Buji Ismail <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >It is possible to have more than 4 dimensions in theoritical >physics (metaphysics?). Imagine adding extra dimensions to the music (more >than 12 notes?) in metamusic..this would pose extra variables to metamusic >composer. imagine what it would sounds like. Such questions have been food for the thoughts of many composers in the last hundred years, and even before... But Buji's comparison with science is pertinent in more than a way. I am not saying that both fields are alike, some of you might remember that as both a mathematician and a violinist, I am rather careful about such parallels. But it so happens that for a topologist, many 4-dimensional spaces are not only more complicated than 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or most of 3-dimensional spaces, they are also (globally) more intricate than spaces of upper dimensions, 5, 7, 1999 or more! 4 is *the* exceptional dimension under many respects. This is just to say that great music, and particularly great classical music, is as much about how little it takes to create masterworks than about extending the raw material and the field of possibilities. This, of course, is no reason to overlook such ambitions, but when it comes to actually composing a single work, then it probably takes as much genius to choose among one's apparently promising ideas than to imagine new ones... Well, this has no pretention to being the summary of a comprehensive theory, just something that crossed my mind:-) Best wishes from devastated France, Thanh-Tam Le