Page 58 - The Revolution Will Be Automated

W.A. Mozart was a virtuosic explorer of

the space of classical music. Time and

again he identified complex musical

states (concertos, symphonies, etc.) of

astounding beauty and resonance that

have since become landmark states in

the classical space.

Mozart inspired many others to explore the

same space, but he did not change the space.

Later musical theorists such as Arnold Schoenberg changed and

enlarged the space of Western music in radical ways, much as Albert

Einstein transformed science’s Newtonian conception of space and time.

Einstein’s transformed space allowed physicists to find a solution to

Mercury’s odd orbit, having failed to find a solution in Newton’s space. Is

Schoenberg’s music better than Mozart’s? Let’s just agree it’s different.