Composing Mozart variations with dice

Music: W.A. Mozart

Text: Zs. M. Ruttkay

Programming: B. Boskamp

Introduction

W. A. MOZART (1756-1791) was not only a great composer who produced a huge variety of musical pieces, but he liked fun and jokes too. In his "Musikalisches W&uumlrfelspiel" (Musical Dice Game) for each of the 16 bars of a Wiener minuet, Mozart offered 2 choices for the 8th and the 16th bars, and 11 choices for each of the other bars.

Mozart's idea was that from the stock of bars the player will be able to "generate" a huge variety of melodies himself, by selecting randomly from the offered choices per bar. Besides the musical experience, the piece provides challenges in probability theory, ranging from practical routine computations to fundamental and philosophical ones. Both the musical and mathematical aspects can be used well for educational purposes.

On the history
On the related mathematics
Compose and play melodies
Educational experiences with photos and video illustrations
 
 
 

Visit another site with a similar environment and further links (we discovered this only after having finished ours). 


 


Send your comments to the authors: Zsófia Ruttkay (contents) and Bram Boskamp (programming).

This page was updated on 20 september 1999 by Zsófia Ruttkay, zsofi@cwi.nl