Re: defining the klez

[Seth Austen <klezmusic...>]

on 6/29/01 1:38 PM, Alex J. Lubet at lubet001 (at) 
maroon(dot)tc(dot)umn(dot)edu wrote:

> If you really want to confront this condition head-on, try defining 'music.'
> Then let someone test you on a bunch of examples, using as the criterion
> whether
> or not the folks who made them up consider them music, and see how well you
> do. 
> Unless you're a well-rounded ethnomusicologist, you're probably going to flunk
> every time.
> 
> Even though they're usually contested, I find labels useful.


Eminent composer John Cage once wrote "If all music is sound, then all sound
is music". I have often quoted this to my improvisation classes, just to get
people thinking differently, to get them to think outside set patterns and
scales that they invariably are using.

A few years ago, I wrote this on the board for one of these classes. A
student countered that just because it was music didn't mean it sounded
'good'. A couple of years later this person sent me their first CD. He was,
unfortunately, quite right about this.

Seth

-- 
Seth Austen

http://www.sethausten.com
emails: seth (at) sethausten(dot)com
klezmusic (at) earthlink(dot)net


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