6:48 p.m.
On Mon, 2011-04-18 at 18:34 -0400, Christopher Antila wrote:
Hello:
The following is as posted on Bug 697425.
My response follows here as is there:
Is this theme intended to be standard-issue in all Fedora
installations?
Either way, has anybody thought about the socio-cultural implications of this
particular sound theme? I'm not definitively either for or against this sound
theme, in principle, but the very fact that it is what it is means that we are
likely to endorse it as a good, neutral, positive change for the distribution.
Because musical cultural problems are otherwise likely to go unnoticed, I feel
obliged to stand here waving my arms and pointing at them.
To cut the long story
short. The answer is no! I believe the author of this sound-theme intended it be one of
many sound-themes that will be developed by the musicians and creative artists at Fedora
Sound SIG. It does not represent a default sound-theme for fedora product but an option
different from the freedesktop theme which has been the only theme shipping with fedora
for 3 yrs AFAIK
Here's what I think we need to consider, and I'm being
brief:
1.) Everything stems from the fact that most of the Fedora developers live in
the Western European music culture, or its out-growths that include North
America and Oceania. If we intend to make a universally distributable
distribution, which seems to be the project's intention, then we cannot *just*
let this music culture dominate without deciding that we want it to do so.
2.) Music is not universal. Sometimes, we fall into this trap as a result of
sloppy thought-processes, and sometimes we wilfully mislead ourselves into
thinking that music is universal. It's not, and in 2011, it isn't difficult to
explain how not and why not. There are cultures that use very different music
from our own - many of them unburdened by the artificial distinction between
"art music" and "popular music." When we say that music is universal,
what we
mean is that music has the ability to transcend natural language barriers.
3.) Beethoven is, and historically has been, often constructed as the ultimate
genius. His music, therefore, is very frequently called upon by people wishing
to forward the argument of universality. When we access any Beethoven
composition, we automatically invoke this argument.
4.) Worse still, Beethoven's fifth symphony, which is very obviously the basis
for this sound theme, is one of the most well-known pieces of "classical
music," that is - even more than the ninth symphony - called upon to lead the
"how could you not appreciate this?!?!" charge. By hijacking this symphony, we
add yet another element to the train of thought that holds this work as
"universally good," which represents the universally good composer, the
universally good classical music tradition, and the universally good Western
European tradition that allowed it to develop.
5.) And "universally good" means "superior to every alternative."
Classical
music is also often upheld as one of the supreme achievements of... well...
anything. It may or may not be, but do we want to be pushing this message as
part of the Fedora Project? And moreover, do we want to be pushing it very
forcefully by using Beethoven's fifth symphony? We need to think about this,
and because we're an open-source project, our thought process needs to be
documented for future reference by ourselves and others.
Basically what I'm saying is that, if this is to be the default sound theme
(or even just the first sound theme), then we as a collective Project must
decide whether or not we want to push the Western classical music tradition,
and therefore the achievements of Western society, as superior to the
achievements of all other cultures.
See above answer:
The People at Fedora Sound SIG are basically giving meaning to an
existing and mostly overlooked implementation in the Project. The XDG
sound theme specification has been used in the Project since 2008 but
unlike other aspects of Fedora Project, it remains unexploited by
contributors and end-users. By Contributors I mean those that are not
directly involved in the implementation ... those who probably know
nothing about scripting or programming. Those contributors can be
anybody from any discipline with a good taste of sound and music.
The Beethoven Sound theme is proof of concept -- if you will. It does
not represent the collective decision of the Fedora Project members. It
is to the Fedora Sound SIG like what echo-Icon-theme is to the Fedora
Design-team. Echo Icon theme is not the default icon theme in Fedora
product but contributors continue to improve it. Users have a choice of
using it at its present state. What we should be considering is the
provision of options (which promotes 'freedom' for which the project
stand for). So far, our users have not been that privileged in the
sound event section. That is what the SIG is trying to change and the
Beethoven Theme is their first product.
It follows that no particular culture is being favoured although the
present appear to suggest a preference to Western European Music. A
contributor from a different part of the globe may submit something
entirely different. Its all about options ... and freedom. Later, when
the SIG matures we can start thinking of a theme that the Project can
call theirs == The Fedora Sound Theme.
And for the record, Ubuntu has not, in my opinion, successfully
solved this
problem. They're simply co-opting a generic "African" culture, both with
their
name and with their sound theme, and thereby falling victim to good, old-
fashioned Primitivism. I think, however, that "Microsoft" has solved the
problem.
'Old-Fashioned Primitivism'? That doesn't sound objective -- not
nice
either. If you believe Microsoft has solved the problem then it can be
done, more so, by Fedora Contributors when they put there resources to
it. I see a lot of reasoning in your argument though it doesn't fully
apply in this case. We could use more of your constructive
approach/analysis at #fedora-sound channel (freenode).
Thanks
Christopher.
> Hello everyone!
> I'm glad to announce I've created our first sound theme [1].
> It is based on Beethoven's fifth symphony, processed with audacity
> from a public domain recording[2][3][4][5].
>
> Thanks to Anuj More, Onyeibo Oku, Lennart Poettering and Adir Shemesh
> who helped me in the process of making the theme. And a really big
> thanks to the Fedora Audio Creation SIG, I couldn't have done it
> without you ;-)
>
> Don't forget to visit our wiki page [6]!
>
> [1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=697425
> [2]
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File:Ludwig_van_Beetho
> ven_-_symphony_no._5_in_c_minor,_op._67_-_i._allegro_con_brio.ogg [3]
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File:Ludwig_van_Beetho
> ven_-_symphony_no._5_in_c_minor,_op._67_-_ii._andante_con_moto.ogg [4]
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File:Ludwig_van_Beetho
> ven_-_symphony_no._5_in_c_minor,_op._67_-_iii._allegro.ogg [5]
> https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/wiki/File:Ludwig_van_Beetho
> ven_-_symphony_no._5_in_c_minor,_op._67_-_iv._allegro.ogg [6]
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/Sound
> --
> -Elad.
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