ABSTRACT
Having undertaken an inquiry into the materials of music, how they have been and may be enlarged, a treatment of our responsive capacities, and various comments on the transmission of intent, an overview may be possible. Is the availability of an unprecedented range of sounds and a more comprehensive insight into the mechanism of human response leading us toward new structures for aesthetic experience, or does form remain somehow above influence? At first thought, it is easy to see how analogous, if not identical, forms and functions can be served by substances that differ as radically as do the stylistic allegiances of the artist. The clay of the ancient jmon potters of Japan, Michelangelo’s marble, and the welded metal that served Giacometti all illuminate the individual human condition, although occasion, perspective, and scale are widely divergent. What serves to divert one age may be approached reverently by the next, or conversely. In examining morphology-the patterns of formation and structure in aesthetic experience-my intent is to uncover any fundamental shifts in attitudes towards the forming process as well as changes in the resulting form.
