[microsound] musical structure

[Adern X]

On Wed, 16 Sep 2009 18:32:42 -0500, a Bad Day on the Midway, David Powers <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't think any of those theories include culture and semiotics,
> without which one could not understand, say, the music of Gustav
> Mahler or Charles Mingus. 

The problem is: you have to define two semiotic interpretation: one for
the music of Mahler, one for Mingus and so on. Music have not an
underlying grammar like normal language that is stable. The grammar
change during time too much.

> In fact I find Xanakis and Roads to be
> useful but extremely limited theoretically in terms of understanding
> music in general. Both concentrate on very narrow, particular subsets
> of musical practice rather than providing any kind of account of
> musical practice in general. 

I believe musical practice can be defined only on historical basis
i.e., if you want to provide any kind of account, you have to descrive
Xenakis music like Bach's but they don't even share their notation.

Hi,
A.X
-- 
 (     mailto: adern at libero.it		           http://www.xevor.net
 ))
|""|-. http://www.myspace.com/adernx
|__|-' "Boredom is the mother of creativity" (Ron Arad)