Re: [microsound] minimal anxiety

[saylor@xxxxxxxxx]

Hi

( 02.07.25 14:28 +0000 ) ian stewart:
> If math is used to construct music, this does not make the music a
> priori mathematical. 

I don't even know what that means- mathematical music. To me, that's
like saying 'tone color music' or 'scale music'. You can use these tools
to help listen to or write music [math, tone color, scales], or not. If
it helps you, good; and if not, then find something else to focus on.

There seems to be an attempt to deny the fact that mathematical tools
might be useful or pleasing for writing or listening to music. Why?

> It is easy to use math in an entirely inaudible way (using inaudible
> frequencies , for example) and I would find it absurd to contend that
> such music is mathematical, in the absence of other mathematical
> relations.

But you can draw mathematical relations between any bunch of numbers
[even 'random' is a relationship]. So you can turn pitches into numbers
and look at that; or [more simply], rhythm is counting, one of the most
basic mathematical operations. And at a higher level, you can do
statistical analyses of many of the changes that happen during a piece
of music.

So I think math tools can be applied to pretty much any music;
accordingly, all music can be looked at mathematically. How revealing
any particular analysis is is usually more dependent on the
perceptiveness of the analyzer than the tools being used.

-- 
\js

It is impossible to travel faster than light, and certainly not
desirable, as one's hat keeps blowing off.
		-- Woody Allen