The Player of Games − 13 August, 2008
One of my favorite authors is Iain M. Banks. The title of today's post comes from one of his novels, The Player of Games.
In the book, there's a culture known as the Empire of Azad. Azad, it turns out, is a vastly complicated game. It's regarded as so great a challenge that political positions (for example, Emperor) are decided not by wars, not by elections, but by the games.
What always struck me about the book was how complicated the rules were. It was a territory-grabbing game, but managed to involve all five of the standard senses, and particular rules for particular situations.
Azad, in real life, isn't that complicated. And, on the other hand, is more complicated.
There is a game of Chinese origin called Wei Qi. In Japan, it's called Go; in Korea, Baduk. Play can be so complicated that grand masters can literally spend a lifetime learning the game, and the battles they have are truly epic.
However, the rules are staggeringly simple. Basically, you take turns placing stones, and if the stone you've placed completes the surrounding of your opponent's pieces, they are removed from the board.
That's just about everything.
I posted an article on Wordpress about how I got started playing Go, and how it's related to my current musical projects. No, I'm not making Go tunes. Somehow, when I'm working on something else, musical ideas start coming to me.
I'm playing with at least two new ideas right now. One I call "Periodic Table of the Groove", exploring unusual rhythmic groups. For example, the one I call (3,5) might be three major divisions, with five minor divisions. Someone up on their standard notation might call it a tune in 15/8. Or three bars of 5/8.
Another I call "Three Chords and the Truth". It's complicated to explain the mathematical basis for this, but it takes the concept of a simple song with only three chords and turns it on its head. The root notes are selected from one of the twelve prime trichords (an idea from musical set theory) and transposed randomly. For example, today's project involves the notes F, Gb, and Bb (prime set 015).
And therefore I come to this conclusion: music, too, is its own form of game. The rules are very simple -- create sound. However, musicians can spend an entire lifetime playing this particular game and never learn everything there is to know. From the simple rules, complexity arises. We can analyze and theorize, but the final question -- is it music? -- is as fundamental as placing stones on a Go board.
Comments:
intrepideddie (August 15, 2008. 03:59am)
My head hurts. Though, it is good to know that there are people like you teaching our kids.
bmccosar (August 15, 2008. 07:28pm)
LOL. That's why I just "shut up and play the music" on my albums. A lot of thought goes into the songs. Humans seem to respond to hidden mathematical structures. Maybe the math I'm using is obscure, but I'm using it as a method to generate new ideas.