ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Alan, Eric, All,
May I add to the mix John Cage's assertion that music is a succession of sounds and the composer the "organizer of sounds." (Do birds 'organize' their vocalizations? I'd say so.)
Traditionally, music has been thought of as a communication of feelings, but Cage argues that all sounds have this potential for conveying feeling in the mechanical and electronic sense. As he puts it in the essay "History of Experimental Music in the United States": "Debussy said quite some time ago, 'Any sounds in any combination and in any succession are henceforth free to be used in a musical continuity.'"
Jamie
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Friedman
Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 10:51 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Another One Bites the Dust
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Loved Eric's rebuttal. I'd like to offer another rebuttal, from a different direction: the logic of the marketplace and the lexicon.
What is music isn't only a possible scientific question, or even only a musicological question. Music is what people define as music by being willing to pay for it under the label of music. Now if you pay good money to go to a concert containing Respighi's hugely popular "The Pines of Rome," you get to hear a recorded nightingale as a central part of the music, some might say as the featured part. So the nightingale's vocalization is regarded as music in the marketplace. QED.
Plus a great deal of what is universally recognized as music is inspired by, and makes use of, sound phrases from birds, as diverse as Stavinsky's Le chant du rossingol (the Song of the Nightingale) to Maria Schneider's grammy-winning big band jazz compositions. I happen to know and love Maria's work because she is a fellow member of the administrative board of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. She calls those sounds "bird songs." QED again.
Cheers,
Alan
________________________________________
Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D.
Consultant for Museum Development and Science Communication
29 West 10th Street
New York, New York 10011 USA
T +1 917 882-6671
E [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
W www.FriedmanConsults.com <http://www.friedmanconsults.com/>
a member of The Museum Group
www.museumgroup.com <http://www.museumgroup.com/>
>
***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to [log in to unmask]
***********************************************************************
For information about the Association of Science-Technology Centers and the Informal Science Education Network please visit www.astc.org.
Check out the latest case studies and reviews on ExhibitFiles at www.exhibitfiles.org.
The ISEN-ASTC-L email list is powered by LISTSERVR software from L-Soft. To learn more, visit
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html.
To remove your e-mail address from the ISEN-ASTC-L list, send the
message SIGNOFF ISEN-ASTC-L in the BODY of a message to
[log in to unmask]
|
