Musicians have been composing a form of fractal music for at least six centuries. Motivic scaling was familiar to many of the great Flemish composers such a Johannes Ockeghem and Josquin des Prez who developed the art of the mensuration or prolation canon. This type of canon is characterized by a melody or rhythmic motif that is repeated in different voices simultaneously at different tempos. To be clear, not all mensuration canons are fractal; there are fundamental requirements that must be met in order to classify an object as such.
Josquin des Prez was a Franco-Flemish composer, widely considered to be the most important and influential of the Renaissance period. Scholars often refer to his creative genius, inviting comparisons to Beethoven. During his lifetime he was highly sought after and regarded by many to be the greatest of all composers, past or present.
|