On Apr 3, 2006, at 6:29 AM, Phil Daley wrote:
At 4/2/2006 10:34 AM, Christopher Smith wrote: >What kind of extremely narrow definition of music do you have that >excludes improvisation from music? Or non-pitched elements? Or >difficult-to-notate elements? Or >inconsistently-reproducible-in-performance elements? Compare it to literature. Is there a great piece of literature that hasn't been written down? How about art? Is the an art masterpiece that is not on canvas?
Who said anything about masterpieces (though yes, there ARE fine pieces of poetry, stories, etc., that haven't been written down; I don't know how to define masterpiece so I couldn't venture there) I thought we were talking about just music?
In any case, your analogy is flawed; literature is communicated by writing it (or by saying it, but if it isn't written down you won't receive it unless you are there) and painting is communicated by paint (notice I redefined art to make your argument stronger, as sculpture is not on canvas, and watercolours are not on canvas). Music, however, is defined by sound, NOT by its written expression, so yes, there IS music that is not written down, even great music.
Didn't we have this argument a year or so ago, and finally settle that the written sheet music was just the recipe for the actual sound, and NOT the actual music? Like confusing a recipe for cake with the actual cake itself.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
