- Some music is composed or “invented” by a composer and the sounds are produced by a (group of ) musician(s) and people are listening to the music. Handel ‘Largo’ – The London Symphony Orchestra
- Some music is invented and produced by a musician or a group of musicians, for listener(s). God bless the child Eric Dolphy
- Some music is made by the audience for the audience.
- Some music is not invented, not produced as music, but is heard by somebody.. Is this music?
- Some music is not perceived.
This list has a connection to teaching and learning. (Is teaching an Art or Applied science?)
Music is a selection of sounds, a choice from all possible sounds. John Cage’s 4’33 is an example of this.
What would happen if we made software (maybe it does exist somewhere) to select sounds in a clever way. The software selects sounds with help of some rules and clever heuristics.
If the sounds were played by a computer would that be music?
If we did the same trick with software to write a novel, with help of smart heuristics, analytics of masterpieces of literature. Would the result be literature? art? a story? Would the computer beat the ape / monkey?
Theodore Roszak (‘The cult of information, the folklore of computers and the true art of thinking’, New York, 1986) does not believe computers are thinking machines. Processing information is not thinking. Thinking, creativity, dreaming, fantasy, are humane processes, and Roszak expresses fear we will forget the differences between thinking and processing information.
image: Master of Female Half-Lengths [Dutch Northern Renaissance Painter, active ca.1530-1540]
