How Many Tunes

[daff24]

Has anyone ever calculated the number of tunes it is possible to compose without repetition?

[kevb0444]

Well considering the number of notes, chords, length of song blah blah blah it would be really hard to work that one out. Plus songs are made up of soo many different things (instruments etc) that there are so many variables.

[daff24]

Thanks for your thoughts. That's precisely why I asked the question. There must be a limit and I just wondered if anyone had ever taken the trouble to calculate it.

[Fat Boy]

The correct answer would be infinite. First, whatever combination of notes you can think of, you can always add more notes. Admittedly you would have very long pieces of music but that doesn't mean it couldn't be done. Second, while the number of notes are fixed, musicians don't always use musical notes to compose tunes.

[LaLaLand2006]

Unless of course you're in Westlife (et al) and all songs sound the same anyway!!

[daff24]

Thanks everyone. Can't help thinking that nothing is absolutely infinite - or is it? Oops, I can feel a bit of philosophy coming on!

[bongerman]

If there were a finite amount of notes to be played a fixed number of times by a finite number of instruments it would be possible to calculate how many permutations there are.

However some of the variables are on a continuous sliding scale (eg time, pitch) so the answer is indeed infinite.

Imagine the length of the first note - there are in fact an infinite amount of lengths of time for just the first note, although I for one wouldn't notice the difference between 1.23 seconds and 1.24 seconds, but hopefully you get the picture...

[bongerman]

you might be interested in:

http://www.trinitybuoywharf.com/TBW_events.htm

the longplayer is due to play for 1000years before it repeats itself!

[bobinbelgium]

Not sure of the definitive answer but i think John Lennon said " by the year 2000 it would be become impossible to write a completely original rock and roll song"