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Reads as a working lit review (huge collection of ideas the author has come across) rather than a compact synthesis. Discuss on Lyra: https://hellolyra.com/c/3

Reads as a working lit review (huge collection of ideas the author has come across) rather than a compact synthesis. Discuss on Lyra: https://hellolyra.com/c/382 https://hellolyra.com/c/382

anigbrowl 9y ago
Yes. I've read this before, and if you go through it you see it's a less than half-baked theory where anything that doesn't fit isn is dismissed as degenerate music that people are wrong to like. It's egotistical to the point of self-parody. I'm really into the geometric structure of music but this guy isn't even half-way there. We did not take up rhythm in depth in this article, however I think it is quite likely that rhythm can be explained in a manner similar to harmony. - Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius Look, it's true that music theorists aren't scientists and the most innovative musicians are often terrible at explaining the underlying structures or musical strange attractors that shape what they do. I'm a terrible musician and I've been asking and groping towards a scientific theory of music for years. But at every music tech trade show, there are a couple of people like this guy showing off their automatic music composition system. They're very very proud of the theoretical abstractions they've been able to identify and automate, and they should be, it's impressive work. But the music is always terrible, boring stuff that doesn't evoke any emotion. And I say that as someone who listens to tons of techno and 'difficult' electronic music from artists like Autechre. Theory gives you a framework on which you can build your composition, where that's musical, paint or whatever. There is lots of bad art produced without such a framework that typically has a short half-life, and lots of bad art that merely decorates the framework and is thus pleasing but formulaic, also having a short half-life. Enduring art can develop and even comment upon the framework, but it's not primarily about the framework. The choice of subject is one of the most difficult and hard to teach or communicate aspects of art, and the problem with theoretical exegeses like this is that they attempt to eliminate the subjective altogether and thus kill the very thing that attracts people to art in the first place, the ability to project themselves into it.
acjohnson55 9y ago
What is Lyra?
- mrkgnao 9y ago
  From the homepage: > Lyra is a non-profit, non-invasive communication service which aims to enable deep and meaningful conversations. Seems like a Slack/wiki hybrid.

Reads as a working lit review (huge collection of ideas the author has come across) rather than a compact synthesis. Discuss on Lyra: https://hellolyra.com/c/382 https://hellolyra.com/c/382

anigbrowl 9y ago

Yes. I've read this before, and if you go through it you see it's a less than half-baked theory where anything that doesn't fit isn is dismissed as degenerate music that people are wrong to like. It's egotistical to the point of self-parody. I'm really into the geometric structure of music but this guy isn't even half-way there. We did not take up rhythm in depth in this article, however I think it is quite likely that rhythm can be explained in a manner similar to harmony. - Wile E. Coyote, Super Genius Look, it's true that music theorists aren't scientists and the most innovative musicians are often terrible at explaining the underlying structures or musical strange attractors that shape what they do. I'm a terrible musician and I've been asking and groping towards a scientific theory of music for years. But at every music tech trade show, there are a couple of people like this guy showing off their automatic music composition system. They're very very proud of the theoretical abstractions they've been able to identify and automate, and they should be, it's impressive work. But the music is always terrible, boring stuff that doesn't evoke any emotion. And I say that as someone who listens to tons of techno and 'difficult' electronic music from artists like Autechre. Theory gives you a framework on which you can build your composition, where that's musical, paint or whatever. There is lots of bad art produced without such a framework that typically has a short half-life, and lots of bad art that merely decorates the framework and is thus pleasing but formulaic, also having a short half-life. Enduring art can develop and even comment upon the framework, but it's not primarily about the framework. The choice of subject is one of the most difficult and hard to teach or communicate aspects of art, and the problem with theoretical exegeses like this is that they attempt to eliminate the subjective altogether and thus kill the very thing that attracts people to art in the first place, the ability to project themselves into it.

acjohnson55 9y ago

What is Lyra?

mrkgnao 9y ago
From the homepage: > Lyra is a non-profit, non-invasive communication service which aims to enable deep and meaningful conversations. Seems like a Slack/wiki hybrid.