"I want to be original like everybody else," a very ironic, yet important point to make. Originality is a long and circular argument, the answer to which is of personal opinion. It is said that copying from one person is plagiarism, yet copying from many people is original. This brings up the point of true originality. Is anybody truly original? Is it not true that what we create, or our ideas, have been structured by our education and life influences? I take that example of composer Eric Satie. Although a talented pianist, his theoretical knowledge of composition was very basic, but this is what it made him popular and more importantly, original. Because he wasn't influenced by as many other sources, which are what most composers are, his music was mostly based on his ideas, not the ideas of other people. So is it fair to say that originality comes from innocence. Another poignant question posed during the forum was to do with computer music. Is music made by computer parameters original? Most peoples', including my own, first answer to this question would be no. However, although I do believe that the music itself is not original because of the parameters, I do believe that there is an originality to the programmer’s way of analysing the music. The originality is now shifted from the music to the analysis and the subsequent programming. People hear and analyse music in different ways and this difference in analysis is what makes these pieces original.
Is it possible to be completely original? As i stated before, we area all influenced by many outside factors, such as our education and the people that we surround ourselves with. These influences affect the way in which we think, we grab ideas and ideals from all these people to make us what we are in the present moment. Could you go so far to say that we as people are so conditioned and completely influenced by things other than ourselves, that our existence is not original? We are Frankensteins of people. I know that this is extreme, but the principle remains the same. Can we take originality this far?
The main thing that i learnt from this forum is that originality is a matter of opinion and is based upon many things. But what i can say is that the more original of ideas come from purity (lack of influence) of thought and mind.
1 comment:
Doug, I agree with your point on computers writing music, at first I kind of thought 'can't be original',but then considered just how different is that from show a young kid two or three scales, giving him a pile of say Slayer records to listen to, and then asking him to write a song. Odds are it would sound similar to Slayer??????
Bradley
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