[r-t] Exhausted search spaces

[Mark Davies]

Mew writes,

> With respect I do not agree in that in pre-computer days, a composer
> would number only his chosen compositions & would not have included
> any ideas which he had rejected. The chosen few would have been
> published & another composer would not have felt intimidated by
> astronomical numbers of compositions which had not been revealed to
> the public.

Eddie, I think you've missed the point of Don's composition numbering 
system. He *has* published all of them. He numbers his compositions (as 
far as I understand it, no doubt he will confirm) in the order he 
produces them, regardless of method or length. So his 5088 Lake Garda 
Delight Major no. 4112 is his four thousand and twelfth composition full 
stop, not his four thousand and twelfth composition of Lake Garda Delight.

No doubt he had hundreds of millions of compositions of Lake Garda 
Delight to choose from, but has only in fact selected and published 
three of them.

Don also gives pretty detailed musical analysis for each composition he 
publishes, which pretty much tells you what he was looking for. 
Admittedly his composition descriptions are not quite as fulsome as 
mine. ;-)

MBD