Bill Pirkle wrote:

>... does a composer really "own" their style?

I should say so!  Most of us can identify our favorite composers' styles
after hearing a few measures.  If we cannot identify the composer, we can
at least get within throwing distance ...

>This seems to fly in the face of the concept of a etude, say Chopin,
>where he was attempting to teach his style to others.

No way.  He was attempting to teach his students some performing
techniques.  He was being a piano teacher, not a composition teacher.
But he did it so musically that the listener can be fooled!  These are
no ordinary teaching pieces.

>The artists in the impressionist movement used the same style, so did the
>cubists.

You mean you can't tell a Debussy from a Chopin? Oi vay.

>Is music any different?

 From what? Art? Cubism?

>I would think that composers would be flattered that they were able to
>teach others how to write music.  We all learn from each other or as Sir
>Isaac Newton said, "If I have seen further than you [Robert Hooke] and
>Descartes, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants".

Somehow I doubt that the really great composers were thinking about
teaching while they were composing.  It's a very wild guess, of course.
Who can tell what another person is thinking while he is in the act of
creation?

>For me (and my composing software) writing a great sonata, that may sound
>like Beethoven, is little different than writing variations on someone
>else's theme, which comes much closer to stealing, begging the question,
>"Why don't you compose your own theme and write variations on that?".

Your composing software will NEVER sound like Beethoven.  Why not start
composing Pirkle and get on with your own expression? Beethoven already
said what was on his mind in his great music.  You can only ever hope do
a pale imitation of Beethoven.  You will produce a Burger King instead of
a chopped sirloin.

Do you think Brahms was stealing when he took the Haydn theme and glorified
it, or that Beethoven in his many sets of variations (See Diabelli, for
instance) was stealing? Words fail me.  I DO NOT AGREE.  I think you are
missing something quite wonderful in music and all I can do is hope that
you are very young and will have many years left to catch up on your
listening.

>As I have said before (on this list, I think) The only question concerning
>a piece of music is "did you enjoy hearing it, and would you like to hear
>it again sometime".  What else matters?

I'm sure that many of us could make long lists of what else matters.

>Reasonable men may differ

Reasonable women would, too.

Mimi Ezust