Re: [microsound] arranging & the like

[Michal Seta <mis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 10 May 2003 08:20:32 -0400
Kurt wrote:

> 
> > Formal design is probably the most
> > difficult aspect of music making and requires the most study,
> > listening and experience, providing you want to avoid following the
> > usual forms:  AB, ABA, ABA'A, sonta form, rondo and the various
> > incarnations of song forms.
> 
> could be than it's overly harsh to say "you want to avoid the following
> usual forms -- "....maybe healthier to understand these forms well before
> discarding them. 

I did not mean that one should avoid this or that formal structure.  Given the fact that a lot of music since the beginning of the 20th century moved away from traditional formal structures and that the original poster seemed to want explore forms beyond song form, I assumed that he might be interested in other ways of structuring his music.  I did, however, elsewhere in my post, encourage studying all traditional forms prior to discarting them.

>(also, avoiding sonata form should be pretty easy if you
> don't know what it is, because it's complicated enough that it won't happen
> "by accident"....actually, i'd love to hear some microsound that really did
> adhere to the sonata form!)

Well, if I wildly simplify, sonata form is nothing else than A-A'-A if one considers the use and development of musical material.  In that respect, it shouldn't be too difficult to find microsound following this model.  But this is an oversimplification.  There are certain rules regarding tonal centers which are hard to follow if one writes non-tonal music.

Also, _everyone_ knows 'Moonlight' Sonata (Op.27 No.2) by Beethoven.  It is a model that's easy to follow (even accidentally)..

> 
> the success of a piece of music isn't only about its degree of formal
> organization. a better yardstick might be the degree of composition vs
> improvisation (or expressive gesture). the most interesting music usually
> has a balance of both.

The success of a piece of music is about the 'hook'. :)
Formal organization is, hopefully, both a help and a challenge to both the composer and the listener.  Otherwise, I don't really understand your statement about the yardstick.  Is "the degree of composition vs improvisation" something we can measure?

> 
> personally, most algorithmic music feels under-composed. it lacks
> predictability and variation of its basic premises.

This is because people just throw together a couple of random number generators and, hopefully, some simple, but clever, algorithm to somewhat filter out the output and they call it 'algorithmic'.  I have however heard some very interesting algo music.

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