Dice Music in the Eighteenth Century

Author(s): Stephen A. Hedges

Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 1978), pp. 180-187
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/734136
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 DICE MUSIC
IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

BY STEPHEN A. HEDGES

FROM I757 to I8I2 at least twenty musical dice games were pub-
lished in Europe, some in several editions and languages. All made
it possible for the person ignorant of music to write minuets, marches,
polonaises, contredances, waltzes and so forth by selecting bits of
prefabricated music through the use of chance operations. These
publications are notable in that they offer, two centuries earlier
than the twentieth-century 'advent' of aleatory music, methods by
which chance-determined music may be composed.
Leonard Ratner has written, 'The amusement afforded by these
musical games of chance bespeaks pure dilettantism . . .'.1 Rococo
attempts at devizing a mechanical means of composition are in
accordance with the rationalistic temperament of the time, as shown
by the many treatises on music published during this period that
include discussions of mathematics. The treatises and criticisms
of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg (I7I8-98) are filled with mathe-
matical analyses of music. More noteworthy is the relating of music
to natural sciences that is found in the works of Jean-Philippe
Rameau. Most important, however, was the general public enthu-
siasm for mathematics. Without the eighteenth century's great
interest in mathematics there would have been no incentive for the
creation of such unusual means of composition as dice games. Of
course, the separation and codification of musical elements that
made the dice games feasible were only possible because of the
simple and symmetrical nature of Rococo music. A complete list
of the musical dice games follows this article, including several works
,which are no longer extant and thus cannot be discussed. Enough
survive, however, to demonstrate a curious musical practice.
The first of these musical oddities was also the first publication
ofJohann Philipp Kirnberger (I 72 I -83), Der allezeitfertige Menuetten-
und Polonoisenkomponist (Berlin, I 757). Since this publication was to
serve as a model for many of the succeeding musical dice games, it
will be discussed in more detail than most of the works mentioned in
this article. The 'Minuet Composer' allowed the novice to compose
either a polonaise, consisting of one six-bar period and one eight-bar
period, or a minuet and trio, both eight bars in length. A throw of
two dice determined which bar of music would be used next as the
I "'Ars combinatoria": Chance and Choice in Eighteenth-century Music', Studies in
Eighteenth-century Music: a Tribute to Karl Geiringer on his Seventieth Birthday, ed. H. C. Robbins
Landon & Roger Chapman, London, I970, p. 345.

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composition was constructed. In his introduction Kirnberger wrote:

Anyone who is familiar only with dice and numbers and can write
down notes is capable of composing as many of the aforesaid little
pieces as he desires.

These words were paraphrased in the introduction to nearly every

succeeding musical dice game; they leave no doubt as to the public
for which these works were intended.
The 'Minuet Composer' had two tables of numbers, one for the
polonaises, one for the minuets. The last 29 pages of the publication
were to be cut up into a deck of cards with one bar of music (one
soprano line and one bass line for the polonaise and minuet, two
soprano lines and one bass line for the trio on each card. The
'composer' tossed two dice, then consulted the appropriate table by
moving down the side of the table to the line corresponding to the
bar he needed (e.g. for the second bar he would go to the second line
from the top) and then moving across the table to the column that
corresponded to the number showing on the dice. In the intersection
of the line and the column he would find a number. It was then only
a matter of finding the card that bore the same number and trans-
ferring the music on the card to a piece of manuscript paper.
Obviously, Kirnberger had written a polonaise and a minuet and
trio, composed ten variants, segmented the pieces into individual
bars and camouflaged the whole thing with a table of numbers. The
minuet would always be in D major with a fixed harmonic progres-
sion and the trio would always be in D minor. The melody was the
real variable. There were I I6 possible melodies for the first period
of the polonaise, I I8 possibilities for the second period, and I I32
possibilities for the minuet and trio. Ratner observes that the entire
population of eighteenth-century Europe could have spent a life-
time playing Kirnberger's dice game without exhausting all the
possibilities.2 In fact, Kirnberger asked a respected mathematician
named Gumpertz to calculate how many possible compositions
could be constructed. Gumpertz arrived at a figure of one trillion.
It is small wonder that Charles Burney accused Kirnberger himself
of being 'more ambitious of the character of an algebraist, than a
musician of genius'.3
The next dice game to appear was Ludus melothedicus, an anony-
mous work published in Paris around I758. This game went one
step further than the Kirnberger by fragmenting the bars into
individual notes. (Either this method or Kirnberger's was used in all
succeeding dice games.) The user of this game could construct an
eight-bar minuet and eight-bar trio in either D major or A minor.
There were a table of numbers for each bar and one complete set of

2 op. cit., p- 344.

3 The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Provinces, London,
1775, ii. 2I3.

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tables for each key. The 'composer' tossed two dice, disregarding
any numbers above nine, and counted from the next number up to
nine to find the correct number on the table (e.g. for a throw of 2 he
would count '3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9'). The number on the table referred to
another table of numbered notes. The user then continued counting
by nines until he had accumulated enough notes to fill the bar. This
procedure was used for determining both soprano and bass.
What the anonymous author had done was to compose a little
minuet with eight variants and then distribute the notes of each
bar on a table with nine notes from other variants placed
between each note of the melody. This guaranteed that one of the
nine versions would result no matter where one started among the
first nine numbers on the table. For example, the first bar of the
first variant would begin in space i on the table where the
first note of the bar would be found. The appropriate number of
spaces later, the second note would be found, nine spaces later the
third note would be found and so on until the three-beat bar was
complete. Nine spaces after the space containing the last note of the
bar an 'X' would be placed, indicating that the first measure had
been completed. The second variant would be distributed likewise,
beginning with the second space, and so on. A later edition in I 787
dispensed with the use of dice in favour of a more suitable nine-sided
top.
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Einfall for writing double counter-
point also used a nine-sided top. This work was published at the end
of the first part of the third volume of Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg's
Historisch-kritische Beitrdge zur Aufnahme der Musik (Berlin, I 754-78).
Bach's method, presented on pages I67 to 170, resulted in only six
bars in duple time. Marpurg followed Bach's presentation with four
pages of mathematical explanation in which he pointed out the
difference between Kirnberger's work and Bach's (Bach used
individual notes in the manner of the Ludus), explained the trick of
the game, and discussed probabilities. Marpurg's explanation was
followed by six tables of treble notes (one table per bar) and six bass
tables. When the added figuration is removed, the result is six bars
of first-species counterpoint invertible at the octave, making this
game unique.
The only English-language musical dice game was the work of
Piere [sic] Hoegi (?-?). His Tabular System (London, I770?) was
designed to compose a minuet and trio of eight bars per section by
the random choice of a number from 8 to 48. Otherwise, the game
was similar to Kirnberger's, as was the next dice game to be pub-
lished, Maximilian Stadler's Table pour composer (Paris, no
date). The date given for this work in E. L. Gerber's Historisch-
biographisches Lexikon der Tonkiinstler is I 780, which places it before
dice game publications attributed to Mozart and Haydn. This is an
important point, since all three publications use the same table of

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numbers and Haydn's even uses the same music, simply re-
orchestrated for two violins and bass.
The Gioco filharmonico attributed to Haydn was published by
Marescalchi in Naples in two editions, in I793 and I8I2, of which
only the I 793 edition is extant. The subtitle of this edition mentions
trios, but only minuets have been found.4 Since this publication is
no more than a re-orchestration of Stadler's dice game, it seems
unlikely that Haydn was really involved, and it may be that this
game was 'composed' by the publisher, though there is no firm
evidence to support this suspicion. Mozart's authorship of two other
dice games (K6 Anhang C 30.0I) has also been disputed. The first
and more famous of these produced contredances and is usually
cited as having been published by Nikolaus Simrock of Bonn in I 796.
The other is less well known, produced waltzes, and was supposedly
first published byJohann Michael Goetz of Worms about i8oo. Both
of these works had in fact already been published by Johann Julius
Hummel of Amsterdam and Berlin in I 793, and Simrock also pub-
lished the waltz game just before the contredance game.5 There is
also the distinct possibility that Goetz plagarized the waltz game
from Simrock. Goetz's waltz game and Simrock's contredance game
were extremely similar, presenting the text in four languages (Ger-
man, French, Italian and English), the German texts being identical
except for the addition of one clause in the Goetz explaining that
the minuet should be repeated after the trio. Whereas Simrock was
a well-known horn player who had just begun publishing in I 796
(the waltz and contredance games were his 48th and 49th publica-
tions respectively), Goetz was apparently a publisher of dubious
morals, since he was sued for plagiarism in I788-9 by Artaria of
Vienna. It is probable, then, that Simrock took his publications
from Hummel and was plagarized in turn by Goetz. Whether the
original Hummel publications were actually written by Mozart is
another matter. It is entirely possible that they were written by a
clandestine composer and that Mozart's name was used simply to
boost sales. But in view of the lack of evidence to support a denial of
Mozart's authorship, these games are still being published under
his name.6
Another publication of some importance intervened between
Stadler's and Haydn's very similar dice games. In I788, Michael
Johann Friedrich Wiedeburg (I720-i800) published his Musika-
lisches CIarien-Siel.This work was published by Georg Winter, who
had published Kirnberger's game, and was based on all of
Kirnhergers rIle s. Niedeburg admitted in the preface that he

4 See, however, Thomas Hay O'Bci1rei. q(40,369969 .152 Dice-music Trio

Musical Times, cix (I968), 911-13, which presents 'dice-trios' attributed to Haydn.
5 Otto Erich Deutsch, 'Mit Wurfel komponieren', Zeilscrl-ift fur Mfusikwissensc/iaJi, xii
(1929/30), 595-
6 Musikalisches Wuirfelspiel, Mainz (Schott), 1956; Ilusik mit Wurfeln, Amsterdam
(Heuwekemeijer), 1957.

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attempting to apply Kirnberger's method to larger forms, which is
exactly what he did; this work produces 36-bar organ preludes for
use by organists in country churches.
Following the Mozart, several treatises which are no longer
extant were published. Of these, the four publications of Antonio
Calegari (I 75 7-I 828) attest to the popularity of musical dice games.
His original Gioco pitagorico was printed in Venice by Sebastian Valle
in I8oI and used Kirnberger's method of composition. The follow-
ing year Calegari moved to France and published a French trans-
lation of his original game, L'Art de composer. This publication received
so much favourable attention in Germany that he then published a
German version, which he dedicated to Josephine Bonaparte. This
was immediately followed by a new dice game entitled Wie die
Wuerfelfallen!, which used three dice. Unfortunately, there is no
clue as to how the three dice were employed.
The last dated dice game other than the second edition of the
Haydn (i 8I2) was Bareme musical (i 8II), attributed to Giovanni
Catrufo (I 77 I-c. I 820). There are several other works which are not
dated. One, a Musikspiel bearing the name of J. C. Graf, produced
marches 'for the piano or other instruments'. This publication is
something of an enigma. On the surface, one would assume that
the composer was Johann Christian Graf, a Mainz musician of
some repute. Graf died about I 745, and Schott did not begin publish-
ing until I770, making this dice game yet another publication of
suspicious origin.
All of these treatises were manifestations of the temperament of
the 'Age of Reason'. The trend was toward explaining all events
through scientific investigation, a practice that depended on new
developments in the fields of mathematics and science. The first
half of the eighteenth century witnessed the publication of such
investigations into abstract concepts as George Berkeley's A Treatise
Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (I 7 IO), Jean-Philippe
Rameau's Nouveau systeme de musique theorique (I 726) and David
Hume's A Treatise on Human Nature (I739). The latter half of the
century saw the cataloguing of information in such publications as
Diderot's Encyclop6die (I 75 I), Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (I 754),
Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique (I 764), Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
Dictionnaire de musique (I 767) and the first edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica (I 771) as well as such scientific landmarks as Benjamin
Franklin's experiments with electricity (I 75I), the beginnings of
excavations at Pompeii and Herculaneum (I 763) the invention of
the spinning jenny (I 770), the steam engine (I 769) and the electric
battery (I 775) and the discovery of oxygen (I 774) and hydrogen
(I 776). The Pascal-Fermat letters of a century before had
developed the first probability theories. From I 7 I 3Jacques Bernoulli
was pioneering permutation and combination theories. The 'galant'
middle class in Europe was playing with mathematics. In this

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atmosphere of investigation and cataloguing, a systematic device
that would seem to make it possible for anyone to write music was
practically guaranteed popularity.
Of the many mathematical theories developed in the eighteenth
century, the dice games were based on the principles of permutation
(re-arrangement of elements) and combination (addition and/or
substitution of selected elements) or ars combinatoria, the systematic
re-arranging of materials in as many ways as possible under given
conditions. In other words, ars combinatoria is the 'art of combining'
a given number of elements in as many combinations as possible and
still have the results meet certain conditions. In music, this can be
translated into arranging the notes of a scale into one bar in such
a way that they outline a certain chord. When several such bars are
placed together, each with a previously specified harmony, a simple
piece results. This is exactly the method of construction used in the
musical dice games.
Ars combinatoria is essentially a mathematical concept, but the
simple, clear, symmetrical nature of Rococo music was easily
adapted to such a concept. Contemporary treatises indicate that
ars combinatoria was not only a potent tool for unlocking the imagina-
tion of the student of composition but was in fact an important and
established method of musical composition in the eighteenth century,
providing inexhaustible melodic material. Francesco Galeazzi
(I758-i8I9) in his Elementi teorico-practici di musica (Rome, I79i-6)
calculates that by using only the eight notes of the octave and the
rhythmic values of minim, crotchet and quaver one can write
620,448,40I ,733,239,439,36o,ooo two-bar figures. The musical
dice games are the embodiment of this concept and as such represent
an extreme example of the marriage of mathematics and music.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF MUSICAL DICE GAMES

