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