It gets far more limited, "copycatting" becoming de riguer, when you use intervals that are mostly within a key, repeated, and, basically, pleasing. Continual octave jumps or long passages of chromatic scalar moves eliminate certain of these extrapolations...they just don't sound good. Also, don't forget transpsosition. Using 12 to the 10th, you end up with melodies repeated in different keys. Happy Birthday is Happy Birthday, no matter what key it is in. Plus, a passage that is only one or two notes different from another may be considered functionally the same. If I sing Happy Birthday 1 1 2 1 4 3 2 1 2 1 5 4 (2 1 2...instead of 1 1 2...) and try to use that melody, it will get shut down in a court (though this doesn't "count" mathematically, it certainly makes that and any "close" melodies unusable). It's a lot more limited than what you get when you run variables.

We were told in college that as of the 1930's, a few monophonic measures worth of melody were already used. I have no reason to doubt that. The question there is, does the listening audience's ear get attuned to enough dissonance to allow the grand shuffle to continue?

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music