Chess music

I have been meaning to ask for some feedback on this...

Has anyone ever made music from chess??

I have had a mad passion for three player chess for a long time, and I
checked out a chess variants page, and found about a dozen.

I have invented many of my own chess variants, also.

Any comments?

--Sarn.

--- In tuning@y..., Sarn Richard Ursell <thcdelta@i...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_18321.html#18321

> I have been meaning to ask for some feedback on this...
>
> Has anyone ever made music from chess??
>

Hello Sarn...

Well, this isn't EXACTLY what you asked, but one of the closest links
between music and chess was the composer Francois Philidor
(1726-1795) who was a great composer (well, semi-great) as well as a
chess grandmaster!

Material on him can be found in the book "Grandmasters of Chess" by
the great (well, semi-great) former New York Times Music Critic
Harold Schonberg. (Pronounced differently from Arnold Schoenberg... a
common mistake)

Another wonderful comparison is the lifestyle. Many chess
grandmasters, as grand-music-masters, ended in poverty. (Glad that
doesn't happen today!)

As Schonberg chronicles: "Philidor died in London on August 31,
1795, alone and destitute -- the first of many grandmasters to die a
pauper. 'On Monday last,' a London paper said, 'Mr. Philidor, the
celebrated chess player, made his last move.'"

_________ ____ ____ __
Joseph Pehrson

Yes actually i have
map a grid of the lambdoma
if you use Hans Kaysers grid available in Akroasis
I'll play you

Pat Pagano, Director
South East Just Intonation Society
http://indians.australians.com/meherbaba/
http://www.screwmusicforever.com/SHREESWIFT/
----- Original Message -----
From: Sarn Richard Ursell <thcdelta@ihug.co.nz>
To: <tuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2001 8:03 AM
Subject: [tuning] Chess music

> I have been meaning to ask for some feedback on this...
>
> Has anyone ever made music from chess??
>
> I have had a mad passion for three player chess for a long time, and I
> checked out a chess variants page, and found about a dozen.
>
> I have invented many of my own chess variants, also.
>
> Any comments?
>
> --Sarn.
>
>
>
> You do not need web access to participate. You may subscribe through
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emails.
>
>
>

This is a nice bit from Graham Lock's very entertaining biography/tour
diary of Anthony Braxton and his (Crispell, Dresser, and Hemingway)
Quartet "FORCES IN MOTION".

Here Lock is dutifully trying for about the umpteenth thousandth time
to pry something substantial out of Braxton about that which is
"separate from its musical function"... to which the admirably
ever-evasive Braxton demurs in style!

L: You're saying that each of the language types you've compiled, for
example, has a particular function separate from its musical function?

B: I'm saying that every force sets something in motion. If you say,
what? I'd say that's part of what I'm learning.

L: The question would be more how do you find out which forces you set
in motion?

B: I'll let you know by your book ten (laughs).

L: After twenty years of study, you must have *some* idea!

B: I can only talk about aspects of this. In terms of what I'm really
dealing with in this time period, I can't talk about that because I
would be disrespecting you and disrespecting me.

L: Well, tell me what you can tell me (laughs).

B: But I've just told you! (laughs.) OK, I don't want to play with you
in this area...play is not the right way of saying it, but I don't
want to disrespect you by talking about something that I have not
thought out, or that I have thought out but am not ready to talk
about. Remember the isolated pawn theory!

L: The *what*?

B: The isolated pawn theory. Is it justified to kill an innocent pawn
just because your opponent has made a mistake and left that pawn
unprotected? I was very concerned about this question as a young man
and later in Paris I met Bruce Carrington, who is a very special
friend of mine, and he talked to me about a woman who had told him
that she just destroyed a man, destroyed him vibrationally, and this
man was hurt. He asked her, why did you do it? And she said, well, he
came into my path. That's what she said; so we had to deal with that -
she destroyed him because he was there. OK, I can relate to that. Now,
on the chess board, if a person puts out a pawn that is not protected,
you have to destroy that pawn - like, how dare they do that! It's
*just* to kill a pawn that is not protected, as long as it doesn't
disturb your position on the board and if it further enhances your
objectives. To destroy that pawn would be part of the lesson that has
to be learned: destruction in that context becomes even respectable.
That was the isolated pawn theory.

L: This is a justice without mercy ...

B: No, wait, that's not the end of the story. I suddenly discovered
something - you don't *want* to destroy anybody! If you can help it.
Don't kill the pawn. Why? Because of *unlogic*. OK, back to the
question: I can't answer it because of the isolated pawn theory.

--Dan Stearns

--- In tuning@y..., "D.Stearns" <STEARNS@C...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_18321.html#18333

> she destroyed him because he was there. OK, I can relate to that.
Now,on the chess board, if a person puts out a pawn that is not
protected,you have to destroy that pawn - like, how dare they do
that! It's *just* to kill a pawn that is not protected, as long as it
doesn't disturb your position on the board and if it further enhances
your objectives. To destroy that pawn would be part of the lesson
that has to be learned: destruction in that context becomes even
respectable. That was the isolated pawn theory.
>

Thanks for this contribution, Dan... and this little commentary by
Braxton is sweet, but from what little I know of chess killing an
isolated pawn would almost *ALWAYS* louse up the rhythm of the game
-- a little gratuitous violence that almost invariably destroys the
destroyer!

Now back ON-T...

_______ ____ __ _
Joseph Pehrson

thcdelta@ihug.co.nz writes:

> Has anyone ever made music from chess??

What a good idea! I've been doing some reading on DirectX's
capability for interactive music and a chess match could be a great
controller, too.

andy

The late Sir Arthur Bliss wrote a fine ballet score about a hypothetical chess game, entitled "Checkmate". It is available on CD. Not musical, but of literary interest, is the novel by the late science fiction author, John Brunner, entitled "Squares of the City", based on an actual game. This has gone in and out of print, at least in paperback. And of course, "Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll has been done with music in film versions and was based on a hypothetical series of moves. The earliest featured composer Dmitri Tiomkin, circa 1931, one of his first scores. I have sheet music extracted from that as children's pieces.

>>> thcdelta@ihug.co.nz 02/04/01 08:03AM >>>
I have been meaning to ask for some feedback on this...

Has anyone ever made music from chess??

I have had a mad passion for three player chess for a long time, and I
checked out a chess variants page, and found about a dozen.

I have invented many of my own chess variants, also.

Any comments?

--Sarn.

You do not need web access to participate. You may subscribe through
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