On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM, Fons Adriaensen<fons@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > He's not saying that musical creation should be restricted to a > small number of predetermined people. But de facto, like all > artistic endeavour, it is a minority activity, We may all be > potential great composers or artists, but most of us do not > exploit that potential, just look around. Maybe 10% of the > population is capable of producing anything that would be > regarded by the remaining 90% as music they'd want to listen to. > Less than 1% could do something that would survive a generation > and become part of music history, Although I don't disagree with anything you've written here Fons, I feel compelled to note that there is a purpose to artistic creation that has nothing to do with creation "for others". When we encourage children to paint or make music, we are not doing so because we believe that their work will have meaning for others or illuminate some aspect of the human condition. At least, that wasn't why I encouraged my daughter to do so, and its not why I encourage her now with her cello playing. When I started writing audio/midi software 11 years ago, it was originally with a goal to providing the tools I wanted so that I could make music. Over time, I realized that I am a really stunningly mediocre musician (even that is putting it a little kindly), and its much more productive for me to use whatever skills I have as a programmer creating tools for others. BUT ... I still attempt to create my pathetic little pieces of sound not out of any delusion that they will last beyond the end of next week but because the *process* of creation is intensely satisfying even if the end result is almost certain to be disgarded. the problem with the "democratization" of music production is, IMHO, not that most people shouldn't be engaged in it - they should. the problem is that the same processes that have led to this "democratization" also seem to have led everyone who can rearrange loops in garageband to believe that they are creating work worthy of exposure to others and *this* is where they are mistaken. they should be enjoying themselves, deeply immersed in creating mediocre pieces that nevertheless bring some pleasure and meaning *to them*. i remember eno describing the hundreds or thousands of demo tapes he would get at one point in his career, and noting that people didn't seem to realize that for every piece he ever released, he worked on "hundreds or a thousand" other pieces that he discarded because they were crap. his allusion was clearly that most of what we all produce is crap, but that shouldn't stop anyone from engaging in the process. we just have to find a way to get people to understand how the difference between making music for others and making it for yourself. there is no shame in either. _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user
