Frank Corcoran

Keep this to yourself ; we´ll issue a combined statement to the effect that history is bunk. Oh yes, I see, but on the other hand , surely, there was once upon a time.
Begin again, he puffing strongly, late 18th. c., cropped, no joke, felt a bit poorly after his recent hanging at the hands of harsh British yeomen.
Consider my Death-bed Argument, sez he. A good art-work is, well, good. A well-made musical composition is good. It is , has to be, good, no matter how it´s performed, whether it´s performed, whether and how it has ever been performed, whether it ever will be played, sung, hung. Its “goodness” is independent of the sum of all its performances, see what I´m getting at ?
Sicut fumus, his dudeen was reddened. ( I couldn´t help thinking, suppose that hempen rope had not broken under the turning weight ? Would his Goodness Argument remain eternally true, supposing it were even true, even if he were not there to utter it ? To have uttered it? – ever have uttered it ? Was his hanging rope good for anything ? Good for him…. )
So, he rumbled on, no stopping, got that ? So you´ll want to do your bit to have written the odd good musical work before you reach the afore-said death-bed. Yours. Whence ” Death-bed Goodness Argument”.
But what is good? I was shy. – Easy, he puffed: your good piece of music announces its initial conditions; then it teases these out to develop the maximum amount of cogent derivates from that initial question, statement, your positing of your musical starting-point. Then you stop. Easy. That is form. Good form. The relations between the parts and etc., we´ll take as proven. A good piece of work. Quod erat. Would you mind getting the cork-screw going?
Good.