only to avoid these posts that I corrected myself.

  5. you know what else is based on numbers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the tempered scale... why is this exciting? music is math.

    1. Re:you know what else is based on numbers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am interested in this 'tempered scale' idea of yours, dear Sir, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

  6. Nice idea, but... by original_nickname · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The first one sounds kind of like Pyramid Song by radiohead, but really this data doesn't make great music. You can make disjointed noise easily enough, and I'd guess no-one has any pressing need to listen to the stock market.

    Maybe Philip Glass could make a symphony out of this stuff, but these guys unfortunately can't (from the samples). It isn't musical enough to not be background noise.

    Experimental: yes, music: no.

    Interesting idea, though. I think this could make a great backing noise to a Godspeed You Black Emperor! song or something.

    1. Re:Nice idea, but... by prichardson · · Score: 1

      Can you offer a coherent definition (that means not just a list of examples) of music that excludes this?

      I think the only person who successfully defined music to only include what he liked was Heinrich Schenker.

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
    2. Re:Nice idea, but... by pohl · · Score: 1
      I think the only person who successfully defined music to only include what he liked was Heinrich Schenker.

      True, and I like how Schoenberg simultaneously gave him due respect and put him in his place in his Theory of Harmony. I wish I could pull a quote, but I don't have it handy.

      --

      The "cue the foo posts in 3, 2, 1..." posts will commence with no subsequent foo posts in 3, 2, 1...

    3. Re:Nice idea, but... by Triv · · Score: 1

      Glass was a minimalist, utilizing subtle thematic variations over time. How he would tackle this, I have no idea.

    4. Re:Nice idea, but... by original_nickname · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I'm not a music expert (except obscure indie bands), but I have heard a bit of glass, and liked it. It was the first name that came into my head so I typed it!

      As I was writing it, I imagined something like his work (again I'm not an expert, it was something about the Amazon), but influenced by these data streams (using either fast or slow variations). I bet he could make something cool out of this.

    5. Re:Nice idea, but... by original_nickname · · Score: 1

      Well, Samuel Johnson said that music was "the only sensual pleasure without vice". Tracks 7 & 9 make me want to smash my speakers apart, so it can't be music, right? :)

      As you can tell by now, I just googled "define:music" - here come some more!

      I'm going to compare this to the sound of my car engine on the journey to work.

      Seriously though, if you widen your definition of music wide enough, you can include anything. If you say music is "any organised noise", then my car engine must be music too, as this is noise organised by the rotation of the cylinders, etc (to me, some car engines are better than music. A nice V8...). I enjoy the noise of the car engine and there is no vice there, so, thats 2-0 there to the car engine.

      Alternatively, you could say "The organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony." Most of the Track 3 sample, and tracks 7 & 9 fail this.

      I could beep the horn on my car in time with the engine, so the car engine would be music, no? 3-1 to the car engine.

      We could also say: "Broadly speaking, sounds organized to express a wide variety of human emotions." - it meets this one, but so does revving the engine on my car cos it's a sunny day and I'm happy and want to go fast!

      So: There's two definitions that do fail it. Happily, the car engine noise scores 4 out of 4. The Ford Symphony should come out next week :).

    6. Re:Nice idea, but... by MrBigInThePants · · Score: 1

      While I agree with you, there are HUGE problems with most of your analogy.

      If a human being uses the car engine/horn/whatever as an INSTRUMENT, then it IS music.

      I have someone here who made a musical instrument out of a sponge (via midi) for his thesis. Go figure.

      However.

      This sort of rubbish came up in many previous slashdot articles I cannot even bother looking up. (One was automata data, another was gamma rays from the universe or some such droll nonsense) The story pattern is:
      "Random" data that has "chaotic patterns" is used to produce sounds through some VERY SIMPLE mapping process - usually involving midi. We are calling it music and making a story out of it.

      The music almost always sounds like noise and is not very experiemental at all. Taking random data sources and plugging them into midi output is not that amazing...

      Or perhaps I just have high standards or something?? (being a musician)

    7. Re:Nice idea, but... by original_nickname · · Score: 1

      Yeah, my musical training comes to being able to strum some blues out on my guitar. I'm generally open to most music, I love music & also noise (of almost all kinds). Some stuff is annoying though.

      Most of the definitions I saw on the web just then seemed very wide to me (as a non expert). I saw that I could use my car engine as an instrument. If I'm creating noise expressing myself through it (my need to get to work (joy usually, fear sometimes (when it's nearer noon)), maybe go faster (joy usually), slow down cos I see the road might be unsafe (fear) ), does this make it music before I think of the engine as an instrument?

      If this is music, then would it follow that any noise a person makes whilst expressing an emotion, would walking happily down the street count (my footsteps would sound different I'm sure)?

      Please note I'm not trying to start an argument/flame here, I'm genuinely interested.

      Is any info on the sponge-instrument available on the web? That sounds like a fun idea.

    8. Re:Nice idea, but... by MrBigInThePants · · Score: 1

      There was a url and I can't for the life of me find it anywhere.

      The problem is that the answer to "what is music" is not easily defined because it is entirely subjective. Most people, especially here, try to find that dictionary one liner. That is not going to cover it.

      Personally, I think that the definition of music rests entirely on "honest intent". In other words, I honestly attempting to "create music" with this object I am honestly calling an instrument.
      What is "create music"? It does not matter as long as it involves receiving audable sound waves.

      Animals do not count. We call it music, but it is merely a form of communication that happens to sound good to us. They don't care whether we like it or not...

      Everything else is complete rubbish as far as I am concerned.

