The Logic Off Topic list

>When John Cage grabbed a pair of dice to "compose" his music, that 
>surely wasn't composing by anyone's definition.  And granted, I 
>wouldn't want to play those records :-).  Still, what he did was 
>extremely important and has liberated many composers from the rigid 
>19th century ideas on what "composing" means.


Cage had a piece that was complete silence for 4 minutes. Recently an English 
guy made a CD and made one track of silence for a 1 minute (as something of a 
joke and as separation from the main songs and the bonus material). The 
family of Cage are suing him for royalties for this 'composition' claiming it 
is a 'quotation' of Cage's piece. I would claim that this is 'traditional 
folk music' ... indeed, silence existed before mankind. 


>Last remark: about being able to play a composition on guitar and 
>have the "idea" survive.  Take 90% of the "classical" compositions of 
>the last 50 years...  Immediate breakdown of your definition :-). 
>Even a simple piece for prepared piano can't be played on any other 
>instrument and still have its idea survive, I think.


The key term is MUSICAL IDEA. I have two CD's of Prokoviev's Romeo and 
Juliette - one the full symphonic version and one on piano only. I can fully 
recognize both as the same musical idea - albeit the piano reduction is 
simpler. On the other hand, Schoenberg, being a big fan of Brahams, took one 
of Braham's piano pieces, and made it into Brahms "fifth" symphony. In the 
same way, Bono's recent doing of T.Rex's "Children of the Revolution" is 
instantly recognizable.