Calliopist/Haircut

Jim,

OK, I finally got the file. I listened to it... bits of it, that is.

I think we are definitely at a point where there is no more to say. The differences between the original and 'haircut' version would be known, primarily (if not uniquely) to the person who 'built' the construct that generated the music.

I think you will find few, if any, who are interested in sitting and listening to extremely simple sound forms (sine waves, in your case) that vary not in intensity, dynamics, rhythmic interest, etc. Of all the many aspects of what a fair amount of people would call 'music', you have included only one: harmony. And you've done it in a way that - in spite of your background structure - gives the impression of randomness (or near-randomness). I checked some of this by using the track pointer in WinAmp to jump to different sections of the piece, and nearly any place you stop 'sounds' like any other place. I'm not saying there aren't subtle changes in the pitches that are playing, but beyond that...

There is, as others have pointed out, a lot of music that functions in the way of background or 'ambient' music. One example of purely harmonic music (or using melodies that are so stretched as to effectively *be* harmony) is Brian Eno's "Music For Airports". I mention this mainly because of it's life-span: while the piece was originally generated by very long tape loops (released on vinyl in the late 70's I believe), it actually became an 'orchestrated' piece and performed live by the performance collective Bang-On-A-Can All-Stars, and released in the last year or two on CD. This is simply one piece in a very, very large field.

Stasis/background style music not only has a place, but can be a very effective medium. I see no reason for you to not continue your exploration of tunings, but if you want to make music that has interest outside of the mere coincidence of pitches, you need to start down the road to the other aspects that constitute what we broadly perceive to be 'music' - rhythm, timbre, dynamics, melody/harmony/counterpoint, etc.

I hope that would be as of much interest to you as the areas that have led you thus far.

Cheers,
Jon