    9. Re:Nice idea, but... by prichardson · · Score: 1

      Your whole post proves my point. You can't, without a lot of work, define music. Schenker did it with a system of analysis; anything his system couldn't deal with he didn't consider to be music. His analysis only works with german baroque, classical, and romantic music.

      Samuel Johnson's definition doesn't work; what is pleasing to the ear is proven relative.

      At one point someone offered me the definition of 'anything notated using a staff and notes'. This excludes all non-western music, a lot of jazz, and probably a lot of rock; it clearly doesn't work.

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
    10. Re:Nice idea, but... by kbw · · Score: 1

      Agreed.

      All the best boring music is produced this way.

      Bach spelled out his name in a lot of his music and so have other composers since that time. Have you ever tried to listen to this stuff? Compare all that stuff with say, Mozart, who's music actually had melodies.

      Molodies are timeless. All this "music" based on "reason" just doesn't cut it.

      I haven't heard Emerald Suspension's stuff but I can guess where it's going.

    11. Re:Nice idea, but... by fbjon · · Score: 1
      Music should contain patterns recognisable by the auditory sense and brain, and most people prefer these patterns to cause pleasant sensations. If there are no patterns, it's noise, i.e. not music.

      Add to this, that few patterns produce pleasant sensations in more than a just few oddball people. In other words, most sound is noise, and the rest can for the most part be considered music, although most is really bad music for most people.

      Someone said in another comment, that the intent creates music. These compositions do have the intention of being music, and they succeed (in being music), because the composer has consciously selected those patterns that work, as opposed to the myriad that would sound like total crap. Moreover, the patterns are processed, there are background noises to go with them, they aren't "pure". There are very few patterns that generally work well, and they are mostly (but not all) about harmonies and regular rythms. Sometimes known as musical theory.

      To wrap it up, anyone can claim anything to be music, but that will in no way make it accepted as good music. Thus, ultimately: anyone can make bad music (though it can be interesting-sounding (at least from a geek perspective)).

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    12. Re:Nice idea, but... by releppes · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Based on the stock market?...what's the song?...a decending scale with the bottom note repeating...repeating...repeating until Bush is out of the white house?

    13. Re:Nice idea, but... by prichardson · · Score: 1

      Your signature is ironic.

      I recommend you look at my other comment in this story here.

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
    14. Re:Nice idea, but... by jwo7777777 · · Score: 1

      I disagree with the honest intent definition of music. I am sure that Yoko Ono honestly wanted to make music, but she didn't. It was just horrendous noise.

    15. Re:Nice idea, but... by fbjon · · Score: 1
      Well, my comment was badly written, but the point I was trying to make was a more of a ranting general one, as in "what is music". These particular pieces can easily be considered music, as they have made aesthetic choices (as you say). However, just using data that is interesting from a numerical or historical point of view without further modification, doesn't give any guarantees of interesting sounds, much less music. The thing that makes this kind of composing difficult, is that the more aesthetic choices you make, the further you are removed from the original source material, which is why it's interesting in the first place. (at least as an article on slashdot)

      Anyway, this music isn't random, and not even particularly far-out-there, compared to some of the modern "classical" music I've encountered, which are really more like experimental noise, rather than experimental music.

      Now, as to whether it's good music or not, I predict this will have a rather low popularity, which is at least some kind of measure, if a wildly unscientific and inaccurate one. Personally I liked the idea of the ticker though.

      Btw, my sig is actually a pun. :)

      --
      True confidence comes not from realising you are as good as your peers, but that your peers are as bad as you are.
    16. Re:Nice idea, but... by MrBigInThePants · · Score: 1

      says you...and billions of other people.

      I think music is a form of communication. Hence my definition.

  7. Incorrect by Moth7 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It was clearly stated as being based on various patterns. As such it is anything but random. Could people please stop moderating based on opinions and start looking a little more objectively? A fallacy isn't insightful by any means.

    1. Re:Incorrect by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      and you believe this statement makes it nonrandom? your reasoning is flawed. It sounds like random noise and just as well might have been produced that way for the same end result.

    2. Re:Incorrect by Moth7 · · Score: 1

      Of course it does. Unless of course you wish to redefine random for the purpose of an attack against something that's not to your taste. Tracks 5 and 11 are definitely more than random noise.

    3. Re:Incorrect by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      It was clearly stated as being based on various patterns.

      Ah, but it said it was based on the stock market, so it could be at least in part random.

      Is the stock market a random distribution or not? Well it depends on the frequency of observation - deciding if its random based on minute to minute observations is a lot different to year-to-year observations. It is generally accepted the stock market is not ~(0,1) but it is extremely difficult to show it is not random, if you can show that please let me know so I can make lots of money in a short time.

    4. Re:Incorrect by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I thought it was proven that the stock market figures were self similar and fractal in nature.

      That is, if I display a graph of results but neglect to indicate the scale, it could apply to any scale from seconds to days to years.

      Its like looking at a coastline, from 100miles up it has rough egds and curly bits just like if your looking from 1 metre up on the beach.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    5. Re:Incorrect by Uber+Banker · · Score: 1

      That's the proposition behind Mandlebrot's recent book, as well as others before that. It has been demonstrated that they're sometimes better indicators than simple (and not so simple) random analysis, but it has not been shown generally, though I personally think this is a rich avenue of exploration and know of several hedge funds persuing this effort.

      My main point somewhat oversimply expressed was that over the long term stock markets have trended upwards, which is different from daily observations, in which they may not on average, depending on factors over which the variations were taken (for example in a trending market, a neutral market, or an exponential market - somewhat similar to what Mandlebrot talked about in his book in reference to power laws scaling with different exponents (0.5). But that depends on other factors to be understood fully, namely volume if sticking with the stock market.

