Is Music Infinite?

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Is Music Infinite?

This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.

It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination.

This survey takes about two minutes to complete. It is entirely optional and anonymous, but any details you share may be discussed in the Gresham lecture "Is Music Infinite?" (16 May 2024): https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/music-infinite

1. Which of these viewpoints best matches your view (Please check one):

All the good music has already been made.

There’s still good music to be made but the possibilities are dwindling.

We will never run out of new and effective music.

Other

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If you have selected "Other", or would like to expand on your answer, please do so below:

2. Please identify a piece of music that gives you to you the impression of vast or endless space or time.

Please expand on this in terms of the musical mechanisms and associated experiences:

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