This lecture explores the very limits of music: investigating historical efforts to catalogue musical materials including the melacarta of Carnatic music, the wazn of Arabic maqam, Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns, Schillinger’s Encyclopedia of Rhythms, Forte numbers, and contemporary attempts to ‘pre-copyright’ every possible melody yet to be written.
It also tackles the bigger questions: how much music might exist, whether it ever will be exhausted, and if there are any boundaries of our musical perception and imagination.
This lecture was recorded by Milton Mermikides on 16th May 2024 at LSO St Luke's Church, London
The transcript of the lecture is available from the Gresham College website:
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-infinite
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