      I all, the stock market can ex-post be shown to be random and can be shown to be non-random, and much of this depends on the period chosen. As to the 'music' in the story, we're all ignorant to their sampling methodology and cannot make a judgement either way.

    6. Re:Incorrect by Bloke+down+the+pub · · Score: 1
      the stock market is not ~(0,1) but it is extremely difficult to show it is not random, if you can show that please let me know so I can make lots of money in a short time.
      Something can be deterministic (i.e. totally not random) and yet still be unpredictable. Chaos theory. It was famous just before teh intarweb.
      --
      It's true I tell you, feller at work's next door neighbour read it in the paper.
    7. Re:Incorrect by eh2o · · Score: 1

      If one considers the parametric space of affine transformations (translation, scaling, etc) relating the image of a function to itself, generally what we refer to as self-similar patterns, i.e. those which are *obviously* self-similar (by visual inspection; the Koch curve or a cantor set for example) the pattern can be described by a small collection of points in this space.

      Processes such as brownian motion and stock market data have a more weak form of self-similarity. These phenomena occupy contiguous volumes, possibly infinite, in affine parameter space. The relation to this volume is like that of a probability density function. The result is that under *some* affine transformations of the data it will still retain its statistical properties like its distribution of significant peaks and valleys (i.e. its order statistics). In the case of the stock market data, dilation of the time scale is an affine transformation, but its not necessarily an invarient one for any amount of dilation (though it stands to reason that there are probably many amounts which do work).

      1D Brownian motion is described by a "fuzzy plane" in a (translation, dilation, scaling) space. The nature of the volume depends on the Hurst exponent of the noise process.

      Interestingly the affine parameter volume can be approximately recovered (sampled) by analysing the wavelet transform of the data. In this manner, any signal can be analyzed for its self-similarity properties (but this does not mean that one will find anything interesting, or that the analysis is necessarily sufficient for the complexity of the data, etc).

    8. Re:Incorrect by tchdab1 · · Score: 1

      There's a big difference between being based on numbers, and finding those numerical patterns in an existing structure.

      Is the western musical scale created from its numerical relationships, or vice-versa?

      Were all the numberical relationships built into the pyramids, or were many of them discovered by losers with nothing better to do on a Sunday afternoon (note: I am typing here too)?

      Do I write my english text so that the letter e occurs most frequently, or is that a result often found after the fact?

      You decide! (Isn't democracy great?)

  8. Song lyrics by DarthChris · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Zero one one, two three five eight./Thir-teen t-wenty one..."

    --
    Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
    1. Re:Song lyrics by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      "Zero one one, two three five eight./Thir-teen t-wenty one..."

      Yeah, but "Does anyone really care what time it is?"

  9. Define Musical by Moth7 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think Einstürzende Neubauten would beg to differ.

    1. Re:Define Musical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Autechre.

  10. So they would be... by Moth7 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The ones posting slashdot comments demonstrating an ignorance of the subject matter?

  11. Real time data? by lemmen · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What would happen if one creates an algorithm which composes music out of real-time stock exchange data? I guess this would be an interesting project for someone to create. You would hear music related to the mood of Market, depressing when it's dropping and happy music when the stocks are climbing.

    1. Re:Real time data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not sure if people want to listen to that much depressing music. ;)

    2. Re:Real time data? by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 2, Informative

      Looks a bit like a crescendo to me NYSE 1-year history.

      Ya jackass.

      --
      Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
    3. Re:Real time data? by Lars83 · · Score: 0

      Ha!

      Listen to the Marketplace Morning Report on NPR....they play Stormy Weather when the Market is down, and We're in the Money when it's up. It's pretty comical.

    4. Re:Real time data? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Looks a bit like a crescendo to me NYSE 1-year history.

      To be followed by a nice, well-deserved climax in the form of a 30% downward correction.

      Ya jackass.

      Enjoy the bursting of the second market bubble, only around five years after the last one. If you're long, you'll get what's coming to you.

  12. patterns of plants cd by robotvsrabbit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    reminds me of the cd by Mamoru Fujieda titled Patterns of Plants in which music was composed based on the data taken from plants. The data is taken by PLANTRON which is an interface that botanist Yuji Dogane devised for researching living organisms through observation of the relationship between plants and the environment. This disc was released on John Zorn's tzadik label back in '97. very relaxing. if you like this music of the stock market then give this plant disc a spin or two.

    1. Re:patterns of plants cd by Illbay · · Score: 1

      And did they record it using a Plantronics microphone?

      --
      Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
  13. Good Music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the song Lateralus by Tool is based on the Fibonacci Sequence

    there's even been discoveries of the whole album Lateralus having some type of relationship with the sequence

    1. Re:Good Music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regardless, it's one of the best pieces of recorded music in all of human history. It still makes my spine tingle listening to it straight through.

      Go buy the album. NOW!

    2. Re:Good Music by xineax · · Score: 1

      Yep, TOOL wasn't probably the first with this, but probably the best and predate these guys, thus defeating the whole novelty ("wow,-this-is-so-neat-because-it-hasn't-been-done -before") factor.

    3. Re:Good Music by anethema · · Score: 1

      Agreed, 100 times over.

      --


      It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
    4. Re:Good Music by lintux · · Score: 1

      What he said above. I'm listening to it right now, and I feel completely warm inside. :-D It's so great that they'll tour again this year.

      I know it's off-topic, but I just can't resist. ;-)

  14. Fibonacci Sequence by BT by lowrydr310 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Anyone ever hear "Fibonacci Sequence" by BT? It's on Sasha's "Global Underground (13) - Ibiza" Disc 2, Track 1.

