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On the naming of things | The Journal Of Music. The naming of cats is a difficult matter,It isn’t just one of your holiday games…T. S. Eliot How do composers find their titles? What does a title do? What is a good or bad title? Composers don’t always find time to reflect on titles for pieces. And sometimes it shows. First, what were generic titles? The generic title is extremely unfashionable right now, so this is why it is a good time to consider the subject of naming. I have no idea where or when the rot started, but now you can’t just get by with a generic title. In fact, the composer has a number of identifiable patterns to choose from. If your music is technically inventive itself, then it should turn out that you can still put a musical, or at least technical, feature into the title.

A whole essay could be devoted to Xenakis’s titles alone: he had quite an ear for the sound of words, and he usually found a really good reason for the title. Celebration of a fellow artist (or scientist) brings us to the dedication/homage type.

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