Live coding treats open-source music as folk tradition — ideas and patterns are borrowed freely rather than owned as intellectual property

McLean explicitly aligns live coding culture with the folk music model: ‘people borrow tunes from each other all the time,’ and free/open source music fits naturally into this. He notes that the concept of individual voice in music is historically recent (Western art music post-Renaissance) and not universal. By contrast, the folk model is communal: a tune belongs to the tradition, not its originator, and variation/borrowing is the norm rather than an exception requiring credit. Open source code reinforces this structurally — the code itself is the ‘tune,’ and forking or adapting it is the folk tradition equivalent. This has practical implications: live coders share code, patterns, and idioms openly, building on each other’s work without the IP framing of the commercial music industry.

Examples

TidalCycles community pattern libraries shared on GitHub. Live coders at algoraves building on each other’s functions in real time. Alex McLean’s TidalCycles functions being extended, modified, and redistributed by the community.

Assessment

Describe two concrete practices in the live coding community that embody the folk music model. Then identify one tension this creates with the Western art music tradition of individual authorship.