The Music of Tan Dun

In our class we have often discussed what it means to "compose" a piece of music in different contexts. In the Western sense, composition implies some sort of organized musical notation, usually on staff paper. However, much of the music in the Eastern tradition relies on composing and sharing orally. As technologies have developed over the years, the approach to music, both in the East and the West has changed significantly. Tan Dun, in a recent composition entitled "Internet Symphony No. 1 "Eroica," has utilized the increasing interconnectivity of the internet along with "Mash-up" technology to create a new kind of composition, one comprised of many individual video recordings of musicians from all over the world into one work.

Tan Dun is the first composer to pursue a project like this, and his success has effectively set off a social and cultural bomb in the music community and the world a like.

Here is the final product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC4FAyg64OI