Re: [microsound] the great depression of experimental music?

[Owen Green <o.t.green@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Praemedia wrote:

> Couple of problems with that. First being that you
> contradict yourself. Music cannot be both 'available'
> and 'ephemeral' in the long run. Talking over
> generations here. If it is ephemeral and easily
> disposable it is less likely to survive and therefore
> eventually WON'T be available. 

This goes for the vast bulk of music ever produced. Music is intrinsicly 
ephemeral - one has to go to some lengths (notation, then recording) to 
make a /representation/ of it available. So the ephemerality 
(?-nessnessness) isn't going anywhere, so to speak.

Music flourished quite happily prior to becoming archived by either 
notation or recording.

> The second problem is that if music is left to be
> 'ephemeral' then we are doomed to make the same bad
> music for the next thousand or so years as we'll have
> no history to build from.

The fact that notation and recording allowed musical techniques that we 
wouldn't have otherwise have had available doesn't establish that the 
result is any 'better' than what would have been produced if something 
different had happened.

> Part of progress is leaving
> behind a residue called 'history' for people to
> reference.  

That, again, presuposses a value in modernity for its own sake.

'History' is embedded in our culture anyway, so music production will 
reflect it intrinsicly.

That said, I've got a massive record collection, and I'm pathetically 
and unashamedly attatched to it, and to the idea of it growing.
















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