source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 00:42:33 -0800 Subject: Re: Tail Wagging the Dog? From: Daniel Wolf I like to use the terms _speculative theory_ and either _music analysis_ or _descriptive theory_ to distinguish the creation of potential musical resources (both in terms of materials and relationships between materials, i.e. ''systems'') from the hermeneutic enterprise of describing and interpreting existing musical works or characterizing attributes of repertoires. On the other hand the _ prescription_ of musical formulae, which is what is generally taught as ''music theory'', and consists essentially of giving algorithms for making variations on existing pieces is possible only as a consequence of the speculative and analytical modes and such ''recipes'' are hardly theory. Naturally, the speculative and analytic enterprises are at their richest when they are not strictly separated. Most new musical resources are found as creative consequences of rethinking existing musics, and new models can often refresh our ways of listening to or performing music. Modeling new compositions on historical models - as is done in most theory courses - is a perfectly reasonable and useful exercise so long as the student is aware that the technique in hand for the exercise is but one of several possibilities for imitating the model, and that the student is encouraged to explore as many techniques as possible. Someone has said that theorists fall into ''lumpers'' and ''splitters'': those that look for grand schemes that explain everything in one fell swoop and those who seek as many alternative explainations as possible. I fall firmly into the latter category, as I feel it better fits with my experience of music as one constantly changing with my own perspective and with the richness of the musical materials themselves. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 14:43 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA20464; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 14:43:30 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA20466 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id FAA19639; Fri, 28 Mar 1997 05:41:38 -0800 Date: Fri, 28 Mar 1997 05:41:38 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu