Infinite Permutation as a Creative Principle

Consider the following process as a manner of invention for musical material. A medieval composer takes a melodic fragment from plainchant, sets it in longer note values as a cantus firmus, and composes polyphony against the cantus firmus according to the contemporary practice. The new music sounds like medieval polyphony instead of plainchant. A bebop musician in the 1940’s takes the chord changes of a standard popular song and composes a new melody using the same harmonic structure. The new tune sounds like bebop instead of a standard pop song.

Now consider that the medieval composer takes a line of the new music and makes it the basis for new polyphonic composition using the same process. Or the bebopper makes substitute chord changes for the new tune and then composes a new melody over the substitute changes. These processes can continue ad infinitum, and the new music will always retain a seed of the original, but it will not necessarily be recognizable to the causal listener. Furthermore, the new work may sound radically different from the original or the most recent creation and the composer can create a new musical language in this manner. There is no end to the different directions this process can take, and there is no reason why the new creative work may not deal with any of the parameters of music (besides melody, harmony and counterpoint) and reframe the old model with, for example, new tuning systems, structural principles, rhythmic systems, instrumental, vocal or electronic settings, etc.