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Looper's Delight
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I, too, went through a math music phase during my 6th and 7th year of development. It happened right about the time that I started being exposed to Fripp and the boys, coincidentally enough. I think that many loopers probably have experienced such periods. I do agree that once music becomes a mathematical experiment, it can lose "spirit" or "soul". However, I do not think that it should only be considered a tool for "breaking out of established habits". I am actually now in a period of phenomenal advances in my grasp of mathematical theory. I am 35 years old and in the last year blasted through some mental roadblock, which retarded my mathematical development since junior high or maybe even earlier. Umberto Eco, Douglas R. Hofstadter, programming, neural net theory, and music definitely opened my eyes to the mystical and philosophical nature of math and how it relates to intelligence and perception, perhaps even the soul. Mathematical understanding in the area of musical improvisation provides a link to instant creation. My mathematical revelations concerning the fret-board of my guitar or bouzouki are some of the most important. It is much easier now to hear a note or even a whole phrase in my head and then play them without having that transition or phrase in my repertoire or "licks". Mathematical analysis of any art is often separated from other methods of analysis in the mind of artists. However, I am beginning to think that the separation of math and language and music and sculpture and dance.. is actually a reflection of a lack of understanding of the nature of communication and perhaps thought, itself. Imagine a piece about the holocaust composed of the sounds made by percussive and tonal screams in Hebrew reflected on the walls of an incinerator in 666 measures. Here, music, math, language, and cultural iconism come together to create a unified if complex meaning. Of course, execution is vital, but without content, execution would never occur. Meaning is where you find it, and beauty, I believe, is rooted in meaning, somehow. I think of music as "mathy", already and looping as perhaps even more "mathy". Looping is, for me, a beautiful metaphor for the recursive algorithm which, in turn, is a beautiful metaphor for consciousness which, in turn, is a beautiful metaphor for the universe as we know it which in turn .. Do not fear an excess of math something, only fear a lack of meaning. Lance www.chanceinformation.info ----- Original Message ----- From: "jimfowler" <jimfowler@prodigy.net> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Wednesday, December 18, 2002 4:35 PM Subject: Re: mathematic processes & tone clock > "Number theory in composition can be useful to the composer in trying to > break out of established habits, but music composed by number for the >sake > of composing by number rarely works. Make music first, analyse later...." > > absolutely!!! after spending the better part of 3 years coming up with ways > to "play by number" and trying to get as technical and programmatic as > possible, i found that the music only suffered. the numbers involved are > often complicated enough on their own and basing music on numbers only > yields sterile results, in my opinion. there are some that find this > number-based music very interesting, but i doubt that it affects them any > further than just being "interesting"...when you base your music on numbers, > you often leave out a very important ingredient: heart and soul. > > -jim > >