I just watched a commercial for a product by a company I’d never heard of before. The slogan was “why do you think we ‘re number one worldwide?” “Probably because you have the monopoly in the PRC,” I thought.

Recently I have been scanning over some articles and papers on contemporary music composition. There is an ongoing debate about the relative merits of “glitch” music (as typified by Max/MSP generated pieces) and more traditional instruments and compositional techniques. Kim Cascone writes in Deleuze and Contemporary Electronic Music:

Within the genre of post-digital music there are some composers who are heavily influenced by and explore the work of Deleuze [such as the German experimental label, Mille Plateaux]. Their work is often contextualized by essays and liner notes which often appear cryptic and unnecessarily intellectual to some listeners. Establishing any philosophical framework is seen as putting distance between the music and the listener thus creating a barrier to entry by asking the listener to accept the premise that the music can only really be understood by placing the experience within a philosophical framework.

The result is a tendency to resist intellectualizing post-digital music and this contributes to the lack of aesthetic discourse—a quick scan of some of the email lists concerned with new forms of electronic music will bear this out.

I enjoy music composed to provoke thought and to draw attention to its particular intellectual context. However, my choice of music to listen to is usually more driven by thoughtless epicurean pleasure. When I try to write I feel the need to make sophisticated and rational choices. The products of this process tend to be minimalistic pieces that are well-conceived but often not terribly entertaining. When I improvise for fun, it’s all about syncopated rhythm patterns and non-trivial harmonic combinations, which do more to delight on a sub-conscious level. I hereby make it my compositional goal to always strive for music that satisfies on both counts (like Bach, Reich, and Fitkin).