Naked Science Forum
General Science => Question of the Week => Topic started by: nudephil on 01/02/2021 14:22:02
-
This week's question comes from listener Dennis:
Assuming there are a finite number of musical notes - chords, notes, octaves - at what point, how many years, would we use all combinations of musical themes such that no more music could be created?
Any back-of-the-envelope calculations?
-
There is no limit to the length of a musical phrase or the number of repetitions or variations in a piece, so in theory, never. However if you listen to most radio "music" stations or club soundtracks, the answer is "about 20 years ago".
-
There is also considerable variation in the way music can be arranged for different instruments, for a string quartet or a jazz quartet, a rock band or a full orchestra.
With electronic sound synthesizers, even for a single note, you can vary the attack (how quickly the note comes to maximum volume), decay (how quickly the note fades away), vibrato (how the pitch changes slightly during the note), the harmonic content of the notes (and how this harmonic content varies over time).
-
This week's question comes from listener Dennis:
Assuming there are a finite number of musical notes - chords, notes, octaves - at what point, how many years, would we use all combinations of musical themes such that no more music could be created?
Any back-of-the-envelope calculations?
Considering that computers use binary code of 1 and 0 combined in a matrix to generate everything computers do.
That DNA has only 4 GTAC which with RNA leads to all the various life forms we see.
Music potentially has more possibilities then either, to be used to create musical possibilities. Many wont sound nice ofcourse, but then beauty is in the ear of the listeners
-
However if you listen to most radio "music" stations or club soundtracks, the answer is "about 20 years ago".
I remember my dad saying that- about 20 years ago.
-
Hard to believe it, but the Beatles broke up 50 years ago and AFAIK nobody has written anything memorable since then. It's amusing to watch wannabees doing vocal gymnastics on The Voice before fading into obscurity, whilst each week Tom Jones stands up and sings something written for him by by Carole King (age 78) or Lonnie Donegan (died 2002) and brings the house down.
-
Has the supply of Classical Music run out? There don't seem to be any composers writing it any more.
-
brings the house down.
The house which he brings down is, essentially, the Tom Jones fan club.
Anyone who didn't like him wouldn't be there.Has the supply of Classical Music run out? There don't seem to be any composers writing it any more.
It depends on your definition of classical.
Classic FM has no shortage of new stuff. Not much is from 1730 to1820
-
Has the supply of Classical Music run out? There don't seem to be any composers writing it any more.
The Classical period ended about 1820. I suspect most of the composers are now well dead.
There is still plenty of orchestral music being written, of which roughly half seems to be entirely self-indulgent crap subsidised by various arts councils and destined for one performance only, and the rest is decried as "film music" mostly harking back to earlier forms and destined for eternal popularity. People easily forget that past heroes of the arts like Shakespeare and Mozart were not considered highbrow exam material but potboiling public entertainers, which is why amateur dramatic societies and brass bands still blow through their scripts centuries later.
-
Has the supply of Classical Music run out? There don't seem to be any composers writing it any more.
The Classical period ended about 1820. I suspect most of the composers are now well dead.
So, they're decomposing.
-
This week's question comes from listener Dennis:
Assuming there are a finite number of musical notes - chords, notes, octaves - at what point, how many years, would we use all combinations of musical themes such that no more music could be created?
Any back-of-the-envelope calculations?
Considering that computers use binary code of 1 and 0 combined in a matrix to generate everything computers do.
That DNA has only 4 GTAC which with RNA leads to all the various life forms we see.
Music potentially has more possibilities then either, to be used to create musical possibilities. Many wont sound nice ofcourse, but then beauty is in the ear of the listeners
As an addition
https://theconversation.com/what-does-dna-sound-like-using-music-to-unlock-the-secrets-of-genetic-code-78767
-
Hello fellars,
I did actually ask myself that for a very long time. If we say, that the songs can not be infinite long and can not be played by an infinite amound of instruments (I know that there are a lot of instruments, but there can only be so many, right? :))
and also that there are just a sertain amound of notes, speeds lyrics and rythems, the answer must be yes, we can run out of new music to play, right? I mean the number of possible songs is even lower, when it has to be somewhat pleasing for the human ear. BUT thats only theoretical, and i dont think that we are really going to run out.
-
Has the supply of Classical Music run out? There don't seem to be any composers writing it any more.
The Classical period ended about 1820. I suspect most of the composers are now well dead.
So, they're decomposing.
-
This question has now been answered on The Naked Scientists show - https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/questions/qotw-when-will-we-run-out-music (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/questions/qotw-when-will-we-run-out-music)
-
You also hear music alternately, so it's like a continuous loop and there is enough time behind us full of music and the taste does not adapt to a time but to the taste.
-
Hello, people.
I found this topic of music extremely interesting, because I personally had never thought about whether the rise of music would ever come to an end. But maybe it all ends sooner or later. Music is something that originated thousands of years ago and I don't believe it will ever really stop evolving.
Greetings
-
The perfect combination of classical music.
Listen to online radio at: internetradiohoren.de