Klarinet Archive - Posting 000741.txt from 1996/02

From: niethamer@-----.BITNET
Subj: Re: Real music? Anti music
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 1996 22:19:11 -0500

The following appeared in my mailbox:

> The listserve is to discuss clarinet related items.

Well, yes, and presumably the listserv of 70 years ago would have decried
the discussion of jazz, as it didn't relate to the clarinet and real
music. Today we need to have that discussion to understand the influences
on Copland in his Clarinet Concerto (to use just one KLARINET related
example).

My point is, whether we like it or not, popular culture influences the
music of the future, and we remain ignorant of it at our own peril.

> Take your favorite rap tune, eliminate the words and try humming the
> melody.

Take the "Rite of Spring" and try to sing me the melody?!? Take any one
aspect of this work and try to justify its 40 minute length?!?? I think
one of the successes of this work is that the whole is greater than the
sum of the parts.

I believe John Roman needed melody, harmony, rhythm, and form to have
"music". But last I checked, no one in authority was measuring for equal
25% presence of the components in order to declare it music. It's not
quite as rigorously scientific as labeling food "low fat"!

> Closed minded,
>
> Mike Moors

Ready to learn about anything related to music (however tangential),

David Niethamer

p.s. now Minimalism - there's "anti-music" - let's not discuss it!!