About two aspects OF MUSIC (one of which I call AMBIANCE, and the other, DRAMA):

We use the word AMBIANCE customarily to denote the atmosphere, the tone/flavor/mood, even the overall impression, evoked by an environment or setting.

SOME SOUND EVENTS, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS ambient music, REALLY DO FUNCTION AS A SPECIES OF SONIC CARPETING, WALLHANGING, BACKDROP, OR EVEN AS FILLER. Beyond the choice of sounds for the setting, the DRAMA happens elsewhere - perhaps in what the listener brings to the sounds, and/or in such conjoining activities as dance / theatre / film / whatever.

I EXTEND THE MEANING OF THE WORD ambiance TO REFER TO, in practical terms, THE SONIC PALETTE - meaning such elements as INSTRUMENTATION, OVERALL TEXTURE & DENSITY, TEMPO, ORCHESTRATION, RHYTHMIC PATTERNS AND TENDENCIES, PITCH/TONAL TENDENCIES...all of these aspects that make an impression, but don't on their own convey drama (they could just be some nice, decorative sounds, or the wind blowing through the trees, or the hum of the refrigerator or...).

every soundscape evokes an AMBIANCE. often, the most immediately recognizable facet of A musical genre, or of a style, is its AMBIANCE (RADIO DIAL SURFING IS A CLEAR WAY SEE THIS ASPECT IN EFFECT);and, if a person's listening settles at thE scale of a soundbite, that might be all one notices.

JOHN CAGE POINTED OUT THAT ANY SOUNDS, AS "sounds in themselves," MAY REWARD MUSICAL ATTENTION. however, sounds become MUSICAL as a listener recognizes DRAMATIC TENSION in the relationships AMONG sounds.

WHEN SOUNDS SHOW EVIDENCE OF attention, intention, extension; ONE HEARS THAT people are involved AND THAT CHOICES ARE BEING MADE. oNE LISTens differently because THERE'S A STORY TO HEAR.

One hears the CHOICES along with THE SOUNDS; and CHOICE IS DRAMATIC because it's a gesture of DETERMINATION in the context of what otherwise appears to be INDETERMINATE, unknown, unpredictable.

THIS TENSION, this give & take push & pull dialogue BETWEEN COMPOSER AND SOUND, is the primordial, archetypal, tone of the aspiring-playful PROTAGONIST HERO in relationship with WHATEVER THERE is TO contend with.

That's drama.

...and this is why music gets INTERESTING: what's that person doing? what's that person gonna do? how? WHY? who? AND SO FORTH...ITS HUMAN INTENTIONALITY (and concurrent uncertainty)---somebody MEANS to do this. This MEANS.

A listener feels this intentionality so ROUTINELY (as this ambiance pervades all music - with varying degrees of emphasis) that it's distinct personal humaness often may barely be even thought of .

Back to AMBIANCE and DRAMA: ambiance can be considered as the effect of sound, whereas drama is the impact of the weave of human decision (i.e. composition) among sounds.

I LIKE ALBERT MURRAY'S PHRASE antagonistic cooperation (in The Hero and the Blues) FOR THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN protagonist AND obstacle, where obstacles (as resistance is necessary to the emergence of any form) PROVIDE THE HERO WITH THE opportunity to extend beyond "routine conceptions and achievements."

CONTINUED at compositions4--cooperative_antagonism