[LAU] Re: That must suck. For me it's about beauty -- musicisjustone path

Ivica Ico Bukvic ico at vt.edu
Wed Apr 4 14:28:42 EDT 2007


> > pattern with cognition. But even if we consider cognition as a point of
> > contention, the machinery has a purpose and a role and as such its
> > manifestation is not meaningless at all.
> 
> It is different because a human being is listening to the drumming and
> choosing what sounds pleasing and what does not.  A single rhythmic

This is all about psychoacoustics. What is pleasing/musical to me may not be
to you and vice-versa.

> vibration in a piece of machinery is one thing, but rarely does a
> factory have one machine.  And the machines are generally not tuned to
> each other nor adjusted to make more pleasing sounds.  I suspect the
> average factory worker would be fired if he changed the settings on
> machines in order to compose music with them.

This is taking an example out of context and as such does not have much
bearing on the original argument.

> There is a fundamental difference between listening to something and
> learning to find value in it, and listening to something and changing
> it to make sounds in which you find value.

Well, if you need a blatant example, how about recording the noise of
machinery and then manipulating it in one of the 1500+ audio applications
Linux scene has to offer?

> There is a pretty well-developed science behind how people recognize
> pattern in what they hear and experience emotions in response to it.

Yes, and it is called psychoacoustics. I teach this to my students every
year...

> What is traditionally referred to as "music" didn't exist by accident;
> sentient animals create it according to their experience, which means
> there is a reason we respond to it.  It was not just one of the many
> ways to arrange sound, it was the one that drew people's attention.

Why "traditionally referred to"? Music has been always referred to this way
and will always continue to be referred as such. This is why our modern
times music is different from that written 150 years ago. Industrial
revolution changed our perception of music and sound, while political,
social, and cultural turmoils of the ensuing globalization have destroyed
whatever little idealism was left during the Romantic era.

Ico





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