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Towards Deconstructivist Music: Reconstruction paradoxes, neural networks, concatenative synthesis and automated orchestration in the creative process

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2023

Philon Nguyen Open the ORCID record for Philon Nguyen [Opens in a new window]  and
Eldad Tsabary
Philon Nguyen*
Affiliation:
Department of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Eldad Tsabary
Affiliation:
Department of Music, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
*
Corresponding author email: philon.nguyen@gmail.com
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Abstract

Since the 1980s, deconstruction has become a popular approach for designing architecture. In music, however, the term has not been absorbed as well by the related literature, with a few exceptions. In this article, ways to find ideological groundings for deconstructivism in music are introduced through the concepts of enchaînement and reconstruction paradoxes. Similar to the Banach–Tarski paradox in mathematics, reconstruction paradoxes occur when reconstructing the parts of a whole no longer yields the same properties as the whole. In music, a reconstruction paradox occurs when a piece constructed from tonal segments no longer yields a perceived tonality. Deconstruction in architecture heavily relies on computer-aided design (CAD) to realise complex ideas. Similarly in music, computer-aided composition (CAC) techniques such as neural networks, concatenative synthesis and automated orchestration are used. In this article, we discuss such tools in the context of this advocated new aesthetics: deconstructivist music.

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Organised Sound , Volume 29 , Issue 1: Radio – A Space for Sonic Art , April 2024 , pp. 79 - 90
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© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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