Quote:
Originally Posted by Nirvana69
If I made a group of people listen to Mozart's first piano sonata in C Major and then Berio's piano sequenza, most people would probably choose the former. Most people would probably not even call it "music" and just banging on the piano. But there is no objective, unbiased way to argue that Berio's piano sequenza is any less musical than Mozart's piano sonata.
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the problem with this particular example, is that it is at its root, subjective and biassed.
"most people" are not equipped to understand the subtleties required to truly judge music at anything more than a perfectly superficial level.
therefore, you would be creating a flawed demonstration were you to use this particular group of people.
They would not be basing their evaluation of the Mozart and the Berio on anything more than their own previous experience with music, which in most cases will not have included any contemporary music. Add to that, "most people" have the misguided belief that "I like it, therefore it is good". And the corollary "I don't like this, therefore it is bad".
On the other hand, people with the requisite training in music, will be able to differentiate between which aspects of their initial reaction is subjective and based on personal experience, and which are based on analytical process.
If your only goal is to say "people LIKE this better than that", then you succeed with your example.
If you are looking for some objective quantifiable evaluation of the qualities/faults inherant in both of the works proposed, then you are establishing an experimental environment that is biassed and doomed to failure.