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Re: [microsound] aesthetic approach



On 11/2/01 4:59 PM, Mark Khemma @ mkhemma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

>  there is music theory in its
> classical sense that people can talk through, but with the dawn of new
> sound tools, it seems that there should be a new dialectic being formed.

A lot of "ideas" and "approaches" from the traditional classical (or jazz or
pop for that matter) music are still applicable to the new music (be it
experimental or otherwise).  A concept of form, a concept of tension and
release, a concept of "harmonic" (not in literal sense, although a lot of
post-modern, digital, analog/digital etc music still uses tonality,
modality, harmony etc) movement, counterpoint, rhythm, meter etc etc are
still valid guides for aesthetic decisions.  Things like stating a "theme"
and developing it in some way throughout the piece is still a valid
approach.  Not the only one but still...

So, some composers who have some kind of music training will take (perhaps)
these aspects into consideration as an aesthetic issue.  I am not talking
about applying the same principles that you learn in school but the logic
behind those "classical" principles.  Then everything else is pretty much
taste and your cultural, academic, social background that makes you decide
what ideas you want to develop, keep, reject, forget about etc.  I don't
think there's a way of making music that will apply to many people in the
same way.  As with any other creative activity it's on a very personal
level.  Like, why do you choose this particular shade of orange for painting
something (that probably isn't even orange in real life)?  It could be just
an impulsive decision, it could be an accident, it could be an urge to
deliberately use an "impossible" color just to be different etc.

The music definition (if such thing exists) will never change so I don't see
a need for a new dialectic.  Essentially music consists of sounds organized
is some particular way within a certain frame of time.  And it's this
organization of those sounds (and often the sounds themselves, without
excluding their organization) that makes music identifiable.  So music
theory is relevant in a discourse concerning music but one has to keep in
mind that theories evolve.  And although a theory could be an only aesthetic
guide for someone it doesn't need to be so necessarily.

../MiS

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