Kirnberger,Johann Philipp, Der allezeitfertige Menuetten- und

komponist ['The ever-ready minuet and polonaise composer'],
Berlin (Winter), I 757.
anon., Ludus Melothedicus ou le jeu de dez harmonique ['A method for
melodies, or the harmonious dice game'], Paris (de la Cheva-
diere), c. I 758.
Bach, Carl Philipp Emanuel, 'Einfall einen doppelten Contrapunct
in der Octave von sechs Tacten zu machen ohne die Regeln davon
zu wissen' ['A method for making six bars of double counter-
point at the octave without knowing the rules'], Berlin (Lange),
I 754-78.
Hoegi, Piere, A Tabular System Whereby the Art of Composing Minuets Is
made so Easy that Any Person, without the least knowledge of Musick,
may compose ten thousand, all different, and in the most Pleasing and
Correct Manner, London (Welcker), [I 770?].

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Stadler, Maximilian. Table pour composer des menuets et des Trios a
l'infinie; avec deux dez ajouer, ['A table for composing minuets and
trios to infinity, by playing with two dice'], Paris (Wenck),
[ I 780?] .
Wiedeburg, Michael Johann Friedrich, Musikalisches Charten-Spiel ex
G dur ['Musical card game in G major'], Zurich (Winter), I788.
Haydn, Franz Joseph, Giocofilharmonico, o sia maniera facile per comporre
un infinito numero di minuettie trio anche senza spaere il contrapunto ['The
game of harmony, or an easy method for composing an infinite
number of minuet-trios without any knowledge of counter-
point'], Naples (Marescalchi), I793.
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, Anleitung zum Componiren von Walzern so
viele man will vermittlest zweier Wu'rfel ohne etwas von der Musik oder
Composition zu verstehen ['Instruction in the composition of as many
waltzes as one desires with two dice, without understanding
anything about music or composition'], Berlin (Hummel), I793.
Anleitung zum Componiren von Polonoisen ... , Berlin (Hummel) ,
'793-
Hayn, Friedrich Gottlob, Anleitung mit Wurfeln Anglaisen zu componieren
['Instruction in composing English (contredances) with two
dice'], Dresden, I798.
Fielder, C. H., Musicalisches Wiirfelspiel oder der unersch6pfiiche Ecos-
saisen-Componist ['The musical dice game, or the inexhaustible
ecossaise composer'], Hamburg, i8oi.
Calegari, Antonio. Gioco pitagorico musicale col quale potra ornuno, anco
senza sapere di Musica, formarsi una seria quasi infinita di picciole
Ariette, e Duettini per tutti li Caratteri, Rondo, Preghiere, Polacche, Cori,
ec., il tutto coll-accompagnamento del Pianoforte o Arpa, o altri Strumenti
['Pythagorean musical game by which everyone, without know-
ledge of music, can form a seemingly infinite series of little arias,
and duets for character pieces, rondos, prayers, polonaises,
choruses etc., all to the accompaniment of a piano or harp or
other instruments'], Venice (Valle), I8o i.
,L'art de composer de la musique sans en connaire les elemens ['The art of
composing music without knowledge of the principles'], Paris
(Boudin), I802.
, Wie die Wuirfelfallen! Ein Scherz der Tonkunst, um mit drei Wuirfeln
leicht Walzer zu setzen ['How the dice fall! A musical joke by which
waltzes can easily be composed with three dice'], Brunswick
(Spehr), I 802.
[Catrufo, Giovanni], Bareme musical, ou l'art de composer la Musique sans
en connaitre les principes par J_.A.S.C. ['The musical ready-reckoner,
or the art of composing music without knowledge of the principles,
by J.A.S.C.'], Paris (Colas), i8i i.

UNDATED (eighteenth century)

Fischer, Ludwig, Musikalisches Wiirfelspiel oder Kunst, durch Wiirfel
Kindern (-und auch Grossen!) leicht und auf angenehme Weise die Noten
im Violin- und Bass-Schluissel zu lehrnen ['A musical dice game, or
the art of teaching children (and also grown-ups) in an easy and
pleasant way, through dice, the notes of the treble and bass clefs'],
Weimar (Wentzel).
Graf, J. C., Musikspiel oder Tabelle, unzahlige Mdrschefiir Pianoforte
andere Instrumente mittlest Wiirfel zu erfinden ['A music game
table for inventing countless marches for piano or other instru-
ments by means of dice'], Mainz (Schott).

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Lange, E. F. de, Le Toton harmonique ou nouveau jeu de hazard ['The quick
harmony, or a new game of chance'], Paris (Desoer).
Ricci, Pasquale, Au plus heureaux jeux harmonique pour composer des
minuets ou des contredances au sort d'un dex ['A most pleasing game of
harmony for composing minuets or contredances by a throw of
dice'], n.p. (apparently published by the composer).

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