tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post7539256033383837561..comments2023-12-30T17:31:11.883+00:00Comments on The Solitary Walker: If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play OnThe Solitary Walkerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-50301348832631915652008-07-10T22:31:00.000+01:002008-07-10T22:31:00.000+01:00Catching up. Just read this today:We have fallen i...Catching up. Just read this today:<BR/><BR/>We have fallen into the place<BR/>where everything is music. (Rumi)amhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09212213177713917828noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-7095271886580788602008-07-08T14:00:00.000+01:002008-07-08T14:00:00.000+01:00What you say is fascinating, Dominic, and it has c...What you say is fascinating, Dominic, and it has certainly motivated me to investigate further stochastic theory - about which I know very little, I must admit. I love the 'molten architecture' concept.<BR/><BR/>It's interesting that many years ago I saw an exhibition of Bridget Riley's eye-tricking artworks at the Oriel Theatre Clwyd - and Steve Reich was being played as the 'musical soundtrack'. A perfect marriage, I thought. Something to do with the patterns of repetition and, far more importantly, the disruptions and irregularities in these patterns? That 'stochastic' idea seems to be found all over the place when you are aware of it - I'm not sure I understand it at all completely, but I think I'm now finding it demonstrated everywhere in nature - in the dawn chorus, in a human conversation, in a beehive, in the random/not-random way leaves fall from trees in the autumn. Etc. Or perhaps I'm simplifying what seems to be quite a complex theory.The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-31873839893100762132008-07-08T00:40:00.000+01:002008-07-08T00:40:00.000+01:00Interesting that Goethe called architecture "froze...Interesting that Goethe called architecture "frozen music". It puts me in mind of Iannis Xenakis, the 20th century greek mathematician, architect and composer. He was a pioneer of stochastic music and the use of computers in composition.I have a feeling he has created buildings which were literally "frozen music" and, for that matter, music which was "molten architecture".<BR/><BR/>The Leibniz quote is uncannily close to Xenakis' approach. He was fond of using the example of a political demonstration, of how a multitude of seemingly random sounds could contribute to a rising emotional crescendo when perceived as a whole. Individual sounds <I>might</I> be quiet or loud, but the tendency was for them to get louder. He realised that the maths that described such events could be useful to musicians. If this sounds very dry and theoretical, it should be said that his music usually sounds anything but!<BR/><BR/>On the subject of the Gherkin, a lot of modern buildings with repetitive structures "look like" the minimalist music of the likes of Steve Reich.<BR/><BR/>I could go on. I find when driving on the motorway that if I listen to say, Steve Reich, it draws my attention to the repetitive structures of the road. Listening to Beethoven or Bach, on the other hand, draws my attention to the trees on the side of the road. Is this a typical response? Our brains are clearly interested in the structure of music in time in much the same way as they are interested in the physical structure of our environment in space.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-20980963150106005182008-06-26T12:49:00.000+01:002008-06-26T12:49:00.000+01:00Music: The finest form of human artistic expressio...Music: The finest form of human artistic expression. At it's best it connects directly to the soul with no need to for explanations for some form of intermediary. Pure feeling.<BR/><BR/>I enjoyed the quotes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-30971848373204370932008-06-26T09:44:00.000+01:002008-06-26T09:44:00.000+01:00There's a big interplay between mathematics and mu...There's a big interplay between mathematics and music, isn't there? This makes me think of J. S. Bach.<BR/><BR/>Shifting the topic slightly, Goethe, who was a scientist as well as many other things, called architecture 'frozen music'. If the buildings he saw on his Italian Journey were frozen Vivaldi, I wonder what some modern structures like the Gherkin are?The Solitary Walkerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11284354541952038339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8319797996494487653.post-29251104121391260092008-06-26T00:06:00.000+01:002008-06-26T00:06:00.000+01:00Can I make a plea for number 51?Music is the pleas...Can I make a plea for number 51?<BR/><BR/>Music is the pleasure that the human soul experiences from counting without being aware that it is counting. - Gottfried Leibniz<BR/><BR/>Of course, he was a mathematician and not a musician, but I think that he might have something. Then again, I'm a mathematician too.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com