Re: (OT) Music

Dirk Elzinga scripsit:

> I've listened to a lot of Xenakis in the past, and I confess that he
> doesn't do much for me. Perhaps I'm not experienced enough in his
> idiom, or maybe his music is just crap. I'm not willing to make that
> judgement, though. I'm glad to hear that his music does reach someone!
I will argue, indeed, that value judgements like this are not and cannot be
founded in anything objective: they reflect only the history of taste, or
at best the subjective judgments of practitioners in the field about what
is useful/interesting and what is not.  True criticism begins in what we
call "uncritical", but rightly should be called pre-critical, appreciation;
its end product is not value judgement, but comprehensive understanding.

--
John Cowan <jcowan@...>     http://www.reutershealth.com
I amar prestar aen, han mathon ne nen,    http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
han mathon ne chae, a han noston ne 'wilith.  --Galadriel, _LOTR:FOTR_

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