| There is a fair bit of composition going on, albeit all based on a single melodic phrase, so it is far from just being any old random combinations of tones from the C major scale. It is definitely a canon, meaning the same phrase played at different starting points. A round is a simple form of a canon. Think of the melody to Frere Jacques. From a perspective of form, this song expands on the basic concept of a round by playing with double time, half time, quarter time, etc. It has a lot of elements of serialist music, in which a musical pattern is subjected to a number of operations, although this song doesn't venture in to the more strict forms of twelve-tone composition. It is more along the lines of minimalist composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass, who took some of serialism's academic approaches to composition and made them hypnotic and rhythmic. In a sense, making fruit-of-the-earth pop music out of some sort of cerebral concept. Overall the musical production is of pretty damn good quality. The performances sound good and the recordings were well made. The variation of instruments is impressive and the introduction of various pop styles keeps the concept novel. One of my main gripes with "math music" is that it can be downright unenjoyable on an aesthetic level. This song does a very good job of taking something inherently non-musical and making it pleasing to the ears, all while strictly adhering to a set of rules laid out before composition began. |