[PD] elitism, software and academia (was GEM FTGL Sadness)

[john saylor]

hi

On 6/7/07, jared <microcosm11 at msn.com> wrote:
> All of the work done (out of love, not money) by the pd community should
> be applauded.  With that said, there is a sense of elitism.

how does this perceived elitism affect your ability to make music? to
learn about digitial synthesis? is it an excuse to avoid the work
required?

i've seen lots of beginner questions answered here- sometimes with
sarcasm, but mostly with patience [and sometimes with both].

> I think academia needs to recognize that there are many composers who
> use computers as a means to an end; who make music with the AID of
> computers; not to make music WITH computers.

this seems like an arbitrary line you are drawing. are you talking
about people who use presets as opposed to people who can generate
their own 'presets'?

and why is academia some kind of measuring stick? in my experience,
academia is not the ivory tower you seem to be implying- it is filled
with people, some more creative, some less creative, some as greedy as
any industrialist you could find in the private sector.

> There is still a rigid
> line that separates the composer and the programmer.

the rigidity is mostly in your mind. composing is very much like
programming. instead of working in perl, beethoven worked with staff
paper [think punch cards]. how is a repeat sign in a score different
than a 'while' loop? how is a fugal theme different than a variable
that gets subjected to a certain kind of treatment?

> What about today's composers who are
> interested in classical compositional techniques and forms, but who are,
> at heart, electronic music composers and want to apply these classical
> techniques and forms to their electronic compositions with the AID of
> technology, yet have no interest in programming?

they are out of luck.

what about someone who wants to perform bach's wtc and has no interest
in learning the piano?

also, as an aside, forget about classical forms: what do *you* have to
say? [although if you want make a career out of being an anachronism,
maybe the academies of the world will support you]

> :-)

:-P

-- 
\js  [ http://or8.net/~johns/ ]