Numerical system in spatial music composition -Focus on ancient Chinese Yin Yang and Wu Xing numerical system

Abstract

TThis thesis is concentrated on the research of different numerical devices of ancient Chinese numerical system such as the Wu Xing sequence and related features, in order to generate diverse compositional materials for music composition by trigram(s) result (Gua/掛). My overall approach is to develop the methods, which can give us the freedom to choose different compositional materials since we can generate very different compositional material such as scales and chords by the result of Bagua (八掛), instead of John Cage’s change operation, which only obeys the certain results generalize entire piece automatically. Hence, we can select the most appropriate materials for the music composition and have better control of the compositional process. Mentioned elements are very simple; nevertheless, the numerical relationships between them can be very complex. Although this offers an attractive potential for their application in the creation of a new compositional materials, we need to settle the complication of the process and avoid the mistake of calculations. Referring to this issue, we can use several means to contribute the generating process correctly: Application of computer for calculation, avoidance of using complicated formulas in the systems, and cross-checked by another person.