Interesting CMJ editorial

[Wayne Jackson <waynej@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Just in case no one else has pointed this out already, I wanted to share an
interesting article/editorial by Stephen Pope of the Computer Music Journal
which just discovered at the CMJ website:

http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-journals/Computer-Music-Journal/CMJ.html

This article dates all the way back to 1994, so please forgive me if these
topics have been thoroughly hashed out at some earlier time...

This editorial attempts to open a discussion on what makes for "good" and 
"bad" electro-acoustic/computer music, and some of editorial and reader 
responses are very well articulated.

The following quote by Pope raised a topic which particularly
interests me:  "It is both a both a blessing and a curse that the new
instruments
of electroacoustic music (and modern recording studio technology), have 
allowed many composers who are not schooled in the classic/romantic
Western music tradition [I think this describes me--WJ] to create 'serious' 
musical works.  This has, however, lead to many compositions that bring up 
the 'question of musical structure'-pieces where listeners ask the question 
of what 'good' musical form is, and how 'musical dramaturgy' is different
from 
'theatrically-structured music.'  I would contend that there is indeed a 
fundamental difference in how listeners perceive structure, repetition,
time,
and thematic development in theatrical vs. musical forms...[etc]"

Drama is one of my own criteria for 'good' music (which definitely
categorizes
me as a "theatrical" listener).  There are certainly unlimited musical means
by
which a composer may build drama into her work, but I can generally discern 
when little or incompetent effort has been made to do so.  An aesthetic
question
that I would have for other electronic/computer music composers is:  Do we 
have an artistic responsibility to make highly subjective musical narrative 
obvious to objective listeners?  In other words, does the collective "good"
really 
matter to an artist?  This question plagues me, as I root around in acoustic
attics 
and create hours of odd sound that few people seem willing to listen to.

I would be very interested in hearing from others if they think the question
of
computer music aesthetics has moved beyond the points brought up in this 
editorial.

-Wayne
wayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.mp3.com/LaterDays
--Boundary_(ID_H7FGlNY/qp72rmOh504Gyw)
Content-Type: message/rfc822; Name="New MP3 Csound Catalog"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit