Jan Templiner writes:

>Taking Don's thoughts only one step further, all rules are worthless,
>because ultimately man-made.  Life would end up in anarchy.  This of
>course includes music.

I didn't say that rules are worthless.  There are many rules I live by,
because I choose to do so.  However, I can't expect others to live by my
rules, only by their own.

An organized society lives by laws which are enforceable.  The way I
see it, any really important rule needs to be a law.  The parallel fifths
rule simply isn't significant enough to be put into law.  So, composers
can do as they like as can listeners.  I'm just trying to be practical.
We already have zillions of laws on the books; how many rules do you want
to add this gigantic number of laws? I simply favor the smallest degree of
restriction on human freedoms.  This also applies to music of any category.

>Do we really want music without rules?

For the most part, I'd have to say yes.  There is a process at work.  Let's
asuume that I am a student of music; I learn music history, compositional
techniques, the playing of various instruments, etc.  Once I've graduated,
I have the entire spectrum of compositional possibilities in front of me.
Do you really want the artist to have restrictions placed on his/her
creativity?

Schoenberg, Scriabin, and others did not adhere to the rules; they blazed
a new path of musical expression.  Sure, most folks don't like the routes
they took, but that's not the issue.  They were free to take any routes
they wanted, because rules are not enforceable.  By going their own way,
these composers have enriched the diversity of music at our disposal.  We
have other composers who have tended to take the traditional routes, so
there's plenty of variety for all listeners.  I hope nobody on the List
would want me to have to put up with 20th century music all of the ilk of
a Hanson or Williams; that's not what I want.  However, if we all obeyed
the rules, that's pretty much what I'd be left with.  As an example, the
Friedrich Cerha string quartet disc I'm currently listening to would never
have seen the light of day.  Although I still have trouble understanding
Cerha, I treasure the opportunity to fail or succeed.

Having said the above, I think it's a good thing that we have folks who
hate rules and those who think highly of them.  This creates a nice balance
for society and for music.  Put it all on a graph, and the two lines
hopefully intersect at a point which we all can live with.

Don Satz