Mr. Stravinsky's Random Accent Generator 2.0 - Now With More Random!

For what it's worth, I've fiddled around with one of my stranger creations, Mr. Stravinsky's Random Accent Generator. I'm afraid it's not much less strange, but 1) I think the recordings sound better now, 2) there are more "random" options, and 3) the audio doesn't cut out so abruptly at the end of 8 bars. (You can sample the previous version here. Read more about it here and here.)

As before, those patient enough to try out enough patterns will be treated to a couple of surprises, although I'm not trying to encourage hours spent idly refreshing the page. Minutes, perhaps...

I will admit that the accent patterns aren't truly random. I "designed" each potential outcome, though I intentionally went about this quickly and tried not to "compose" too much. However, with many of them, I would find myself tinkering here and there to get things to sound more "right," whatever that might mean. Certainly Stravinsky's version sounds the most "right," though it doesn't hurt that I've heard it approximately 4,637 times.

So that got me to thinking about the possibility of generating a truly random sprinkling of accents, and I thus managed to create a little spreadsheet formula that accomplishes this task handily. I decided that since Stravinsky's original (see above; hear here) only accents 6 of the 32 chords, it made sense to average something like 6/32 rather than just go 50/50 on each chord, so each chord basically has an 18.75% chance of being accented. Here are some of the first patterns I generated this way (with 1's standing in for accents).

0100 0000 0100 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000

0000 0001 0000 1000 0000 1010 1000 0000

1000 0010 0000 0000 0000 0010 1011 0101

0000 0000 1000 0011 0000 0110 0001 0000

0010 1000 0100 1010 0100 0100 1000 0000

1000 0100 0000 0000 0100 1000 0001 0000

0100 0000 0000 1010 0100 0001 0000 0010

1000 0000 0001 1000 0110 0001 0100 1000

0100 1101 1000 1000 0000 0000 0010 0101

0010 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0100 0000

0000 0010 0000 0000 1001 0000 0000 0001

0100 0000 0010 0001 0000 0000 1000 0000

[I'll wait while you clap through them.] I especially like the third one from the end. Of course, I understand that Stravinsky's accents are not necessarily intended to sound random, though they are supposed to be unpredictable (random ≠ unpredictable). Still, it's kind of interesting to see the different ways in which this process can unfold.

If you're interested in investigating further, I've uploaded my little spreadsheet to Google Docs, with the added attraction that accents are added directly over the chords right in the spreadsheet. (Doesn't perform it though.) To use the document, you need to sign in to Google Docs, open this document, then choose "Make a Copy" from the file menu. Once you've got your own copy, you can give yourself an infinite supply of clapping exercises.

(Or, I suppose, you could just go here.)

More random-y stuff coming tomorrow on the blog, including an update of "MM's Magical Multimedia Musing Machine."