ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to serve two primary purposes: to offer a disciplined review of the taxonomy of Smith's music and its unique place in the greater arena of modern music. To expressly affix a music with the label of 'complexity', then, is to make a designation that negates the inherent complexity of musical performance and suggests that the music at approaching universal incomprehension, perhaps. After discussion in journals and at international conferences that were devoted to the subject, James Boros ultimately conceded that a clear definition of New Complexity had still not emerged. In further understanding this attitude and its manifestation in Smith's music, it should first be considered next to an important philosophical belief of one of Smith's former teachers, Herbert Brun. It begins with the theatrical action of the performer constructing the setup-comprised of a woodblock, two small logs, and crumpled newspaper. Smith concludes the portrait of his great-grandfather with an elegy, spoken by the performer.
