[microsound] musical structure

[David Powers]

The theoretical language I am developing should apply to both Bach and Xanakis.

Bach's musical technique tends to result in overall static textures
that are stable within a given period of time. His small pieces tend
to live within one single textural domain. In my own terminology, Bach
works with single "plateaus" in short pieces, and sequences of
plateaus in larger pieces. The Goldberg Variations would consist of 31
distinct plateaus, for instance.

Xenakis' statistical methods, on the other hand, give rise to both
static plateaus, and transitions between plateaus.

~David

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Jared Friend <tjaredfriend at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I believe musical practice can be defined only on historical basis
>> i.e., if you want to provide any kind of account, you have to descrive
>> Xenakis music like Bach's but they don't even share their notation.
>
> I'm not sure dissimilar notation is that large of a barrier to overcome...
> Linguistic analysis can be incredibly successful and revealing across
> languages that share little in terms characters and symbols. While
> historical context will surely help in investigation, it's hardly the sole
> element.
>
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