14!= 87,178,291,200. Or, 87 billion possible14-note
melodies
(with NO rhythmic variations and no note repeated).
With notes repeatable, it's 11,112,006,825,560,ooo (or
11,ooo trillion)!
Many more if we can have shorter than 14 note melodies
(or longer).
b) Now,
include note durations.
Minimum available: Eleven.
14 x 11= or, (number of notes times the possible durations of
each note) =154 choices.
Calculating154^14 (i.e., 154 times itself 14 times) = Number
of melodies with varying durations of melody notes, i.e., WITH a
rhythm, or:
= 4,220 [+27 more
zeros]
-- which is a number too large to have a name, sometimes called
googillion by astronomers, or (my
term),
Godzillion.
Again, HUGE numbers more if we count melodies shorter or longer
than 14 notes, or melodies with non-scale tones ("blue notes,"
et al).
Imagine: AT LEAST 4 thousand
godzillion 14-note melodies still available to be written!!
And probably thousands of times more than that. Gadzooks!!
This is NOT COUNTINGblack notes (sharps &
flats)NOR the various possibilities for harmonizing the 14-note
melodies.
Now: The number of 14-note melodies with varying durations of melody
notes, i.e., WITH a rhythm AND allowing the melodies to
include
about 10% sharps & flats:
= 801,000 [+27
more zeros],
or, 800 thousand godzillion! 200 times
more!
...Still NOT counting harmony choices or longer or shorter
melodies.
But enough!
With all things included, EVEN discounting 99% of them
sounding awful, the number, even reduced to a conservative 8,000
godzillion, probably exceeds
the
number of atoms in the universe [give or take 6 or 7 atoms].
