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What about the much publicized
“infinity of possibilities”
in connection with the new art material of electronically produced sound?
With few exceptions “infinite possibilities” has meant collages
of organ
burbling, rubber suction (indecent, this) machine-gunning, and
other—this
is curious—representational and associative noises more appropriate
to Mr. Disney’s musical mimicries. Not the fact of possibilities, of
course,
but choice is the beginning of art. The sound lab is already a part of
the musical supermarket, however. (Especially in the field of publicity.
The structure of a new piece by Xenakis is advertised as having been
“worked
out on the IBM 7090 electronic computer” as though that were a guarantee
of quality.) . . .
Igor Stravinsky
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