When I was in High School I remember an issue of sorts that involved the traditional vs. the electronic advancements of the day. It was either Algebra 2 or Trigonometry vs. ...the calculator.
We were not allowed to use calculators all the time because they undermined the process of learning the traditional ways of computing and re-arranging an equation. Fair enough.
Today I am reminded of it because, gasp(!) a few inclined composers are actually writing code for 12-tone row matrix calculators. Yep, it's true-you no longer have to go through the tedious process of calculating inversion or transposition. Just plug in your row, hit calculate and poof there is your matrix. It's accurate too, I checked it. You can even have your row analyzed for pitch-class sets and intervalic relationships. Yes this is a very dry way to percieve music, but if you didn't already know it-you'd be horrified to discover how much great music is conceived in this way. The difficulty is making it artistic and meaningful. If everyone could do it, we wouldn't have so many mediocre composers interested in film music.
If you didn't learn the traditional ways of computing a musical matrix based on a 12-tone row, you really should take the time to learn it. It's fun. Way more interesting than using a calculator, but I still find this completely cool.
Click Here: http://composertools.com/Tools/ and,
Leo Carrillo Beach
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