Music 405: Analytical Systems in 20thC Music
this semester's topic:
Music 403: MUSIC FORMALIZATION
(Fall 2008)
Time: Tu-Th 1:30 - 3:00 pm
Room: 5045 Music Building (Computer Music Project)
Credit: 3 credits
Prerequisites: Music 202 and 208, and/or consent of instructor.
Office hours TBA
A survey of the logical tools introduced in the theory and practice
of music composition by Iannis Xenakis, Lejaren Hiller,
and others. Intended for musicians with limited familiarity
with mathematics. Among the topics to be discussed are:
- Fundamental Structures of Music (Sets, Groups and Vector Space;
Sieve Theory and their application to music)
- Time Asymmetry (The three algebras of Xenakis;
entropy and the arrow of time)
- Information Theory (Structure, Entropy, Originality, Redundancy)
- Controlled Indeterminacy (Stochastic distributions and sound-mass;
Conditional probability, Markov chains, patterns; granular theory;
Strategic Games and Improvisation)
- Other Models (Random walks, tree structures; the
catastrophe/thermo-dynamic approach; fractals, chaos)
- Composition classes, Manifolds
- Time scales, "windows", and unifying sound design and macro structure
- Novel approaches to composition
- Philosophy and Aesthetics of Music Formalization; the role of intuition.
Basic texts.
| Iannis Xenakis |
Formalized Music |
| Lejaren Hiller |
Experimental Music |
| Abraham Moles |
Information Theory and Aesthetic Perception |
| Gareth Loy |
Musimatics |
| Various articles from |
- The Computer Music Journal
- Interface
- Leonardo
|
The final grade will be based on two quizzes (15% each), two assignments
(15% each), and a class project (40%).
You can contact Sever Tipei at 333-6689, visit his office (Rm 5052 MB)
during office hours or
- email:
- s-tipei@uiuc.edu
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