ABSTRACT

Tom Johnson is an interesting case of interdisciplinarity in that he makes music and mathematics coincide in a very obvious and literal way. He was led to this approach in the context of the American avant-garde of the 1970s, in which many artists tried to set artistic creation in the field of the impersonal. In using mathematics, Tom Johnson is in search for something that might allow the music to compose itself automatically. He establishes sequences of numbers and translates them literally into melodies, harmonies or rhythms. In doing so, he manages to make the mathematical background clearly appear. He seems to think of his music as a way of reflecting mathematics in the form of audible phenomena, and ultimately, he attaches some kind of mystical dimension to this experience. Mathematical truths, as he calls them, are unquestionable. Their laws do not depend on human will, they are deeply inscribed in nature, and a composition strictly based on them is necessarily linked to the absolute.

摘要

汤姆约翰逊是一个有趣的跨学科案例，他使音乐和数学以一种非常明显和文字的方式相吻合。他是在 1970 年代美国前卫艺术的背景下采用这种方法的，其中许多艺术家试图将艺术创作置于非个人领域。在使用数学时，汤姆约翰逊正在寻找可以让音乐自动创作的东西。他建立了数字序列，并将它们逐字翻译成旋律、和声或节奏。在这样做的过程中，他设法使数学背景清晰地显现出来。他似乎认为他的音乐是一种以听觉现象的形式反映数学的方式，最终，他为这种体验附加了某种神秘的维度。正如他所说的那样，数学真理是不容置疑的。