Beautiful Music

Alarm Will Sound posted this on their page this morning.

The ideas of a mathematician and wanted to create a piece of music with no repetition.  Little did he know that Schoenberg and Boulez and others were already attempting this.  Although he does mention Schoenberg... it is kind of done in a haphazard approach... not giving credit where credit is due.

Instead, he tries to explain through mathematical phenomena of how to compose a piece of no repetition.. yet isn't random. (I know... serialism vs. indeterminacy... the old battle)

The funny thing to me is that at one time in history, music and math were 2 sides of the same coin...
Yet, musicians and composers over the years have seemed to figure out things about our craft by using math and science and nature (Hello Varese, Bartok, Berg)  but the mathematicians are just now discovering how to do the same.

Oddly enough they use proofs that correlate with the piano, or did the piano come first based on fantastic engineering... again, 2 sides of the same coin.

At about 7:52 seconds you can hear the piece played on piano.  A piece that could be played on any instrument, provided it has the same range the piano does.  You'll notice a lack of harmony, dynamics, articulation... there is pitch and duration.  So it is missing a few key components of total serialism.

I'm sure the piano player was told to play it exactly as it is written, and that it is meant to be "Ugly"
If someone told me that, I would play it just as aggressively and emotionless as he did.  Which says something about my ideas of beauty.

This just proves there is more to music than playing the notes on 
the page. Being a slave to the black dots is what keeps musicians 
from reaching their inner emotion. Piss on adding dynamics, 
phrasing, style, etc. Just play the way the music and tell a story... all 
the other stuff will follow naturally. Besides, when composers write 
specific detail (with a few exceptions) it is truly left to the 
performer to realize the intention.

The issue lies in the conventional, the conservative.  Although I find this very interesting, I think it can say a lot about the current music state of "play what's written and nothing more"  There are no more freedoms and liberties people are willing to take. (Not all inclusive) Learn to let go, and I can guarantee that music will be amazing

"I try to free music from the barren traditions that stifle it" - Debussy