Cool project: "I used pi to compose a song that lasts for 999,999 hours"

boing
1

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/14/cool-project-i-used-pi-to-c.html

…

9 Likes
2

The_Gif_Connoisseur_04

10 Likes
3

Meh. I liked the e album better.

8 Likes
4

Very cool music, but I have to say it doesn’t sound very pi.

4 Likes
5

I haven’t listened to all 114 years of the song yet, but I like what I have heard so far.

Roger That!

4 Likes
6

I have kind of wanted to create a song that plays every 4-note combination available. It would simultaneously copyright every unplayed melody available, and violate every single musical copyright in existance. It would be glorious and horrible, all at the same time!

11 Likes
7

Shepard’s Pi reminds of SOMAFM’s Mission Control channel.

5 Likes
8

so I guess this infringes on every piece of copyright music, eventually

6 Likes
9

The Tau album is twice as good.

10 Likes
10

Here’s my Chipmunk Basic procedural pi (without all the bullshit): Incoming Message

And, for Prufrock Day : http://walkswithdave.tumblr.com/post/182545017670

11

I think that’s an excellent mathematical question, as I believe it touches on kinds of infinity.

Related, dimly:

3 Likes
12

Algorithmic composition has been around for a century and it still will suck in another hundered years. Because composition (better composition rules, i.e. algorithms) and music relate like orthography and poetry. Automatic composition systems will create some sequence of notes that is “right” by the laws of (tonal) composition. But not music. Nor will a dictionary write poetry (that does not completely suck). Because music and poetry are classic fine arts. They need some abstract but very human statement to communicate nonverbally. Without that they’re only gibberish without meaning.

13

Good luck with that. You will not be able to copyright anything, because

  • random sequences are not “works”

  • The number of possible combinations is infinite.

  • You might try to copyright your algo - if it had not been implemented a bazillion times already

14

The non-repeating thing is bullshit. Sure, pi is a non-repeating decimal. But individual groups of numbers repeat. It is strongly suspected that pi is normal, and an n-digit sequence will repeat on average every 10^n digits. So, the artist has been clever and made the algorithm rely on some value of n larger than six, which doesn’t guarantee no repeats in itself (they probably checked) or, being a clever bod made each new section dependent on all the previous digits. I mean, they wouldn’t have done what you imply in the article and used each digit individually, because that would repeat on digit four. Would they?

15

Needs to be a round.

4 Likes
16

I was wondering when someone would use Web Audio for making music.

17

I don’t know if it meets whatever definitions for this or that, but I’m listening and liking it! I don’t have 114 years left, but I suspect many of my remaining small fraction thereof will be spent listening to this.

1 Like
18

Yeah, this sucks. I’d rather listen to the jeopardy theme song for 100 years.

19

A friend of mine composed a classical piece based on PI, his first hurdle was deciding how 0-9 would translate into a chromatic scale.

20

Clicked, expecting to hear the complete works of Shakespeare. Leaving, disappointed!