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The Best Time Signature

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  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    edited 2017-07-27 01:30:39
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    The Study No. 41, again for two player pianos, is divided into three parts: 41a, 41b and 41c. The first canon is {\tfrac {1}{{\sqrt \pi }}}/{\sqrt {2/3}} for the first piano, the second canon is {\tfrac {1}{3{\sqrt \pi }}}/{\sqrt[ {3}]{13/16}} for the second piano, and the third is{\tfrac {{\tfrac {1}{3{\sqrt \pi }}}/{\sqrt[ {3}]{13/16}}}{{\tfrac {1}{{\sqrt \pi }}}/{\sqrt {2/3}}}} for both pianos, in the proportions marked in the first page of the score. A complete version of the piece was first performed in at Kassel in Summer 1982.
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    I can't even follow this
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    I do recognize Conlon Nancarrow's name from being mentioned in a Frank Zappa song, though
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    edited 2017-07-27 01:47:39
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    He wrote pieces for player piano which initially explored difficult time signatures and polyrhythms which normal human performers would have a great deal of trouble pulling off, like setting measures of 14 against 13. Then, as time wore on, he realised the potential for exploring with relative precision ratios which no human being could ever reproduce accurately, particularly irrational numbers like square roots and constants like pi and e. This gradually escalated.

    Basically, the piece is a series of nested canons playing at speeds at increasingly bizarre and improbable relationships to one another, so a few simple melodies become a wild pinwheel of impossible interactions.
  • Yarrun XIXYarrun XIX
    Whores! we want "poems that kill."
    Assassin poems, Poems that shoot
    guns. Poems that wrestle cops into alleys
    and take their weapons leaving them dead
    ...what
  • KlinotaxisKlinotaxis
    kill living beings
    i've heard of this before, but what does that even mean? an irrational number of beats?
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    It generally means that the relationship between the two main lines is in an irrational rhythmic relationship: One quarter note for every 3.14159... eighth notes, for instance.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    ...are trig functions involved somehow?
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    I'm sure you could draw some weird shape based on the time signatures in Study 41 if you put your mind to it. Certainly the piano rolls themselves are quite interesting to look at.
  • AlirozAliroz
    edited 2017-07-27 02:57:42
    ...And even when your hope is gone
    move along, move along, just to make it through
    (2015 self)
    Sredni Vashtar said:

    It generally means that the relationship between the two main lines is in an irrational rhythmic relationship: One quarter note for every 3.14159... eighth notes, for instance.

    Such a thing would display illegality, immorality, and innutrition.
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Aliroz said:

    Sredni Vashtar said:

    It generally means that the relationship between the two main lines is in an irrational rhythmic relationship: One quarter note for every 3.14159... eighth notes, for instance.

    Such a thing would display illegality, immorality, and innutrition.
    I mean, listen to it. It's really interesting.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2017-07-27 03:09:03
    ...I mean I get what it's trying to do

    But I can't help but hear that one song from Extreme Paintbrawl.  Like, just add random barnyard animal sounds and you're pi/4 of the way there.
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    I'm fairly certain this antedates that by several decades.
  • BeeBee
    edited 2017-07-27 03:16:16
    We may have finally solved the mystery of Paintbrawl's soundtrack.  Dude was listening to this and then got sent to the hospital by a sudden stampede of cows ripping on Casio keyboards.  Woke up with a morphine drip and was like DUUUUUUDE
  • Imipolex GImipolex G
    Touch the cow. Do it now.
    hey, don't blame us!
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    edited 2017-07-27 03:21:13
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Complex rhythmic relationships tend to sound weird in general, particularly when you stack and alter them over time. (Of course Kalmbach name-drops Nancarrow when discussing one of the tracks.)
  • FossilmaidenFossilmaiden
    image Wee yea erra chs hymmnos mea.
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Neat use of polyrhythm there. Not quite so extreme, perhaps thankfully, but it does add a sort of head-spinning feeling that I think befits market music, particularly with the odd pitch-shifting.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    now I'm wondering if this is even compatible with MIDI. I forget how MIDI timing works
  • Sredni VashtarSredni Vashtar
    “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    It sort of is? I'm pretty sure you can get really close to that level of precision with something like Ableton. You just need to really go in and go hard with the fine-boned tempo bullshit and keep a calculator with you. Like actually.
  • CalicaCalica
    Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    honestly i doubt you get that much out of polyrhythms with irrational ratios beyond quadratic surds but w/e
  • glennmagusharveyglennmagusharvey
    why do interesting threads show up when i am in bed and have slow net and need to get up early

    > This gradually escalated.

    it certainly did
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