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04-03-2021
Column: Musical Notes - INDETERMINACY IN MUSIC
Column: Musical Notes - INDETERMINACY IN MUSIC
Welcome to the world of musical indeterminacy.
Indeterminacy is the state of being undetermined or undefined. It's often explored in philosophy, science and mathematics, and while its application in the field of music is lesser known, its influence is hidden in plain sight (or plain sound, for that matter).
For instance, the improvised solo sections in both Jazz and Rock use indeterminacy; the composer has no control over what the instrumentalist will play, and in theory, no two solos are the same. A lesser-known example is the German dice game Musikalisches Würfelspiel, a system
for using dice to randomly generate music from precomposed options that was popular throughout 18th century Western Europe.
There are even stories of Mozart himself writing compositions on the back of playing cards so that by shuffling the deck, the performer could create a brand-new song with each performance.
Nowadays, perhaps the most prevalent example of musical indeterminacy is video game music. While in the past, this genre w

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