Chance Music

Jeff Hall’s recorded realization of  TERRY RILEY IN C  provides an excellent introduction to ‘chance’ or aleatoric music; the accompanying text explains the terminology with reference to MINIMALIST composers of the 20th Century, including Philip Glass and Terry Riley.

So you found the track and clicked play. Did you continue listening for the full 50 minutes and 10 seconds? I must confess that on my first visit to the site I pressed stop after only a minute or so. Perhaps it was the tug on my arm from my two year old boy asking to be taken to ’slide’. We needed to go, be involved and active!

Next day, and the two year old is out with mum. I’ve clicked play again. Now this time it’s different. I’m listening in minute two, and, yes.. that’s definitely an organ holding me in there. The music changes, and changes, and changes again. I’m still here in minute nine, the music slows, repeated sounds, single notes, bassoon, woodwind, repetitive, but changing, slowing, changing to strings…

It’s minute eleven.. twelve.. and I want to take part.. interact with the group, the recording. Something is tugging at me again, but this time it is different. I’m involved.. really listening. Seventeen minutes..

The word ‘interactive’ invites participation and, with this in mind, several interactive versions of CHANCE MUSIC are presented on the Tanbur website. Some of these are specially devised for the Internet, such as those by Robert White at SPNM PLAYGROUND.  Some inventions require you to participate as listener, others demand that you respond.  Tilt the three dimensional cube and thereby control and adjust according to Rob White’s rules of play.  

There is another category that uses sampled sounds on a website to imitate real instruments. What would Gamelan musicians from Bali make of websites that produce the sound of the Gender with the click of a mouse? The Internet computer cannot attempt to replace the ‘hands on’ physical experience of a real instrument played with mallets and having individual bamboo resonators for each bar, but we can interact and control a piece that follows very precise rules using authentic tunings and derived structures: PLAY1.   

Others are modern interactive presentations of historical models. Here are three of them, listed in chronological order: 

MINUET MIXER    An online version of dice games from the 18th century, pioneered by W.A. Mozart and others.

RANDOM ROUND composed 1912, Percy Grainger. As an online participant you will be the conductor, making decisions regarding timbre, the playing of melodies and counter melodies within defined sections of the piece.

MUSIC FOR PIECES OF WOOD composed 1973, Steve Reich.  Complex sounds and phase shifting are created from simple patterns. See LUNANOVA for detailed sound samples and score analysis.

32 minutes.. I hear a new section. . organ.. imitation.. new ideas.. changing. Can you find other categories of chance music on Tanbur Music Education Links, or elsewhere on the Internet? Did you listen for 50 minutes and 10 seconds? Was this a real orchestra with a conductor? Does ’chance art’ exist?

Terry Riley IN C  score download.