To make music means to express human intelligence by sonic means. This is intelligence in its broadest sense, which includes not only the peregrinations of pure logic but also the "logic" of emotions and of intuition. the technics set forth here, although often rigorous in their internal structure, leave many openings through which the most complex and mysterious factors of the intelligence may penetrate. These technics carry on steadily between two age-old poles, which are unified by modern science and philosophy : determinism and fatality on the one hand, and free will and unconditioned chance on the other. Between the two poles actual everyday life goes on, partly fatalistic, partly modifiable, with the whole gamut of interpenetrations and interpretations.

In reality formalization and axiomatization constitute a procedural guide, better suited to modern thought. they permit, at the outset, the placing of sonic art n a more universal plane. Once more it can be considered on the same level as the stars, the numbers, and the riches of the human [mind], as it was in the great periods of the ancient civilizations. The movements of sounds that cause movements in us in agreement with them "procure a common pleasure for those who do not know how to reason ; and for those who do know, a reasoned joy through the imitation of the divine harmony which they realize in perishable movements" (Plato, Timaeus).

( pages 178-9 )

Today's technocrats and their followers treat music as a message which the composer (source) sends to a listener (receiver). In this way they believe that the solution to the problem of the nature of music and of the arts in general lies in formulae taken from information theory. Drawing up an account of bits or quanta of information transmitted and received would thus seem to provide them with "objective" and scientific criteria of aesthetic value. Yet apart from elementary statistical recipes this theory — which is valuable for technological communications — has proved incapable of giving the characteristics of aesthetic value even for a simple melody of J. S. Bach. Identifications of music with message, with communication, and with language are schematizations whose tendency is towards absurdities and desiccations. Certain African tom-toms cannot be included in this criticism, but they are an exception. Hazy music cannot be forced into too precise a theoretical mold. Perhaps, it will be possible later when present theories have been refined and new ones invented.

The followers of information theory or of cybernetics represent one extreme. At the other end there are the intuitionists, who may be broadly divided into two groups :

1. the �graphists,� who exalt the graphic symbol above the sound of the music and make a kind of fetish of it. In this group it is the fashionable thing not to write notes, but to create any sort of design. The �music� is judged according to the beauty of the drawing. Related to this is the so-called aleatory music, which is an abuse of language, for the true term should be the �improvised� music* our grandfathers. Knew.

Comment :   The �graphists� reverse the order of consideration or order of procedure. For a graphic representation of a musical composition to look admirably may be desirable but only insofar as this is being consistently considered as secondary of importance. Otherwise, not only the attempted music suffers. but overall confusion appears.

    �Aleatory� music and improvised music are distinct modes of composition and I do not quite see how come Xenakis was inaccurate on this point. The Greek (his native language) �alea� meant dice, the possible results of a throw conceived by way of a high number but predetermined by the constitution of the dice itself, and any other arbitrarily assumed conditions. In so a fashion have been constructed the numbers of the aleatory music ; the randomity is predetermined.

    What is usually understood by improvised music leaves practically nothing pre-determined ; in practice anything that would be improvised largely depends on the previous experiences of the musician and/or his listeners. (WPT).