Black boxes

[David Myers <dmgraph@bway.net>]

>According to my sketchy memory of what Eno said, this box would play out
>possible scenarios based on a database and some type of algorhythms of his
>thought processes that would approximate stuff he would most likely come 
>up
>with and could generate hybrids of other musicians possible output if 
>desired.
>
>Imagine having a box that could output possibilities of say Hayden, 
>Prince,
>Miles Davis, or Zap Mamma either individually or combined together all at
>once.

>From what I can gather, Eno seems to have something close to this in Koan.
I'm a Mac user, and frankly the computer as music tool is something not to
my taste anyway, so I have not tried Koan.  But every "algorythmic
composer" or "generative" music program--maybe every music program,
period--I've ever seen functions on some basic assumptions of what music 
is.

I feel that it is a mildewed european conceit which describes music as 1) a
sort of map (score) which calls for specific pitches, durations, and
perhaps volumes, coupled with 2) specific sound bites which are to be
plugged into the positions on the map.  Generative software may do a very
interesting job within such a framework, juggling note descriptions and
sounds which speak for them, but that's all it can do, and to me it's a
terrible bore.  I feel that MIDI is a curse which has extended the reign of
these dead europeans' ghosts.  Even most improvised music can be said to be
a part of this scheme, since such a performance can be recorded and
retroactively notated in the same way.  The "compositional" process is
different, but the framework is the same, notes and sounds.

One reason I subscribe to this list (since literal looping is something I
do little of anymore) is that some people here sense that music is somehow
more than a symbol calling for a sound.  We've got a lot of nifty tools now
that might allow us to find new structures and ways of working, new types
of sounds which can't be contained in a written map, a synthesizer patch or
static sample.  But I don't see any computer software or black box which
even tries to circumvent the tired old concepts of music that we've been
stuck with for centuries.

I wish someone could tell me I'm mistaken.  Is there something truly
interesting out there?

David Myers

____________________________________

"Eternity is not limited by the conditions of time, and time is eternal in
virtue of its cyclic recurrence."
-Hermetica, Asclepius III