    One, One, Two, Three, Five, Eight, Thirteen, Twenty-One... Mathematics is the language of nature

    1. Re:Fibonacci Sequence by BT by illectro · · Score: 2, Informative

      It was one of the first tracks I DJ'd with - 132 bpm of mathematicly perfecty breakbeat.

    2. Re:Fibonacci Sequence by BT by ciroknight · · Score: 1

      You beat me to it!!! Argh.

      It's also on Rare and Remixed from BT himself, Track 3, Disk 2.

      --
      "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  15. Tool has some fibonaaci stuff by Raleel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    THe drum line in Lateralus is a fibonacci sequence. Some folks thought that it was a clue that you should listen to the album in a different order.

    http://www.bofe.org/overthinking.htm

    While I have no idea if this is valid or not (the band has been quiet), I do listen to the album in that order. It's actually a better album, I believe, in that sequence.

    --
    -- Who is the bigger fool? The fool or the fool who follows him? --
    1. Re:Tool has some fibonaaci stuff by Aaryn · · Score: 5, Informative

      Black (1)
      then (1)
      white are (2)
      all I see (3)
      in my infancy (5)
      red and yellow then came to be (8)
      reaching out to me (5)
      makes me see (3)
      there is (2)

      The syllables = fibonnaci :)

    2. Re:Tool has some fibonaaci stuff by MindDelay · · Score: 0

      CORRECTION

      Black (1)
      then (1)
      white are (2)
      all I see (3)
      in my infancy (5)
      red and yellow then came to be (8)
      reaching out to me (5)
      lets me see (3)

      "there is" is in the second time he sings this, but it's a start of a different part of the verse in my opinion. and it's not in the first time, so if there is a connection to the sequence, that shouldn't be included.

      --
      Spiral out. Keep going...
  16. Already done by CaroKann · · Score: 3, Funny

    This was already done a long time ago:

  17. Bela Bartok? by jcroft · · Score: 1

    Did Bela Bartok (and others) do the exact same thing back in the 1930s and 40s?

    --
    ----------
    Jeff Croft
    http://jeffcroft.com
    1. Re:Bela Bartok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you thinking of Schoenberg and the Tone Row. Bartok is mostly known for Eastern European folk music sort of an Ives of the East.

    2. Re:Bela Bartok? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. For details, see Erno Lendvai's text Bela Bartok: An Analysis of His Music.

    3. Re:Bela Bartok? by Crabbyass · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bartok constantly used references to the Fibonacci series in his music. In the first movement of Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste, the bar numbers are marked in the score according to the numbers of this sequence (8 13 21 34 55), and if I remember correctly, there are 89 bars in the piece. Also, a movement in his fourth string quartet contains 2584 beats.

      Bartok wasn't the first composer to conciously use the Finonacci series...I believe Debussy made extensive use of it, and it's found all the time in the Javanese Gamelan music of Indonesia.

      What separates Bartok, Debussy and Javanese Gamlelan apart from the TFA is that their music is actually good. Mod me down all you want, but I'll never respect music created by some idiot at a computer who punches in a couple of notes, hits play and then decides if he likes it.

      But that's just me...

    4. Re:Bela Bartok? by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      You must know nothing about Bartok then. He was the first major composer of the 20th century to use the Golden Section throughout his music.

  18. And? by Moth7 · · Score: 1

    The same can be said of more or less every record on the market since 1985.

  19. I don't like this by babbling · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is a bit like reality TV. No planning involved, just get some equipment and see what happens automatically. The result is something that consumers will consume, but it isn't high in quality, just cheap to produce.

    I want television shows with scripts and plots.
    I want music that has been carefully composed and made to sound good.

    1. Re:I don't like this by prichardson · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Just because you start within a system does not make your music random. I don't know how their algorithms worked but they certainly made aesthetic choices.

      Every composer starts within some system, and these can of varying degrees of confinement. Most pop music uses the system of I, IV, and V chords and the form of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus. Mozart used the system know as tonality to compose, and he used many classical forms. Schoenberg used the system of serialism, one that he invented. Serialism is of course a more restrictive system than tonality, but in both you make many many many choices.

      These guys just invented their own system, and unless they write about their compositional process we can't know how restrictive their system is or what aesthetic choices they made.

      It's certainly understandable to not like this music, however you must at least respect it. I'm guessing these guys worked a lot harder on this album than most pop stars work on their stuff. If you've been listening to classical and early romantic music or top 40 all your life this sounds really foreign; that can be disturbing, but don't dismiss them because you don't like it.

      Just out of curiosity, what music do you like? Don't just say 'rock' or 'classical' (both oft-abused terms), be specific.

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
    2. Re:I don't like this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then watch television shows with scripts and plots.
      Then buy music that has been carefully composed and made to sound good.

      You seem to be confusing your desires with what other people want. If someone wants television shows without scripts and plots and music that has not been carefully component and made to sound good, more power to them.

      And honestly, if you pattern music on an algorithm I can't think of any better definition of "carefully componsed." All structured music follows an algorithm anyways (you might call it the progression of the piece).

    3. Re:I don't like this by painQuin · · Score: 1

      I like rock. Oh, and classical.

      --
      A guilty conscience means at least you've got one.
    4. Re:I don't like this by babbling · · Score: 1

      Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, The Beatles, Nirvana...

      I actually hadn't listened to the music before I posted, and I didn't mean that I didn't like this music in particular. I meant that I don't like the idea of automatically generating music and TV shows. I believe that anything composed by a human rather than a computer will always be of higher quality.

    5. Re:I don't like this by prichardson · · Score: 1

      The continuation of a fine slashdot tradition...

