>I usually think of fade-outs as a cop-out, but that made me consider there can be more craft & artistry to it than I'd considered. I'm not sure this argument

>I usually think of fade-outs as a cop-out, but that made me consider there can be more craft & artistry to it than I'd considered. I'm not sure this argument is entirely convincing, because 'fading' (be it acoustic or analog-electric or digital) is not incompatible with a traditional, more explicit ending. On the contrary! The diminishing, whisper quiet ending is one of the most effective techniques in classical music, and intelligently varying the presence of your instruments and/or singers is an essential ingredient for high quality orchestration. ----------------------- Some concrete examples: Ligeti - Musica Ricercata No. 7 (1953) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmuK8Wtux6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmuK8Wtux6Q Simeon ten Holt - Palimpsest for String Septet (1993). This one kind of starts out as a fade but then ends more abruptly, which i love! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSX-TK_8Y90 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSX-TK_8Y90 Philip Glass - Violin Concerto (1987) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owf8tk1MdPM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owf8tk1MdPM Dvorak - Piano Quintet Dumka (1887) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SInKlybxgQw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SInKlybxgQw ---------------------- The fact that fades and explicit endings are not mutually exclusive is, I think, rather important: the implication is that (IMHO) very close to 100% of fade-out songs can be greatly improved by adapting those techniques our Classical friends showed us.