Sometimes, of course, my narcissism, which asserts itself even thought I can see through it, has a hard task persuading itself that the countless composers of music that can only be understood with the aide of diagrams and whose musical inspiration remains wholly invisible to me can really all be so much more musical, intelligent and progressive than myself. I frequently find myself unable to repress the thought that their system-driven music is not so very different than the false notes arbitrarily introduced into the neo-Classical concertos and wind ensembles of the music festivals of thirty or forty years ago. Musicians are usually truants from math classes; it would be a terrible fate for them to end up in the hands of the math teacher after all. The speculative artist above all ought to cling to the vestiges of common sense which would remind him that music is not necessarily more advanced just because he has failed to comprehend it. It may indeed be so primitive and uninspired that he failed to consider it an option in the first place. This explains why the products of laborious mindless are sometimes not seen through at the outset. Because the musical material is intelligent in itself, it inspires the belief that mind must be at work, where in reality only the abdication of mind is being celebrated. .

Adorno, Vers une musique informelle, p. 269-270

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It is as if a Falco tinnunculus whispered in my ear: Adorno.

And so it is to Adorno. The final essay in Quasi una Fantasia--the prophetic Vers une musique informelle.

Tell ya what I'm a gonna do! When Adorno writes Vers une musique informelle I'm going to put This Music--Dixon's oft used term for the (improvised) music that, beginning in the 60's, supplanted Jazz as the premier art music of the day. As the story unfolds, you'll see why

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"...musical materials intelligent in itself..."

It is like those 'spam poems.' Random crap churned out by machines for nefarious purposes getting read as poetry. (That they are getting read as poetry is the nefarious purpose.)

Spam. It has a life of it's own.

Spam music? Random crap churned out by machines for nefarious purposes getting heard as music? (That it is getting heard, and that it is getting heard as music are the nefarious purposes.)

The difference being that music (sound) operates on the aesthetic and physical planes (at least.)

Would you agree music and sound is a little more invasive and direct than words?

copyright,  © 2007 Stanley Zappa

for information on Stanley Jason Zappa's collaboration with Wyatt Doyle, STOP REQUESTED, click here. 

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