      My point is that this music isn't necessarily totally random. Even if their algorithm gave them all of their pitches in order, they still need to choose things like rhythm, register, dynamics, orchestration, and even if they want to use pitches in a melody or a sonority. Or perhaps they could do something interesting like cut it into segments and use them contrapuntally.

      Perhaps the real lesson here is: listen before you judge.

      Come to think of it, reality television isn't random either. The editors choose what footage to send out and things like that. I don't like reality television either. However, it's because it's mostly based on the enjoyment of the suffering of others. I tend not to get off on that.

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
  20. Yet another Douglas Adams inspiration by Mailleman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But the silliest feature of all was that if you wanted your company accounts represented as a piece of music, it could do that as well. Well, I thought it was silly. The corporate world went bananas over it." Reg regarded him solemnly from over a piece of carrot poised delicately on his fork in front of him, but did not interrupt. "You see, any aspect of a piece of music can be expressed as a sequence or pattern of numbers," enthused Richard. "Numbers can express the pitch of notes, the length of notes, patterns of pitches and lengths. . " "You mean tunes," said Reg. The carrot had not moved yet. Richard grinned. "Tunes would be a very good word for it. I must remember that." Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective agency. :-D

    1. Re:Yet another Douglas Adams inspiration by LouisZepher · · Score: 1

      Beat me to it. Are we Adams fans so one-track minded?

    2. Re:Yet another Douglas Adams inspiration by lorelorn · · Score: 1

      four-track, surely ;)

    3. Re:Yet another Douglas Adams inspiration by Mailleman · · Score: 1

      I like to think i'm an 8 track. After my brain passes four thnigs, it goes KaChunk! :-D

  21. DAMMIT! by savorymedia · · Score: 1

    I've been messing around with using various mathematical patterns in a series of experimental electronic pieces for a while now. Guess I've been beaten to the punch. *grrr*

    --
    1 is the square root of all evil.
    1. Re:DAMMIT! by Quietly_Confident · · Score: 1

      I have been for a while sketching out a musical idea to use the number sequence of PI to generate a theoretically 'never ending' melody (decimal can be converted to Hex or any number to fit any scale) and the human DNA sequence (ATCGDP) as the trigger for rhythm section instruments with a human heart beat to set the tempo.

      I thought this would make a great interactive (the heartbeat can be from the hand of a listener on a sensor) 'musical statue' in a public place and stream the midi data or something similar.

      I haven't had time to develop this past the theory, or to develop a clear philosophical reason for the work (otherwise it will not appeal to the art world) but any collaboration would be welcomed.

      --
      http://www.doreymedia.com - Accessible Web Design in Surrey UK
  22. Music of the Galaxies by qengho · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Back in 1991 Fiorella Tirenzi created music based on radio astronomy data. I'm betting she's easier to look at than the folks who produced the stock market music.

    1. Re:Music of the Galaxies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She looks like a tranny...

    2. Re:Music of the Galaxies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Takes one to know one.

  23. Music based on failing hard drives by Traa · · Score: 2, Informative

    I thought the recent competition to make music based on the sounds of failing hard drives was a lot more fun. The competition was won by a song that was made entirely out of dying harddrive sound samples.

  24. Fibonacci and Stocks by superid · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My dad has been kind of behind these stock methods for quite a few years. This http://www.tfnn.com/u_article06.php is specifically the method that he uses (yes, he's a subscriber to tfnn).

    My dad is pretty analytical and does not adopt stuff blindly. From the trades he has shown me he has been quite successful using this method. One benefit is that at least you have clear entry/exit points, so you tend not to hold onto losers.

  25. nothing new.... by p3t0r · · Score: 3, Informative

    Throughout the ages many composers (J.S. Bach/Schubert/Bartok), have used the fibonacci numbers in their works: http://www.mcs.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/R.Knott/Fibon acci/fibInArt.html#music Many contemporary composers like Ligeti and Chowning use mathmatical formulas like the fibonacci number as well. So, how is this news... most students in music are supposed to have remembered this from their classes ;)

    1. Re:nothing new.... by garyrich · · Score: 1

      really nothing new. the music itself sounds a lot like Charles Dodge's music based on electromagnetic fields from 35 years ago. I was hoping they were actually making good music instead of just converying numbers into frequencies. "The Fibonaccis" music is a lot more fun.

      --
      -- your Web browser is Ronald Reagan
    2. Re:nothing new.... by Some+Pig! · · Score: 1

      And, on the financial-markets-to-music side, Tom Hamilton already produced
      London Fix, a pretty-good sounding electronic work based on gold prices.

    3. Re:nothing new.... by Saxophonist · · Score: 1

      The trouble with this kind of music (based on stock prices, etc.) is that the composition field, or at least those in it that I know, already consider this old hat and have for years. These techniques are not "populist" in any sense (that a lot of people would want to listen to this music), nor are these techniques considered imaginative enough to create interesting art music. I'm not sure why this is news, even for Slashdot.

      That is not to say that mathematical principles have not been used, consciously or subconsciously, by composers throughout history. Be very skeptical, however, of any "research" indicating that principles like Fibonacci numbers were used consciously by any composer before the mid-nineteenth century. I have read a dissertation claiming that J. S. Bach used the golden section in certain compositions. The analysis was so far beyond contrived that it is hard to know where to begin. Another author said something to the effect of golden section analysis being easily turned into the type of analysis in which anything can be proved by looking hard enough. (If I remembered the author, I would give credit and actually look up the quote.) Starting around Debussy, golden section arguments get a lot easier to buy, but not for all composers or pieces.

