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rubikscube's picture

decoding music

Since you both mentioned decoding information, I first thought of its relevance to a music score. Just an hour ago I returned from Greasepaint's performance of "Chicago," in which I was the orchestra conductor. In front of me I had the score, and it was my job to decode this information to give it's meaning not only to the musicians but also to the entire audience. In this case, the content was obvious to me, since I can read music and make sense of the different instrumental lines. I feel that the meaning was also clear because for most songs, the cast was singing along and continuing the plot of the show. But what about music that seems to have unclear content? There's a good amount of modern music that has a very clear, distinct meaning. But I sometimes find a problem with how this meaning is presented. The musical content can sometimes be free, atonal, broken sounds. Though there's no problem decoding the information through reading the music, the only way we know the "meaning" is by reading what's written in the program. I wonder what this means about decoding information that has unclear content but a distinct meaning?

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