On randomness. And improvisations. In the music.
Text by Zenvampires Collective
Pics by DALL•E
We wrote about this before. Here. The idea of the random depends on the idea of the order of what we perceive as reality. But since our perception of music is largely based on harmony (but also on what we are used to hearing, i.e. our aesthetic upbringing), it is perhaps easier to find an “order” in music.
Adding to this by chance… yes… can lead to better results than, for example, in mathematics (even if we can speak of orders and harmonies there, too).
Aleatoric music can therefore sound disturbing. But only if our order does not coincide with the order of chance. In other words, when our idea of, let’s say, reality does not match the musician’s. When we hear… unusual sounds, we may find the piece of music disturbing. Like when we turn on a radio and then quickly turn it off.
We recently attended an improvised music festival. Interestingly, the same question arises here. Of course I can sit in the audience and listen to the improvised music with interest. Even if it disturbs me in some way, I listen because I don’t want to be considered uneducated. There are also group effects. Maybe I’m the only one who thinks the music is bad. And I start to question myself.
The question that arises for me is what inspired the artist to improvise. Is his inspiration (the music to Ascenseur pour l’échafaud is quite acceptable, even if it is largely improvised) compatible with my order, my reality? Or are there small inconsistencies?
Because that’s the point. Not only in the music we hear, but nevertheless. About different realities. Maybe we don’t have to go as far as Viveiros de Castro, who said that we will never understand the other. But maybe it’s true. And we will never understand each other.
