not(e) on(e) method

...composing, around these parts,  is less about the production of entertainment goods than about discovery, learning more about the world through sound (and sometimes the absence of sound), an enterprise somewhat akin to science or maths, especially so when one observes— with Feyerabend — that the course of real discovery, from piece to piece, or even within a piece, is methodically less systematic than anarchic, using whatever it takes or whatever is available to go forward, aware of individual predelictions and cheerfully accepting coincidence, rather than simply following a strict research plan NEVERTHELESS this madness called composing has its methods, being employed informally, tactically, according to the immediate cause and context, and these fall into three categories or —better — styles which productively play off against one another, the first being preference (or choice or taste or habit) the second being order (or scale or structure or system or process) and the third being chance (or coincidence or circumstance or contingency) and each new composition is a unique optimization of the relationship between these three...