source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 06:26:47 -0700 Subject: Re: TUNING digest 803 From: Steve Curtin >Exactly what is an experimental composer? >Which hypothesis does the experimental composer >conduct an experiment to test? What is the >experimental control? What kind of statistical >methods does the experimental composer use >to analyze hi/r results--linear regression, chi >square, least squares, ANOVA? What and >where is the mathematical model upon which the >experimental composer's hypothesis is based? >Which laws of nature does the experimental >composer seek to investigate...? ...Or is, perhaps, >the term "experimental" used merely to indicate >a certain glamorous intention to be "scientific," >in the same way that advertisements for >astrological services include the phrase >"scientifically calculated using the latest >astrological computer program"...? One composer who described his work as "experimental" and who may have been one of the first to think of his music as such is Lejaren Hiller, author of the "Illiac Suite" and later "HPSCD", a collaboration with John Cage that featured many different superimposed N tones per octave tunings. To this day the studios at the University of Illnois Champaign-Urbana are referred to as the "Experimental Music Studios". Hiller's background was in Chemistry, and for a time he had a joint appointment there in Chemistry and Music. For Hiller his experiment was if he could compose a piece of music using the computer. Aesthetic issues about whether the music was appreciated by the audience were sometimes considered to be outside the bounds of the experiment. regards, Steve Curtin Ensoniq Corp Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 17:08 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11031; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 17:08:58 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11038 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id IAA23723; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 08:08:56 -0700 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 08:08:56 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu