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Discussion of class readings

Class discussion

Laws

  • Human biology based. Things we cannot change because they are based on how our brains work
  • Things we cannot change
  • transcends cultural bias
  • based in physics or acoustics, these are not up for argument

Rules

  • Things that we do to make music fit into the laws
  • These depend on style and culture
  • Listener expectations help inform the rules
  • guidelines for a musical style

Strategies

  • Which rules to composers like to follow and break
  • Play with your listeners expectations
  • Providing surprises makes music interesting

Tendencies

  • another word to describe strategies

What are we really studying?

  • Function of music
    • How music is structured is only the first level of understanding
    • How one structure relates to others is the goal of this course.