information for a dissertation/Charles

[Paul Van Ees]

Joseph Garrett wrote:

> Charles,
> You called this sort of thing "Music", (twice). IMO it's noise. The
> definition of music is ORGANIZED sound. This, (again IMHO), is not
> organized, but simply random sound in an organized framework. IMO, best left
> to the RAPADAPPA group. <G>
> Joe Garrett, RPT, (Oregon)

Joseph,

    You raised an interesting point here. Surely the question of what was music
and what was not has been discussed for many generations.  What with all the
variety of musical expressions we don't even need a generation gap any more to
disagree !
You mention the definition of music as organized sound. Your dictionary may
have defined it as such, but mine ( Webster) mentioned things like harmony,
tone, melody and such. That aside, composers during the last century have used
many unorganized sounds, that is, sounds generated by nature, or machinery, in
random manner, to use in an organized way in their compositions. Think about
Ennio Morricone, who composed filmscores for  the famous "Spaghetti Westerns"
in the 1960's ( such as The Good the Bad and the Ugly). The sounds of raindrops
(falling on my head?) , ocean waves, crickets chirping, a windchime tuned to a
major sixth chord, the squeeking of a sign in the wind, all can contribute to
influence our mood at the time, or trigger memories of times long gone. And
that again, has been the objective in most of our popular music of our days.

Just my three cents worth ( I reckon with the inflation and all that...:-)    )

Paul Van Ees
"Keep the rubber side down "

(That's for the bikers among you ....!)