Gresham College | Is Music Infinite? - Milton Mermikides @GreshamCollege | Uploaded 4 months ago | Updated 5 hours ago
This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.
It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:47 Tempos getting simpler (James Brown to 70s disco)
03:12 Lyrics getting simpler (From Pink Floyd to Justin Bieber)
04:29 Pop songs using the same four chords
08:25 Pitch/timbre getting simpler
08:43 Classic songs that were covers/sampled other songs
10:19 From rock'n'roll to death metal
13:46 The shortest note
15:26 Infinite music
17:32 Shepard tone
19:08 Bach's 'The Musical Offering'
22:00 Schubert's 'Sonata in B-flat Major'
25:25 The Andalusian Muwashahat
27:16 Morgenstern & Barlow's Dictionary
28:09 Forte numbers
29:31 Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
33:20 John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps', 'A Love Supreme'
37:00 Morphospace
38:07 How Jimmy Smith played the blues organ
40:08 Damien Riehl copyrighting all melodies to protect artists
42:38 The Musical Library of Babel + Conclusion
50:50 Q&A Session
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 16th May 2024 at LSO, St Luke's Church, London
Milton is Gresham Professor of Music
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-infinite
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: instagram.com/greshamcollege
This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.
It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:47 Tempos getting simpler (James Brown to 70s disco)
03:12 Lyrics getting simpler (From Pink Floyd to Justin Bieber)
04:29 Pop songs using the same four chords
08:25 Pitch/timbre getting simpler
08:43 Classic songs that were covers/sampled other songs
10:19 From rock'n'roll to death metal
13:46 The shortest note
15:26 Infinite music
17:32 Shepard tone
19:08 Bach's 'The Musical Offering'
22:00 Schubert's 'Sonata in B-flat Major'
25:25 The Andalusian Muwashahat
27:16 Morgenstern & Barlow's Dictionary
28:09 Forte numbers
29:31 Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
33:20 John Coltrane's 'Giant Steps', 'A Love Supreme'
37:00 Morphospace
38:07 How Jimmy Smith played the blues organ
40:08 Damien Riehl copyrighting all melodies to protect artists
42:38 The Musical Library of Babel + Conclusion
50:50 Q&A Session
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 16th May 2024 at LSO, St Luke's Church, London
Milton is Gresham Professor of Music
He is Associate Professor in Music at the University of Surrey, Professor of Guitar at the Royal College of Music and Deputy Director of the International Guitar Research Centre.
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-infinite
Gresham College has offered free public lectures for over 400 years, thanks to the generosity of our supporters. There are currently over 2,500 lectures free to access. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds. To support Gresham's mission, please consider making a donation: gresham.ac.uk/support
Website: gresham.ac.uk
Twitter: twitter.com/greshamcollege
Facebook: facebook.com/greshamcollege
Instagram: instagram.com/greshamcollege
