Klarinet Archive - Posting 001375.txt from 1998/07
From: "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com>
Subj: RE: RE: [kl] some modern music is just trash to me
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 15:14:03 -0400
Please note the word "some" in the header.
I appreciate how tastes change over time--heck, I even like to eat
vegetables now--but there is some of this stuff that will never be
"appreciated" as art because it's not.
There is much stuff written today that will be deservedly filtered out--like
the piece (of excrement) I "played" 2 years ago in which I was instructed to
strike my clarinet with a drumstick. (Please note that the "composer" was
very explicit--a wood block wouldn't do, as he wanted the audience to
"visualize our anger" as we stuck our actual instruments. The sound was
irrelevant. I am not making this up.)
I play a lot of new music. My orchestra has won a number of ASCAP awards
for featuring new music--we have premiered 50 works by Northwest composers
in the last 10 years. Some of these pieces were outstanding, but not all.
Some of this stuff is excruciatingly bad--and time won't do anything but
make it stink more.
-----Original Message-----
From: George Landis [mailto:George@-----.org]
Subject: Re: RE: [kl] some modern music is just trash to me
May I remind you that many of the works that we regard as masterpieces were
lambasted as the equivalent of "avant (sic) garbage" when they were composed
and/or originally performed? The Rite of Spring, Wozzeck, Pierrot Lunaire,
Tosca, Symphonie Fantastique, much of Mozart's and most of Wagner's work,
are only a few that come to mind.
This is an argument that can never be won by either point of view because
you, as the listener, cannot determine whether a given piece will stand the
test of time and make it into the literature. You can only make a decision
based on your personal tastes, educational experience, life experience and
point of view as to whether a particular work is appealing to you at the
moment.
I have many acquaintances who professed to hate Peter Grimes and Billy Budd
by Benjamin Britten when we first heard them in the 1960's and who now
regard them as beautiful and important works. My professors at college grew
up thinking Prokofiev and Hindemith were revolutionaries, which seems a
quaint notion now.
Likewise, the Lutoslawski Dance Preludes were considered quite an avante
garde work when premiered and are now considered by most to be tame examples
of modern music.
An open mind and a willingness to experience all music on it's own terms is
called for, I believe.
Regards,
George Landis
>>> "Kevin Fay (LCA)" <kevinfay@-----.com> 07/30 12:21 PM >>>
In school, we referred to that stuff as "avant garbage."
kjf
-----Original Message-----
From: David C. Blumberg [mailto:reedman@-----.com]
Subject: [kl] some modern music is just trash to me
Mary Sotnik wrote:
>
> > >> Certainly, there are some forms of music today that are really bad,
> > >
> >
> > Which forms are 'bad', and won't the people who really like these forms
be a
> > bit upset when you tell them? :-)
>
> ----------------------------------------------
> Craig Earl Countryman
==========================================================
This is my response to the above statement.
My soapbox is with some of the extreme modern atonal pieces that composers
pass off as works of music. Experimental junk to me. I was listening to a
Violinist (an upper Chair in the Phila. Orch.) discuss his dislike of
modern, atonal, classical music saying that it alienates the audience, and
is pushed by a very small, but very forceful, loud spoken group. (I'm
speaking of the later stuff, past Boulez Domaines, past Smith 5 pieces) I
heard, or at least sat through some of that at ClarFest. The Larsen that
was performed - I like. Some others, I had to endure listening to them.
There are lost of contemporary pieces that I like, but a lot of them you
CAN hum on the way out of the concert hall (without sounding psychotic)
On a more positive note, one of the highlights of ClarFest for me was
hearing the Concerto by Prinz played by Howard Klug. Nice piece(to me).
Sure I'll get flamed, but oh well, I spoke.
David Blumberg
reedman@-----.com
http://www.sneezy.org/clarinet/Music/Blumberg.html
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