  26. Listened to some of the samples by MerlinTheWizard · · Score: 1

    And clearly, it's hideous.

  27. Unplayed by Human Hands from the JPL by TerryOutOfWork · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    WAY back in the day the guys at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory took a mini computer (this was pre micros) and wired it to racks of solinoids on a massive church organ.

    Both keyboards AND the bass pedals.

    They programed it to play Bach and recorded an album called Unplayed by Human Hands.

    I have been looking for this album for THIRTY YEARS.

    It has NEVER come up on eBay and p2p has never heard of it

    Can ANYONE help me, please?

    1. Re:Unplayed by Human Hands from the JPL by rah1420 · · Score: 1

      have you tried contacting either strawn or knowlton, two of the dudes who were apparently part of the project?

      --
      Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.
    2. Re:Unplayed by Human Hands from the JPL by TerryOutOfWork · · Score: 0

      Yes, some years ago. No joy.

  28. NIgh on 50 Posts... by pi8you · · Score: 1

    ....and not a single reference to Darren Arnofsky's Pi? For shame Slashdot, for shame.

    1. Re:NIgh on 50 Posts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      oh, it's right up there... the title says 11:15, restate my assumptions

      perhaps you should see the movie again? :) or at least listen to the soundtrack? :)

  29. This is not news. Bach did it back in the day. by sonatinas · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you studied music seriously you would know Bach used Fibonacci in many of his pieces. Most notable the Well Tempered Clavier, Composers have been using it for hundred of years.

    1. Re:This is not news. Bach did it back in the day. by joeyspqr · · Score: 1

      if i had studied music seriously, i wouldn't be taking recommendations from /.
      i'd also have better things to do on a sunday morning - like practice, or try to get rid of the groupies i picked up at last night's gig.

      --
      +1 fashionably cynical
    2. Re:This is not news. Bach did it back in the day. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do you have any source proving this?

    3. Re:This is not news. Bach did it back in the day. by mc+bean · · Score: 0

      Bach's fugues were often based on the Fibonacci sequence. For an entertaining read on this and more check out the '79 bestseller 'Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid'.

      For a source of proof you need only google bach+fibonacci, it's been discussed at great length.

      --
      Coranon Silaria, Ozoo Mahoke
  30. some more experimental music based on golden mean by Kombinat · · Score: 1
  31. Enter Pan-Man by EinZweiDrei · · Score: 2, Informative

    [FIBONACCI!]

    It was an action flick.

    Pan-Man kicked backwards
    attackers

    sent by the sexy matadortress
    from her Spanish fortress.
    [Of course, the film was torturous!]

    Lloyd Kaufman's masterpiece
    achieving wide release.
    Logos in the marquees
    said 'Pac-Man', with the C's
    rotated ninety degrees.

    Troma
    had a premiere at the MOMA.
    Poloma
    wore her signature aroma.
    Yo-Yo Ma
    said 'Nihoma!'
    and had Pan's Evergreen diploma
    shown to Williams and Sonoma!

    --
    Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
  32. Douglas Adams the Clairvoyant by Volfied · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Should we be pleased or worried that ideas from the twisted mind of Douglas Adams are coming true? He predicted something akin to this in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

    1. Re:Douglas Adams the Clairvoyant by LouisZepher · · Score: 1

      If "predict" is the right word, Adams predicted a hell of a lot of stuff.
      To name a few:
      1) The Guide - bluetooth/wifi enabled PDA with Wikipedia embedded.
      2) Smart Elevators.
      3) Nutrimat - Starbucks (almost, but not quite, entirely unlike coffee).

      Now if only his "prediction" for B-Ark comes true... If it does though, I'd reccomend keeping the Lysol handy...

    2. Re:Douglas Adams the Clairvoyant by zotz · · Score: 1

      Do not go Gently into that good knight.

      Gently, are you listening? That knight has it in for you.

      all the best,

      drew

      --
      FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
    3. Re:Douglas Adams the Clairvoyant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Dont worry yourself, if this becomes too successful then the CEO of the company behind the idea will be shot dead by an Electric Monk hiding in the boot of his car while in the process of leaving a very long and tedious message on someones answering machine.

      Lets all hope that life on earth isnt accidently un-made in the process eh?

  33. Song of pi by rwa2 · · Score: 1

    Some of you might also enjoy Hard 'n Phirm' http://pi.ytmnd.com/

  34. Or Pi? by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative
    1. Re:Or Pi? by neoform · · Score: 1

      I *think* he was quoting the song by BT.

      --
      MABASPLOOM!
    2. Re:Or Pi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      That's an interesting pi song!

      However I prefer Kate Bush's version on her Aerial cd. Worth checking out if you truly consider yourself a nerd. It's more musical and she does a lot more with the numbers than just changing pitch every once in a while.

  35. Band? Songs? by Illbay · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Why does everything have to be put in terms of the pop music ethos?

    Why do we not read, rather, that "an ensemble has created compositions" based on...(etc.)

    Varèse, Stockhausen, Cage and Penderecki were creating their works long before pop musicians ever tried "going serious," after all.

    --
    Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
  36. it depends what you do with the data anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think there are an infinite number of contexts for the data to go into anyway, how you fit it into the composition. It's obviously got to drive something to make the sound and that part is as if not more important than the data itself. IMO it's a gimmick, it's been done before, and if someone listens to and likes the sound of it it doesn't matter anyway.

  37. Nothing new, academics have been doing this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does this even matter? Academics and other "professiona" composers, the ones that get chairs at Universities that you will never hear on the radio, have been making far weirder algorithmic pieces for years. I'm a composition major at the University of Buffalo and I've taken classes in this kind of thing. You know, there was a period of music in the 1940's to 1960's where all "professional" academic music was mathematical and nearly all pieces were based off various mathematical algorithms. I've heard a few based on the factorial sequence, the digits of pi, you name it.

