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Patternless Music

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Patternless Music

As more music is being created and consumed than ever before, vast audiences can freely explore and experiment with new ideas and make advances in music. Innovative thinking can be unfortunately often forgotten or go unnoticed, as popular music and the majority of music listeners and creators alike cling to their safe zones in music.

Repetition is one of the most apparent characteristics of popular music. As opposed to everyday repetitive music, this thesis focuses on patternless music, a form of non-repetitive music where the repetition of exact patterns is avoided altogether.

Thanks to the development of modern digital tools in both quality and quantity, this complex type of music can be created and performed in increasingly fluent and innovative ways, as well as taught and analyzed in clear and unambiguous terms. Examples of patternless music in this thesis provide solid evidence of its existence. This thesis takes an open but critical approach towards this new, experimental type of music by analyzing the examples both as audible and visual representations.

After all, patterns and repetition are crucial elements in music: recognizing these elements helps composers, musicians, and listeners understand the complex structures embedded in the music they create and/or listen to. Keeping these assumptions in mind, this thesis analyzes the basic tenets of patternless music, its creation process and its effects, as well as the challenges it poses to its users.

Therefore, this thesis opens the door for an analytic and critical approach to repetition, patterns and music in general. This new form of music can enable us to look critically at our assumptions regarding the boundaries of music and creativity, and thereby helps widen these boundaries, allowing us to look beyond our current limits in music and strive for even higher standards and greater understanding.

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