Rempert
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Quote:
We have had a lot of threads recently about the complexity of music. The problem is that we don't have a standard definition of the complexity of music, and I don't think everyone involved in such threads would view it in nearly the same way. Which is more complex: a single melody on a piano which produces several overtones, or that same melody plus a counter-melody on a synth that produces basic sine waves? How do you compare the complexity of a drum set part against the tuned instruments in a song with no percussion? How do you compare a Rachmaninoff piano piece with a two extremely simple melodies, but 8-part chords moving with them, against a Bach keyboard piece with 4 interacting melodies that only create harmony through their interaction? Is a key change more complex than a mode change or a tempo change or a meter change?
It may be that the complexity of music can be objectively quantified. But if the people discussing it are not quantifying it by the same criteria, then the discussion becomes one of subjective value comparisons.
In other words, I think that when someone says something like e.g. "Bach is too simple" it is too vague of a comment to be useful. Nobody else knows where you are coming from if you make a statement like that. Now if someone says "I don't like X because it is so repetitive" or "I don't like Y because the chord progression is so simple" then you start to narrow down the type of complexity you are referring to in that particular case, and other people might understand what you are talking about.
Originally Posted by VicAjax music is a mathematical endeavor, therefore, its complexity can be objectively quantified. it can even be argued that john cage's 4'33" is based on a formula. |
We have had a lot of threads recently about the complexity of music. The problem is that we don't have a standard definition of the complexity of music, and I don't think everyone involved in such threads would view it in nearly the same way. Which is more complex: a single melody on a piano which produces several overtones, or that same melody plus a counter-melody on a synth that produces basic sine waves? How do you compare the complexity of a drum set part against the tuned instruments in a song with no percussion? How do you compare a Rachmaninoff piano piece with a two extremely simple melodies, but 8-part chords moving with them, against a Bach keyboard piece with 4 interacting melodies that only create harmony through their interaction? Is a key change more complex than a mode change or a tempo change or a meter change?
It may be that the complexity of music can be objectively quantified. But if the people discussing it are not quantifying it by the same criteria, then the discussion becomes one of subjective value comparisons.
In other words, I think that when someone says something like e.g. "Bach is too simple" it is too vague of a comment to be useful. Nobody else knows where you are coming from if you make a statement like that. Now if someone says "I don't like X because it is so repetitive" or "I don't like Y because the chord progression is so simple" then you start to narrow down the type of complexity you are referring to in that particular case, and other people might understand what you are talking about.