    But nobody pays attention until a pop band does it.

    1. Re:Nothing new, academics have been doing this by Kalvos · · Score: 1

      Entirely right, except it's not limited to academics. Thousands of us doing this have never been part of academia. I've been including mathematically-based pieces in my work for more than 30 years.

      As far as money goes, Tom Hamilton did his hot price of gold piece in 2003 ("London Fix," on Muse Eek 118). And Charles Dodge's gorgeous "Earth's Magnetic Field" was a top-selling classical LP ca. 1969, on Nonesuch.

      Dennis

      Buy my stuff before it's done:
      We Are All Mozart

    2. Re:Nothing new, academics have been doing this by philedry · · Score: 1

      Yes! And thanks to the brilliant algorithmic computer musicians at University of California Santa Cruz, anyone can learn how!!! I went to the Workshop for Algorithmic Computer Music ( http://summer.ucsc.edu/wacm/ ) a few years ago and it blew me away! Learn the history of computer music (it's been going on for a while as the parent poster claims) and get the tools to compose neato tunes and masterpieces using LISP! Breed songs with genetic algorithms! It's open to anyone -- check it out.

  38. fibo ratio price patterns by okly · · Score: 1
  39. So what would patterns in human stupidity .... by 3seas · · Score: 1

    ...sound like?

  40. Sounds like ring modulation to me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I prefer Prof Wolfgang Fledermaus' seminal piece constructed from the wavelet decomposition of non-integer otter functions. Prof Fledermaus was sadly killed in a bizarre accident after attempting to take the square root of a badger by inserting it into his anal cavity. A fatal case of a ring modulation cascade resonance scenario. Fortunately his elegant proof of subharmonic fluid damped brown pipe resonance survives along with a recording taken in the final moments of his existence.

    Don't try this at home kids, algorthimic composition with semi aquatic rodents CAN KILL INSTANTLY.

  41. In the days long gone by jdoeii · · Score: 1

    In the days long gone, before the mp3s or even the web itself there were projects at NSCA. One was called Mosaic. Another one was Collage. Mosaic grew to become The Web while Collage withered. Among other things, Collage was about presenting scientific data in novel was, such as audio. That was ca. 1992.

  42. Prior Art? by bokmann · · Score: 1

    In 1990, for an electronic music course I took in college, I used several decades worth of stock market data from a book entitled "Don't sell stocks on Monday" to create a composition for an assignment on aleatoric music. Can I claim prior art?

  43. "Overthinking" is right by mclaincausey · · Score: 1
    I don't think the reordering is valid. I think the fact that it still flows is a product of the music being based on underlying formulae, and of themes running throughout the piece, and therefore being reconfigurable with respect to order, like the puzzle the record is. That doesn't mean that it's intended to be listened to in a different order. The mastering indicates that songs were intended to go in the order in which they originally flow. At the end of Reflection, you can hear the beginning of Triad. If you have to butcher the product with Cool Edit to get it to flow, then I think it's a stretch. That said, there are plenty of secrets embedded in the CD, and they are mystics in the tradition of the (real or imagined) occult practices of (real or imagined) secret societies.

    Frankly, this guy's off his rocker:

    A lot of VERY IMPORTANT information is encoded on the actual cd. Ever notice how everyone who has lost or broken that cd has IMMEDIATELY gone out and bought a new copy?
    He's suggesting that there is some sort of subconscious or mystic encoding of information that cannot withstand lossy encoding.
    --
    (%i1) factor(777353);
    (%o1) 777353
  44. Mod Point Concerto by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I'm making a song based on my mod-point history, called "Offtopic Overrated Troll".

  45. The best part by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its about 600% better than any Nelly or Britney Spears song!

  46. The Cloud Harp and the Music of the Spheres by AchilleTalon · · Score: 2, Interesting
    There is already a music instrument which produce sounds based on the clouds structure. It's the Cloud Harp which first model was build in 1997. The idea is however much more older, since you can go back to Johannes Kepler with his Music of the Spheres laid down the idea to produce music from natural phenomenons.

    --
    Achille Talon
    Hop!
  47. "disjointed noise" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just give it to some indie kids and tell them they're lost songs from the early days of Pavement. They'll claim it's the greatest music ever created. Seriously.

  48. Bach before my time? by zotz · · Score: 1

    I wish I could tell you that it was Back before my time, but in truth it is more like Bach in the day.

    all the best,

    drew

    --
    FreeMusicPush If you want to see more Free Music made, listen to Free
  49. My Guess is you haven't heard.. by ciroknight · · Score: 1

    The Fibbonacci Sequence by BT (Brian Transeau).

    The only lyrics in the song are the Fibbonacci Sequence (go figure).

    --
    "Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
  50. Re:what the ? by tchdab1 · · Score: 1

    I can't wait for their next album, based on patterns in the Billboard Hot 100, numerical values of translated words in several of the Gnostic Gospels, and the 1200th - 3600th digits of pi.

    Its tentatively titled "Rks)*;s j1Fno-QQ lspw%3-sl;0".

  51. Does this mean... by Hosiah · · Score: 2, Informative
    The stock market figures will be restricted under DRM next?

    PS You can get similar effects on a Linux box by catting various files to /dev/audio; /dev/hd0 or /dev/random for instance. Here's a good reference. I actually tried piping the mouse to audio once and got something like the results described; I was on the verge of recording some "mouseophone" music when I think I got bored and went on to something else.

