Abstract

A study of the application of self-similarity to music synthesis was conducted with special emphasis on the relationship of form and matrial in art. Tonal and serial form in music was put in perspective in relation to self-similarity. The relationship between form and content was presented both in ambiguous communication systems such as music, and in mathematical systems in relationship with G¨odel's incompleteness theorem[30]. These communication systems were related to the main topic of Schoenberg 's ideas of form[40], which is "comprehensibility", and to the uncommunicatability of Kierkegaard's "faith"[21]. Auditory qualities were defined as "sound" and "music" using a definition for musical communication over a self-similar channel whose plexus is the relationship between form and content. The term "musical timbre" was introduced in contrast to the timbre of sound, and a uniformity among the different time scales of musical perception (i.e., form, rhythm, and pitch) was established...

Citations