[eu-gene] Psst...Wanna Buy an Algorithm? (Working Title)

[Andrei]

--- alex <alex at slab.org> wrote:
 
> But in order to build a recording, the composer has to listen to the
> same thing over and over again.  It would seem to me that in this
> manner a good composer will naturally find repetitive structures that

> can stand repeat listens.  It's often said that a good recording 
> 'grows' on you, at first it sounds dull, but warms with repeated 
> listens.

I don't quite get your point here. 

Only composers who find pleasant repetitive structures are "good"?

Recordings have to be full of repetitive structures in order to stand
repeat listens? 

I don't think the idea of "find(ing) repetitive structures that can
stand repeat listens" even passes through Derek Bailey's mind when
making a recording. I doubt he even listens to any of his recordings
more than once or twice. It's not something that would apply to
recordings of "classical" music either. I think it's mostly
pop/rock/dance music that's concerned with that idea.


> Also, there is a lot of music.  There isn't the need to have
> compositions that dynamically play variations of themselves, when we
> could listen to something new, once our ears tire of a particular
> musical structure.

Does it have to be an either/or thing?

 
> > But I think I'd still say there is a lot of healthy mileage in 
> > algorithmic music (even without any external interaction) that I 
> > prefer to recorded works, they are like 'live recordings', if only 
> > that term wasn't already appropriated...
> 
> But isn't algorithmic music without any external interaction
> equivalent to a recording?  Since each time you run it, it produces 
> exactly the same music?

A composition can't be "algorithmic" - in the "generative" sense - if
it produces the EXACT same music with each "performance." It's an
illogical concept. And if the piece were electronic/computer generated
it would be even more antithetical to the idea of "generative" music,
since even the element of human imperfection involved in a performance
is absent from the equation.

- Andrei




		
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