> Sure, I have no problem with that. My complaint is with extending the
> meaning of Musical Instrument to include anything that could make a
> sound, thereby removing any signficance from the term.
So remove it. Players of the Gamelan have no word for 'musician' as
everyone does it. It's like having a word for someone who breathes. I
fail to understand why you think that you can only make music from
musical instruments. After all, this is what you are saying.
> > > Frank Zappa could make music out of absolutely anything; are the
> > > stoner mumblings and "snorks" heard on "Lumpy Gravy" musical
> > > instruments?
> >
> > Of course!
>
> Well there ya go. Shouldn't musicians have the artistic freedom to
> use things that aren't musical instruments in their compositions? But
> as soon as they do, your automatically expanding defintion of musical
> instrument instantly subsumes those things, immediately defeating the
> composer's very wishes. That's not right.
It isn't? How do you know what the composer's wishes are? If the
composer wants to make music by recording the sound of him eating
cornflakes, it's music. If he wills it to be music, then that is what it
is. Whether you -like- it or not is down to you.
> Can't a painter use things that aren't paint on a canvas? Sure. But
> as soon as they place, say, sand on the canvas do you immediately
> expand the defintion of paint to include sand? Of course not.
That's a weak analogy. The first 'painters' didn't use paint at all. Why
do you find any importance on labelling the component parts like this?
> > > You can play back an exact copy of a sound of a proper Musical
> > > Instrument yet the exact copy is not a musical instrument.
> >
> > That is -breathtakingly- wrong. Aside from anything else, is that not
> > the way a Mellotron works?
>
> Nah, the Mellotron doesn't provide an exact copy of the sound of
> another instrument, for that you'd get a digital sampler. The
> Mellotron contributes its own musical process and its own musical
> qualities, which is why we like it so much.
That really is the most frightful baloney, Don! What you are saying that
only ∗rubbish∗ or ∗lo-fi∗ samplers can be classified as musical
instruments! Better throw away your Fairlight, Norm; you've just wasted
your money.
Mike Dickson (
tron@...) M400 #996
The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
Streetly Sample Library
http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/