You might check out some of the compositions of John Cage. For her senior recital my younger daughter, a percussion student at Oberlin, played one of his pieces that required rolling dice to see where on the drum & for how long various parts were to be played. I read one of the essays of his that she suggested to me that discussed such matters & it made some sense, though I can't recall details - or the title of the essay - now.
Shalom,
George
> > There are all sorts of books about the physics > of music. I do not think that the notion of randomness is ever used in such > books. All instruments are designed to produce an appropriate, pleasant sound. Players > who used randomness when using any such instruments would invariably lead to > bad music. > > > > > > Moorad > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > From: > asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu] On Behalf Of Iain Strachan > Sent: Tuesday, November 06, 2007 > 5:07 AM > To: Randy Isaac > Cc: asa@calvin.edu > Subject: Re: [asa] Random and > natural vs intelligence > > > > > > > > > > On 11/6/07, Randy > Isaac > wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > "Theistic Darwinists maintain that God was > "intimately involved" in creation, to use Francis Collins's words. > But they also think life developed via genuinely random mutations and genuinely > natural selection. Yet they never explain what God is doing in this process. > Perhaps there is still room for him to start the whole thing off, but this > abandons theism for deism." > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > This is essentially the same argument that Lee Strobel used > on the radio a few weeks ago when he firmly but respectfully rebuked Francis > Collins. Evolution is inherently random and without guidance and is therefore > mutually exclusive with divine guidance, he said. > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > When one draws a bow across a violin string or blows across the mouthpiece of a > flute, one is applying a genuinely random (white noise) signal, from which the > instrument naturally selects the resonant frequency and produces a beautiful > response. Thus musicians use random processes to produce music, and yet > are intimately involved in it. > > Iain > > > > > > >
George L. Murphy
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Received on Tue Nov 6 12:38:31 2007