fredg@marob.uucp (Fred Goldrich) (04/18/91)
Hello all --
There was an article in Tuesday's (4/16) NY Times called "J.S. Bach
+ Fractals = New Music." It concerned the work of K.J. and A.J. Hsu of
Switzerland, a father-and-son, geologist-and-musician team, who recently
published a paper in the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
I checked yesterday, and it is too soon for the (42nd. St.!) library
to have the current journal issue. However, the Hsus published a paper last
year on a similar subject ("Fractal Geometry of Music", Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. USA, Vol. 87, pp. 938-941, February 1990). As both a scientist and a
musician, I read it with great interest, but I did not find it terribly
convincing.
Is anyone out there familiar with their work? I would very much
like to get some discussion going on this subject.
-- Fred Goldrich
--
Fred Goldrich
{att,philabs,rutgers,cmcl2}!phri!marob!maestro!fredandreess@mrlaxs.mrl.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen) (04/19/91)
In article <280D9BA5.2D42@marob.uucp> fredg@marob.uucp (Fred Goldrich) writes: > There was an article in Tuesday's (4/16) NY Times called "J.S. Bach >+ Fractals = New Music." It concerned the work of K.J. and A.J. Hsu of >Switzerland, a father-and-son, geologist-and-musician team, who recently >published a paper in the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. > Is anyone out there familiar with their work? I would very much >like to get some discussion going on this subject. I read the article. They seem to be a doing a pretty good job of stripping the life right out of old Bach, hm? If that's ``work'', then this field is in trouble. Harrrrumph. Marc -- Marc Andreessen___________University of Illinois Materials Research Laboratory Internet: andreessen@uimrl7.mrl.uiuc.edu____________Bitnet: andreessen@uiucmrl
eliot@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Eliot Handelman) (04/19/91)
In article <280D9BA5.2D42@marob.uucp> fredg@marob.uucp (Fred Goldrich) writes:
;
; As both a scientist and a
;musician, I read it with great interest, but I did not find it terribly
;convincing.
;
; Is anyone out there familiar with their work? I would very much
;like to get some discussion going on this subject.
If I didn't know better I'd judge the article to have been a hoax.
The "fractal compression" technique, as far as their example went,
seems to be "remove all 16th notes."
As far as performing even that sort of analysis on CD's -- well, this
I have to see.
That their "technique" will goad the music community into higher
productivity -- isaacso@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Eric J. Isaacson) (04/20/91)
andreess@mrlaxs.mrl.uiuc.edu (Marc Andreessen) writes: >In article <280D9BA5.2D42@marob.uucp> fredg@marob.uucp (Fred Goldrich) writes: >> There was an article in Tuesday's (4/16) NY Times called "J.S. Bach >>+ Fractals = New Music." It concerned the work of K.J. and A.J. Hsu of >>Switzerland, a father-and-son, geologist-and-musician team, who recently >>published a paper in the Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. >> Is anyone out there familiar with their work? I would very much >>like to get some discussion going on this subject. >I read the article. They seem to be a doing a pretty good job >of stripping the life right out of old Bach, hm? >If that's ``work'', then this field is in trouble. >Harrrrumph. This work is also described in the German magazine (journal?) _Spektrum der Wissenschaft_ (the German edition of Scientific American, I believe) (December 1990), 48-49, in an article entitled "Sind die Strukturen der Musik fraktal?" Two specific examples (Bach's C-major and a-minor two-part inventions) are discussed. I don't have the time now to summarize, but when I return from a trip on Tuesday, if this thread is still going on and it looks like a summary is still desired, I'll provide one. Perhaps I'll also comment on the "stripping life from Bach..." comment. Only if I'm in the mood for a debate that will likely go nowhere, though... -- Eric J. Isaacson (the other) Internet: isaacso@ucs.indiana.edu School of Music--Indiana Univ. NeXT Mail: isaacso@bartok.music.indiana.edu Bloomington, IN 47405 -- I am NOT the author of A86 and other -- (812) 855-7832(o)/333-1827(h) -- outstanding software...I wish I were... --