the world's ugliest piece of music

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxMIAMI-Scott-Rickard-The-Wor

interesting discussion beforehand, actual music starts at around 7:40

Not ugly, just challenging to listen to. Unsuk Chin or Brian Ferneyhough are actual musicians which do harsh, edgy and challenging way better than this if this is your sort of thing.

which who

hey, I didn't call it that

I think the idea of it not having any structure is interesting, but the since every note is played on the same piano, that already gives it at a structure, an uniform tone colour in the listener's ears. Instead of playing it on the piano, they should've use computer sound synthesis to give each note an unique timbre as well.

that was totally boring

I think the idea of it not having any structure is interesting, but the since every note is played on the same piano, that already gives it at a structure, an uniform tone colour in the listener's ears. Instead of playing it on the piano, they should've use computer sound synthesis to give each note an unique timbre as well.

― Tuomas, Friday, November 4, 2011 6:19 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah good point. it didn't sound particularly "ugly" to me

Scott Rickard set out to do what no musician has ever tried — to make the world’s ugliest piece of music.

lol yeah no musician has ever attempted this before

it doesn't sound ugly at all to me - it sounds like a guy picking out single notes at the piano (some low ones here, some high ones there) without adhering to a time signature. which is just blah.

That was almost an interesting talk except for not going into any detail whatsoever

like, not even listing what the constraints were, never mind how you construct the grid (ok, that would likely be quite longwinded and dull, I certainly don't understand enough group theory for that)

so, no single note repeats itself
and - no adjacent pair of notes has the same pitch interval? (looks like it might be true from the grid)
no pair of notes at all has both the same pitch interval and time interval? (looks like it might be true in grid-time, but thanks to magic unexplained formula for generating time delays between notes, ??)
or do you need to compensate for the potential doppler shift's effect on not just the pitch but the time between any pair of notes? (maybe this is what the magic is for, hurts my head too much)

but, I like how some sort of semi-melodic phrase occasionally juts out of the void, only to be snatched away again

couldn't be bothered to listen to the nerd doing the speech. music sounds like sped-up Feldman i.e. not even slightly ugly

er, its not remotely like Feldman (assuming that you're talking about late Feldman here)

This is depressing, a bunch of suits thought they'd raid the ghost of 1950s serialism and call it the ugliest piece of music ever. I'd be embarrassed to call this research.

xp sounds like early piano pieces imo

but like i say, sped right up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09d4NjK4Yso

Actually this is quicker than I remembered

Yeah early Feldman is faster. The Feldman that became 'Feldman' (if you see what i mean) only emerged in the late 70s.

i really like the 50s and 60s pieces, tho yeah i agree his rep forms around the later work. Rothko Chapel is early 70s tho i think? that's very "Feldman"

The 50s pieces are great, agree. Could never quite get into Rothko Chapel, see it as a transitional piece.

This is depressing, a bunch of suits thought they'd raid the ghost of 1950s serialism and call it the ugliest piece of music ever. I'd be embarrassed to call this research.

It's stupid

know what the worlds beautifulest ugliest song is

is

is actually paula abdul and the non-computer aided designed Kool Kat or whatever it was Kool Kat 2000 or something Mega-Mix I don't remember

"opposite types attract" it was

man that song is awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy54reMEgQk

^ scientifically, the ugliest.

1 min is -- wonderful. I like Galina!

Galina's piano writing never ceases to amaze me.

Mc skat cat!

king crimson's "ladies of the road" is my usual vote for this honour

Galina is my favourite! She writes as if everybody is wearing ski gloves.

xp uhggggh yeah that might be the ugliest song that was intended to be a hit

The Pat Metheny track "Forward March" seems to be trying to sound like an out-of-tune marching band, may be relevant to this topic:

http://open.spotify.com/track/1b5PpI37gjYLaTlo1sO4pu

It's MC Skat Kat, for the record. Skat Kat has a flat-top and a small, square soul patch and wears a white tanktop, blue, baggy pants with black suspenders, and big tennis shoes. He sported an earring on his left ear starting with the album artwork and the Skat Strut music video.

Doozy of a Wikipedia entry, by the way...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w1Q6MW4KHQ

Skat Cat's voice was Derrick Delite, he's a legend in minneapolis hip hop, his show ” Smokin' Delite” on kmoj in north minneapolis was the only real radio show up here back in the early 90s

so according to their criteria, would this be the most beautiful piece of music?

http://wheelof.com/whitney/

(not that I necessarily disagree!)