  52. Fibonacci, Algorithmic, Stochastic, Aleatoric Comp by mechanyx · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fibonacci relations abound in art and music. This is nothing new. A text that discusses this in some length with regards to the famous Hungarian composer Bela Bartok is Erno Lendvai's Bela Bartok: An Analysis of His Music. Lendvai makes a very compelling case even though Bartok never explicitly stated on record his use of such devices. It should be noted that Bartok was a pantheist so that might explain some of his desire to use patterns in nature.

    Algorithmic composition has been around for quite some time but really took off with the advent of "computer music". Different motivations exist for algorithmic composition but they are interesting. Unfortunately, these motivations are often more interesting than the resultant music IMO. A good environment to quickly do algorithmic composition in is the Common Lisp/Common Music environment as a front end to Csound.

    Stochastic composition was invented by Iannis Xenakis. He used probabilistic densitiesm modeled after physical phenomena such as diffusion of gases to compose some of his works. His rather difficult to digest text Formalized Music discusses his methods.

    John Cage pioneered aleatoric composition in which he used chance to make compositional choices. It was largely a reaction to the fact that so-called integral serialism, a highly deterministic system of total control, yielded works that were so difficult for most people to comprehend that they essentially sounded random.

    The band discussed here really isn't doing anything new. If they do it extremely well though, then more power to them but I leave that judgement up to the individual listener.

  53. I made some music out of towers of hanoi once by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well back in the days of DOS, I was inspired by ideas like this to create music from "towers of hanoi" (thats the game with the 3 towers where you move discs)

    I don't quite recall the details but I think it involved mapping frequencies to the towers and durations to the height or something like this.

    The hardest part of it was to get any decent sound out of the PC speakers; but I solved this elegantly by not playing a single sound, but a mix of sounds, which was again based on the Towers of Hanoi algo.

    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  54. Golden Ratio by dangil · · Score: 1

    This is old news.. some guys already did this back in the past century, according to Mario Livio, who wrote the book named Golden Ratio, which, by the way, is a good read...

  55. Book: Music and Mathematics by Incadenza · · Score: 1

    For all those that are seriously interested in the mathematical implications of music / musical implications of mathematics, may I advise the book Music and Mathematics From Pythagoras to Fractals?

    I'm sorry it is so ridiculously expensive, but it is a really nice collection of essays of all the different roles mathematics has played in music, from the ancient Greeks to modern composition. Since it is a bundle, not every essay is a masterpiece, but most are really good.
    \. readers will love the story on Daniel Strähle (duh, only a couple of lines in Wikepedia, 14 pages in the book) a Swedish craftsman who, in 1743, found a simple method for approximating the 12th root of 2. Only to te be dismissed and cast into oblivion by the mathematician John Faggot - because of an error on John Faggot's part.

    Other essays I really liked were on Helmholtz' work on combinational tones and consonance, and on the patterns used in 'Ringing the changes' - the British way of ringing church bells. Be warned however that most of the composition pieces are hard to understand if you aren't into reading compositions from paper.

  56. here is the formula for success by rfish23 · · Score: 1

    (this CD) + (Mad Money (sound off)) = Psychic TV.

  57. Here's the lyrics: by ichigo+2.0 · · Score: 1

    doh doh doh doh doh ouch doh doh doh doh doh off we go from the gene pool ...

  58. Math Rock by Kittie+Rose · · Score: 0

    Math Rock is nothing new. Progressive Rock at it's nerdiest and most pointless.

    --
    EpiAdv - if you like Pokey the Penguin, try this comic!
  59. Not that many will care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But I have a song coming out on my new 7" based on the decimal expansion of e, plugged through a really primitive Apple IIe sequencer my friend wrote:
    http://www.thefirstpunicwar.com/PunkRock.mp3

  60. Consequential by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Fibonacci appears in a list of 20 inventions Muslims contributed to make our world, for his work importing Muslim mathematics to Europe hundreds of years after they were produced.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  61. Sofia Gubaidulina has been doing this for 25 years by CRCulver · · Score: 1

    The composer Sofia Gubaidulina made wide use of the Fibbonaci sequence in the 1980s, happy to find a way of systemization that still allowed the form to "breathe". Her 1986 symphony "Stimmen... Verstummen..." is a notable example: the length of its movements grow ever shorter according to the sequence. In the 9th movement is a conductor's "solo", where he motions before a silent orchestra, the distance between his hands growing ever larger according to the sequence. In the 1990s she began using the Lucas and Evanglist series as well, whose aesthetic imperfection alongside the divine harmony of the Fibonacci sequence makes tantalizing listening. See V. Tsenova's thesis Zahlenmystik in der Music von Sofia Gubaidulina for a musicological analysis.

    That's only one example. Per Norgard may be mentioned as well, his third symphony abounds in Golden Section references. And, as others have already posted, Bartok used the sequence heavily in his work.

  62. Two Ways to Get People to Listen to Your Music by Philip+Dorrell · · Score: 1
    1. Make up some really good music. Play to large crowds at concerts. Get spotted by record company scout, etc. (There is no straightforward way of making up really good music, because we do not have a scientific understanding of what music is .)
    2. Combine basic music theory with some semi-random source of information that probably has nothing whatsoever to do with whatever it is that makes music musical. Post link to web page on Slashdot/Digg/Delicious/Reddit.
    --
    Music: a super-stimulus for the perception of musicality. Musicality: a perceived aspect of speech.
  63. Joseph Schillinger by Necrocult · · Score: 1

    Also created music based on Stock market patterns, and mathematical sequences. If I remember correctly he developed a musical system based on this kind of thing. It doesn't read like normal sheet music. It actually looks more like a bar graph kind of thing.