On 4/23/20, Brian Schott <schott.br...@gmail.com> wrote: > Harvey, > Your explanations were very helpful. Especially of the second line of > RSLTNT output. > There is no listing of the notes that go with the example RSLTNT 5 3, are > there? Your explanation just understands what notes are typical and the > meaning of "interference patterns", right?
One of my dominant interests for the past decade has been the methodologies of the stock market legend, W.D. Gann. One of his central themes was the repetition of patterns in the stock market (that is, cycles). Such repetitions and especially patterns can be considered "rhythms" in the market. In the same way, Schillinger's overarching theme in his theory of musical composition is "rhythm". (He spends the first 95 pages of his System expounding on rhythm!) But that does NOT mean strictly and only percussion-type rhythm. To Schillinger, every aspect of music has "rhythm" of some kind--beats (durations of time), scales, melodies, harmonies, orchestrations, etc. George Gershwin's song title "I've Got Rhythm" says it all, even though that music was written before he studied 4-1/2 years with Schillinger, along with numerous other New York and Hollywood musicians. Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" definitely had Schillinger influences. There are NO "notes that go with the example" because ANYTHING could work with the example. Take the first 7 notes of some familiar melody and play them on a keyboard instrument using the counting rhythm (duration) of 3 2 1 3 1 2 3. Or, to apply this to harmony using either a keyboard or a guitar, take the first 7 chords of some song and play them with the counting rhythm (duration) of 3 2 1 3 1 2 3. (A variation on this is, for example, to let 3 be 3 beats of a C major chord, to let 2 be 2 beats of a G major chord, and to let 1 be 1 beat of an F major chord.) These three examples are strictly time-related ways of applying "rhythm". To demonstrate a completely different way of applying "rhythm", start at C on a keyboard and then count up 3 2 1 3 1 2 3 by half steps for a "rhythm" of scale pitches (frequencies)--C Eb F Gb A Bb C Eb--which might then be used for constructing a melody. In terms of orchestration (using time again), let 3 represent strings playing for 3 periods of time, let 2 represent woodwinds playing for 2 periods of time, and let 1 represent brasses playing for 1 period of time. This gives you a sequence of timbres based on the original resultant. Regarding using notes for the book's examples, notes on a staff are merely a convenient starting point with rhythm (Schillinger's book examples often used graph paper to chart rhythms of things and then applied it to whatever aspect of a composition he was currently working on), but always keep your mind open to other possibilities (that is, "how else could I use this idea?"). Schillinger's attitude was to open the mind to seeing (and hearing) new possibilities beyond the "old rules". Many of his students used his System, not as a lifeless assemblage of arrays of mathematical numbers, but to inspire them to use their favorite techniques in new ways. It's sort of like one of my favorite Richard Halliburton (the explorer) book titles, "New Worlds to Conquer". I don't remember if I mentioned this previously, but the first volume only (Books 1 to 7 of 12) of "Schillinger System of Musical Composition" is available for download at scribd.com if you would like to see the original System that "Cybernetic Music" is based on. (Choose the one that says "THE TEXT IS FLY WITHIN THE BOOK ONLY" on the front page of the library copy. Unfortunately, I have not found volume 2, pages 879-1640, for download anywhere. If anyone finds it, please let me know. I have both original printed volumes; I just don't have a PDF of volume 2.) Additionally, in 2012, Australian Matthew Rankin wrote a thesis for his B.S. computer degree entitled, "A Computer Model for the Schillinger System of Musical Composition", also available at scribd.com. (Interestingly, he seems to have been completely unaware of the existence of "Cybernetic Music".) Like David Cope's musical composition software, this uses a variation of LISP as the programming language, but, except for one example, there is no code given, only functional diagrams of how everything works together. I hope this sheds a bit more light and stimulates you to try new ideas! Harvey ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
