The simplest example of scaling noise, called white noise, is easy to generate. |
*   Set a range of note durations (for example, whole, half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth), |
*   and a range of tones. |
*   Then use a random number generator to select the duration and tone of each note in sequence. |
Except for a uniform change of the duration of the notes, playing this composition at a different speed will give something sounding about the same. |
This kind of composition wanders all over the place and does not sound very interesting. |
Indeed, some people find these compositions unpleasant: there is no relation of one note to the next, no pattern or familiarity one can perceive. |
Yet this was the underlying construction of some of John Cage's stochastic music experiments in the 1960s. |
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Listen: |
Thanks to Harlan Brothers for the midi files of these tunes. |
Return to 1/f aspects of music.