Bill Pirkle replies to Peter Varley's questions:

>>2) that, if there is, it can be written by a computer;
>
>I think that my software can write CM that one could not tell that it was
>written by a computer.

Only because minimalism has happened.  I've heard the pieces on your
website.  They don't seem to me like "normal" classical music (it doesn't
sound like Beethoven, even though you used a Beethoven theme in one of
them), although they could very well be the product of a minimalist like
Glass.  But the question is really whether I could tell it was written by
a computer.  Probably not, but that's a long way from liking the music.
There's lots of human music I don't like as well.

>>3) that "the CM community" (if there is such a thing) can act in unison.
>
>Yes, there probably is such a thing and I'm sure that there are a list of
>things that they could agree on.  I have searched in vain for those things
>in the time that I have been on the list.

Hmm.  There's seems to be an internal contradiction in the above paragraph.

>- Music must not create boredom and must be pleasurable to listen to.

Music alone doesn't create boredom.  Boredom arises from the encounter
of a human with music.  In short, the human decides whether something
is boring.  One fellow's yawn is another's roller coaster.  Also,
"pleasurable" in what sense? If you like a piece, it by definition
pleases you.

>- Musical compositions are built upon musical themes (melodies if you
>prefer) which must be more than a series of random pitches and durations.
>The themes must have some musical interest or merit.

Again, musical interest or merit is determined by a listener, not
necessarily by the person or entity that put down the notes.  Furthermore,
I believe that humans seek patterns even in the random - look at the (so
far) fruitless search for pattern in the decimal approximations of pi.
That's both the good and the bad news:  a computer generating sounds in an
as-good-as-random procedure may still produce a work meaningful to someone.

>- Boredom normally results if the composition is the mere playing of these
>themes over and over.

Depends on the theme.  I happen to love "Bolero."

>- This boredom can be prevented if these themes are varied by having them
>played by different voices (instruments), in different keys, at different
>speeds, with different rhythms, and in different tonalities.

In all the cases you cite (except possibly rhythm), the theme is the same.
Beethoven and Mozart, for example, vary their themes significantly in other
ways.

>- This boredom can be further prevented and interest aroused if these
>themes are "developed" by breaking them down into their constitutes parts
>and playing these parts by themselves.

And recombining those parts in new orders.  But I'm glad you said "can be."
I've listened to music by minor and major leaguers who did all those things
and the music bored the earwax out of me.  Again, the listener determines
what's boring.  Boredom does not inhere in the piece.

Steve Schwartz