--- On Wed, 3/17/10, Lorenzo lsutton@libero.it wrote:
From: Lorenzo lsutton@libero.it Subject: Re: [PD] Pd, Max/Msp, Reaktor, Plogue Bidule... How do these compare? To: pd-list@iem.at Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 9:03 AM
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I guess this comes up frequently in 'computer-based' music discussions. I think it depends much on the type of music/artistic project/vision you have... I find making the instrument for the music extremely fascinating and much related with the musician's nature... I recently found an article (unfortunately it's not publicly available online but it's on Jstor music) of 1980 by Gareth Loy with the title 'The Composer Seduced into Programming' which I guess is pretty explicative as a title per se. I will only cite a small piece from the beginning of the article where he is explaining the title which I feel pretty close to: "It is important to note just what the seducing agent in these cases really is. It is certainly not carpentry or programming, or we would have ceased as artists and become tradesmen. It is really the will of the composer, expressed through the discipline of the art form itself which, in all cases, not just the ones under discussion here, causes the artist to stray into these seemingly distant fields."
It certainly could be true in all cases, but think about how inclusive the phrase "the will of the composer" must then be. The preface to Satie's Choral unappetizement comes to mind-- "I have put into it all I know about Boredom"-- plus many others that unfortunately aren't so tongue and-cheek about it.
-Jonathan