How
do Musicians Reach an Agreement? The Ensemble as a Multi-Agent System
Søren R. Frimodt-Møller, PhD fellow, Institute
for Philosophy, Education and the Study of Religions, The
A commonly
known thought experiment in the area of epistemic logic is the problem of coordinated attack. The problem
underlines the importance of reliable communication when two parties need to
reach an agreement to act simultaneously. The structure of this problem applies,
although in a much more complicated form, to the situation where a musical
group needs to establish quickly what to play next because someone in the
ensemble has deviated crucially from the rehearsed routines. Using measures as
units of the timeline and the perceived notes as the “messages” passed on, a simplified (but exemplary) situation in the symphony
orchestra is analyzed in terms of a multi-agent system. An important question
is whether or not knowledge of the compositional structure exerts normative
influence, and to what degree the analysis needs to reflect this influence.
Various ways of dealing with these deontic issues
will be discussed.