One Note

Audio for this style algorithm. The sheet music.

This is an original composition I wrote for the PME. It was based on conversations I had concerning the nature of rhythm and melody and what the implication of a piece of music comprising but one note would be on those subjects. The idea of one note came up again in another conversation concerning form and what the implications would be again.

At that time I had no desire to compose the piece as I had assumed someone already had. But then I began to think about how I would adapt the piece for the PME and I came up with a method that was interesting enough for me to work with.

The algorithm generates as many notes as you want (in this example one million notes—the more the merrier) and averages them together. At the same time it divides the octave into any number of divisions (in this example 100,000 divisions). It then records what that one note sounds like with that tuning.

The sheet music doesn’t really reflect any of that but I think it has a certain poetry about it as well as an obvious visual appeal.