Donald Satz <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >In the larger picture, rules are made to be broken since they are >originated by humans. If all the so-called rules of music composition >were adhered to, music would stagnate and the creative process would die >on the vine. It depends on the rule we're talking about. If you write - as particularly idiotic advanced composer of my acquaintance once did - a chamber piece which includes an acoustic guitar, the rule which says that you will have a bloody hard time balancing guitar & double bass is only sanely broken if your name is PDQ Bach. Similarly, the rule which states that the line which looks crash-bang-wallop on the score might just go plod-plod-plod in front of an audience is equally uncompromisingly. For these & related reasons, i've always thought that you can talk objectively about technically bad music (in the sense that it fails to achieve aesthetic effects due to technical incompetance - not in the sense of RVW's anecdote about parallel sevenths); but beyond a certain point, you can't talk objectively about good music. Live in peace [log in to unmask] endeavour2 project <http://www.geocities.com/robtclements/endeavour2.html>