Re: good intentions

["Dennis Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

This is a wonderful discussion...

> Rest assured fellow listers, I am trying to let this go before anyone
feels
> irritated or patronized.

... so long as we don't get irritated or feel patronized!

> In reaction to the suggestion that *the world is not Black & White;
rather,
> it is Grays, Blacks and Whites*: I pointed out that the world IS made up
of
> Black and white; and gray is one of the results. To illustrate this I 
>said
> something to the effect of, Gray, in itself, doesn't exist. Someone made
the
> excellent [if slightly sarcastic] analogy- - - *Aha, so Water [hydrogen
and
> oxygen] doesn't exist? Only hydrogen and oxygen*.
>
> Water would not exist were it not for either hydrogen or oxygen. Oxygen 
>is
> not dependent on either one for it's existence. Nor is hydrogen.

I think this analogy has out lived it's usefulness.  I could point out that
*white* doesn't exist.  It's actually all colors and black is the absence 
of
any colors.  Then somebody might point out that that's true only for light
and not pigments.  And somebody else might say, "But we left out 
ultraviolet
and infrared!"  and did I hear somebody yell, "Quarks!" and before you know
it, we're talking about modern physics (or chemistry) instead of music!
(Does *deconstruction* always lead to science?? :)

As a dangerous side-side-topic:  Some languages have a small number of 
words
for colors.  I understand that the minimum number of color words is three.
And they're not black/white/gray!  Instead, they're black/white/red.  The
idea is that red represents blood, life, etc.  Intriguing, eh?

Besides, isn't all language a metaphor?  And what does that make music?

> I have three old churches near me, and about once a month, they will ring
> their bells at the same time- quite by accident [a funeral, a wedding, an
>. . .

I really enjoyed this story!  I'd have liked to see the "light go on" in 
the
listener's eyes!

> But did I compose this song? I think not. The notes were there, and you
can
> hear *Help Me Rhonda* if you want- - - but *creation* would involve me
> choosing some of the timing or gongs. There would have had to have been
SOME
> *intention*. This is Not a definition of what a *music* is- it's a
> definition of what *creating music* is. Like the Gray/Black/White thing;
it
> would be easy to think that I am saying that *Help Me Rhonda* doesn't
exist.
> . . .

I see conventional composing as quite an intentional activity.  I agree 
with
you regarding, "But did I compose this song? I think not."

I suppose that even Cageian (sp?) activities such as rolling dice to select
parts for a performance is *intention*.  After all, it IS a selection
process.  We might call the composer's judgement into question but not
his/her intentional efforts.

I like your distinction: "This is Not a definition of what a *music* is-
it's a definition of what *creating music* is."  But I'm not sure that all
music is *created* in the sense of *composed*.  In a nutshell, I'll say 
that
I believe all *composed* music is intentional (or willful) but all music is
not *composed* music.

Dennis Leas
-------------------
dennis@mdbs.com