25 - About the future of music

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Despina-Myrto Drougka

Precursor musicians such as J. M. Jarre and Y. Xenakis are only intermediaries, indispensable but insufficient. They form the link between the music of our time and that of the future.

Indeed they began to introduce new concepts in music:

– multidimensional composition resulting from the inability of serial music to organize time and the sound space.

– the conception of a geometry of sound, which, by this very fact, becomes an object of a single part and no longer the collection of sound emissions produced with the help of various instruments.

– the use of light in the context of a performance, no longer as a superfluous accessory, but as a necessary enrichment.

– holographic listening.

However, these innovations constitute only extensions of a fixed domain whose well-established boundaries prevent any escape under the threat of being stigmatized. Only the transgression of the prohibitions will allow the creators to finally reach the freedom, that the music boasts of offering.

The present music owes its emotional character to the very nature of sound – a vibratory phenomenon – which has engendered a whole lexical field around this sensation. The perception of this emotion is physical, that is, assimilated directly by the body, the brain is content to receive the information without taking a truly active part – do not confuse divagations with thoughts – in this way one participates in a phenomenon of saturation, the listener can not express what he feels; he feels, that’s all!

Music must no longer be a mere translation of human emotion, it should also form critical thought. Moreover, with all due respect, the universal character of contemporary music, is only a sophism hiding the ignorance of the nature of the world. Since sound depends on the material element, in which it is produced, it should be replaced by light, since this one being more “general”, has a pure existence even in a vacuum. The universality of MUSIC can not be established without the use of electromagnetic waves.
The properties of lasers in the composition, developed with the help of mathematical tools, will allow the creators to produce works, whose beauty in motion will be considerably greater than the current fixed holograms, which however, fascinate the mind already. But this is not sufficient in order for someone to create, he must understand, too.

Thus, this is a formal theory of MUSIC, which is necessary to conceive, who will define the object of its study (geometry, logical structure), the nature of it (electromagnetic waves) and its purpose (knowledge).