Monday, October 28, 2013

Black MIDI: A Genre of Unplayable Keyboard Music

Black MIDI is an upcoming genre of keyboard music that uses gaming and MIDI software to create keyboard music so complex, so dense, that these works, playable only by computers, have note counts that sometimes stretch into the millions. The reason it's called Black MIDI is because of the extreme density of notes when realized on staff paper.

TTC's Dream Battle is a nice introduction to the genre:



And now for the real stuff. TheSuperMarioBros2's Bad Apple boasts 4.6 million individual notes:




This work by TheBlackMIDITeam has 110 million notes:



Kinda makes learning Chant de Linos seem like a walk in the park.

More Black MIDI links:

Rhizome
The Verge
Kottke





3 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:45 AM

    Wow, one 2-minute Black MIDI piece will be the end of a brand new Disklavier :D :D

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  2. This is interesting to a point, but after a while, the barrage of notes is almost too tiring to appreciate. It reminds me of the old Switched On Bach accelerated to the absolute extreme. I have an appreciation for electronic and avant garde music, yet I'm not sure I could grow to love something like this! At the same time, I have to admire the minds that came up with it and the technology that pulls it off. Thanks for the post!
    http://pianosheetmusiconline.com/

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  3. Very interesting! Black midi may get a big following.

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