Re: Unsettling Ambiences

[matthias@bahianet.com.br (Matthias Grob)]

Jerry Coker:
>     "The listener is constantly making predictions; actual infinitesimal
>predictions as to whether the next event will be a repetition of 
>something,
>or something different. The player is constantly either confirming or 
>denying
>the predictions in the listerner's mind. As nearly as we can tell
>(Krachenbuehl at Yale and I) the listerner must come out right 50% of the
>time-if he is too successful in predicting, he will be bored; if he is too
>unsuccessful, he will give up and call the music "disorganized."

I really liked that one!

Paul Mindscape Explorer feeding our thoughts:
>      Thus if a player starts a repetative pattern, the listener's 
>attention
>drops away as soon as he has successfully predicted that it is going to
>continue. Then, if the thing keeps going, the attention curve comes back 
>up,
>and the listerner becomes interested in just how long the pattern is 
>going to
>continue. Similarly, if the player never repeats anything, no matter how
>tremendous an imagination he has, the listerner will decide that the game 
>is
>not worth playing, that he is not going to be able to make any predictions
>right, and also stops listening.

That connects to my search for the "achetype" melodies. There might be a
way to be predictable without repeating anything!

I was highly amazed when I once listened to a instrument that Marco Antonio
Guimaraes developped: Its a hamer, hanging on a flexible axis of a motor,
balancing and "playing" tuned tubes, hanging around it - mechanic, but
unpredictable - you first think, but then, suddenly, sequences of notes
happen you can follow, as if you had predicted, strange...