Aleatory
Encyclopedia
Aleatoricism is the incorporation of chance
into the process of creation, especially the creation of art or media. The word derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of dice
. It should not be confused with either improvisation
or indeterminacy
.
was first coined by Werner Meyer-Eppler
in 1955 to describe a course of sound events that is "determined in general but depends on chance in detail". When his article was published in English, the translator mistakenly rendered his German noun Aleatorik as an adjective, and so inadvertently created a new English word, "aleatoric". Pierre Boulez
applied the term in this sense to his own pieces to distinguish them from the indeterminate music of John Cage
. While Boulez purposefully composed his pieces to allow the performer certain liberties with regard to the sequencing and repetition of parts, Cage often composed through the application of chance operations without allowing the performer liberties. Another prolific composer of aleatory music was Karlheinz Stockhausen
.
Aleatoric techniques are sometimes used in contemporary film music. Examples can be found in John Williams
's scores as well as, for example, Mark Snow
's music for X-Files: Fight of the Future.
Fred Camper's SN (1984, first screening 2002) uses coin-flipping for one section to determine which three of 16 possible reels to screen and what order they should go in (3360 permutations).
Barry Salt
, now better known as a film scholar, is known to have made a film, Permutations, six reels long which takes the word aleatory quite literally by including a customized die for the projectionist to roll to determine the reel order (720 permutations).
Grant Patten utilizes an I Ching
-inspired aleatory method to predict the date of his death in his short animation "The (Rough) Date of My Death" (2007).
Randomness
Randomness has somewhat differing meanings as used in various fields. It also has common meanings which are connected to the notion of predictability of events....
into the process of creation, especially the creation of art or media. The word derives from the Latin word alea, the rolling of dice
Dice
A die is a small throwable object with multiple resting positions, used for generating random numbers...
. It should not be confused with either improvisation
Improvisation
Improvisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
or indeterminacy
Indeterminacy
Indeterminacy or underdeterminacy may refer to:* Indeterminacy in computation * aleatoric music and indeterminacy in music.* Statically indeterminate*Indeterminacy a literary term...
.
Literature
Charles Hartman discusses several methods of automatic generation of poetry in his book The Virtual Muse.Art
Digital cameras, Photoshop, and computer generated random art programs along with wildly improvisational use of cutting edge materials and equipment have opened up a new world of possibilities for today's art students and emerging artists. A small group of international artists have formed a group called MAMA or the Movement of Aleatoric Modern Artists, a worldwide collaboration of chance based artists who promote the principles and techniques of aleatoric methods in the execution of contemporary art in modern times.Music
The term aleatory musicAleatoric music
Aleatoric music is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer...
was first coined by Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler
Werner Meyer-Eppler , was a German physicist, experimental acoustician, phoneticist, and information theorist....
in 1955 to describe a course of sound events that is "determined in general but depends on chance in detail". When his article was published in English, the translator mistakenly rendered his German noun Aleatorik as an adjective, and so inadvertently created a new English word, "aleatoric". Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
applied the term in this sense to his own pieces to distinguish them from the indeterminate music of John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
. While Boulez purposefully composed his pieces to allow the performer certain liberties with regard to the sequencing and repetition of parts, Cage often composed through the application of chance operations without allowing the performer liberties. Another prolific composer of aleatory music was Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
.
Aleatoric techniques are sometimes used in contemporary film music. Examples can be found in John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
's scores as well as, for example, Mark Snow
Mark Snow
Mark Snow is an American composer for film and television.Born in New York, he grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from the High School of Music and Art and, afterwards, the Juilliard School of Music...
's music for X-Files: Fight of the Future.
Film
In film-making, there are several avant-garde examples; one is Allison Knowles' computer poem "House of Dust",Fred Camper's SN (1984, first screening 2002) uses coin-flipping for one section to determine which three of 16 possible reels to screen and what order they should go in (3360 permutations).
Barry Salt
Barry Salt
Barry Salt is an Australian film historian.Salt was a ballet dancer and member of the Ballet Guild Company of Melbourne in 1955 and 1956, the Western Theatre Ballet of London in 1957, and the Ballet Minerva of London in 1966.Salt holds a Ph.D in theoretical physics and taught the subject at Sir...
, now better known as a film scholar, is known to have made a film, Permutations, six reels long which takes the word aleatory quite literally by including a customized die for the projectionist to roll to determine the reel order (720 permutations).
Grant Patten utilizes an I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
-inspired aleatory method to predict the date of his death in his short animation "The (Rough) Date of My Death" (2007).
See also
- Constrained writingConstrained writingConstrained writing is a literary technique in which the writer is bound by some condition that forbids certain things or imposes a pattern.Constraints are very common in poetry, which often requires the writer to use a particular verse form....
- Aleatory variableRandom variableIn probability and statistics, a random variable or stochastic variable is, roughly speaking, a variable whose value results from a measurement on some type of random process. Formally, it is a function from a probability space, typically to the real numbers, which is measurable functionmeasurable...
- Avant-gardeAvant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
- BiomusicBiomusicBiomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by non-humans. The definition is also sometimes extended to included sounds made by humans in a directly biological way...
- BiomusicologyBiomusicologyBiomusicology is the study of music from a biological point of view. The term was coined by Nils L. Wallin in 1991. Music is an aspect of the behaviour of the human and possibly other species...
- Contemporary music
- New Age musicNew Age musicNew Age music is music of various styles intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management or to create a peaceful atmosphere in their home or other environments, and is often...
- StochasticStochasticStochastic refers to systems whose behaviour is intrinsically non-deterministic. A stochastic process is one whose behavior is non-deterministic, in that a system's subsequent state is determined both by the process's predictable actions and by a random element. However, according to M. Kac and E...
- 20th century classical music20th century classical music20th century classical music was without a dominant style and highly diverse.-Introduction:At the turn of the century, music was characteristically late Romantic in style. Composers such as Gustav Mahler and Jean Sibelius were pushing the bounds of Post-Romantic Symphonic writing...
- ZoomusicologyZoomusicologyZoomusicology is a field of musicology and zoology or more specifically, zoosemiotics. Zoomusicology is the study of the music of animals, or rather the musical aspects of sound or communication produced and received by animals....