Multiscale approach to composing, after Roads

Dominant approaches in music composition involve preplanning (TODO: in contrast with M. Fell) (top-down) and in-situ generative (bottom-up). A multiscale approach, as suggested by Roads, breaks this dichotomy. A work of electronic music must be composed and recomposed on the micro and macro levels simultaneously and repeatedly.

References:

Roads, Composing Electronic Music: A New Aesthetic (2015) p. 19

In contrast, a multiscale approach to composition recognizes the reality that a composition comes together in multiple stages and on multiple levels. To work in the widest possible zone of creativity, the composer wants to navigate freely across timescale boundaries, to reevaluate and modify strategy at any stage. This means not only making corrections but also opportunistically taking advantage of insights gained in the reevaluation, perhaps elaborating on an idea that appeared in the initial process. All timescales can be planned and organized, but these plans need not be rigid; we can adapt as the terrain of composition shifts, as it inevitably does during the course of any realization. To generate, delete, rear-range, and transform sounds on any timescale at any step, this is the multiscale approach to composition.

This note is currently a stub.