Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!umich!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!motcsd!xdos!doug
From: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Newsgroups: comp.music
Subject: Re: What makes a piece of electro acoustic music a masterpiece?
Message-ID: <647@xdos.UUCP>
Date: 2 Feb 90 17:01:01 GMT
References: <20400@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <1990Feb1.074731.19127@intacc.uucp> <21656@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: doug@xdos.UUCP (Doug Merritt)
Organization: Hunter Systems, Mountain View CA (Silicon Valley)
Lines: 17

In article <21656@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> maverick@oak.berkeley.edu (Vance Maverick) writes:
>I would say that it is impossible to talk about what makes *any* piece
>of music good.  Of course, we do talk this way;  we remark on qualities,
>whether timbre, structure, melody, whatever; [...]
> I see no way to get rid of the mystery [...]
> If discussion of music weren't inherently circular, we wouldn't make music.

Reminds me of: "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture."
-- Laurie Anderson.

But I don't agree that such things are unknowable, merely that they are
complex and currently not very well known. It would probably help if
we understood the nature of the mind and emotion better, for instance.
	Doug
-- 
Doug Merritt		{pyramid,apple}!xdos!doug
Member, Crusaders for a Better Tomorrow		Professional Wildeyed Visionary