Chaos?

Today was another rehearsal running through small points in the Debussy with great precision. These rehearsals are tiring - happily this is the last such sectional. We will be working on technically easier pieces at the next rehearsal, so should be able to play though works.

One of the difficult aspects of "La Mer" is that it has to be played quite precisely, with fast licks that still have to be airy and key signatures (how many flat or sharp notes) changing at the drop of a hat. This tends to be a more prominent aspect of music composed as the 20th century arrived and after. Works by earlier composers such as Bach, Mozart and Beethoven have more predictable structures from one measure to the next. Both approaches create wonderful music, but for some the music of the Baroque, Classical and Romantic eras sounds less chaotic.

I looked up chaos, and found that most dictionaries define it as a condition of disorder or confusion. The question is, for any musical work, can it be chaotic unless the listener arrives with some pre-conceived assumptions about what it should sound like? I don't think so.

There is a body of music theory that can be used as framework for educated discussion, but in the end the world at large doesn't define whether a work of music makes sense. The final edict is given by listeners. That is probably the good and the bad news for a composer.