Klarinet Archive - Posting 000565.txt from 2001/11

From: Richard Bush <rbushidioglot@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] A few facts about scary avant-garde noises
Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 17:05:21 -0500

Dear Bill,

I can't comment on whether or not modern music is not as good, because I haven't
spent enough time evaluating it.

Little time is spent on educating future generations on listening skills and
prepping them with an historical context of what they're listening to. (The
first part must be first before presenting any historical context.)

Pitiful music education is a blem or speck of dirt on the melting iceberg that
is slowly melting. Education in general, and music education specifically, are
totally challenged by too little money, and maybe by, the skewed priorities of
boards of education that were also poorly educated and pander to local
constituents, etc.

Who can know or appreciate the beauty of a Mahler symphony or the brilliance of
a Charley Parker or John Coletrane lick if they haven't been given the listening
skills to form an opinion or make a judgment?

Making everyone's life richer musically is always our collective effort.

Bill Hausmann wrote:

> At 12:33 PM 11/16/2001 +0000, Virginia Anderson wrote:
> >Thank you kind sir, she said. I recall a foreword to a medieval theory text
> >of perhaps the 15th C. (the part that is all "Deo Gratia" usually) in which
> >the writer was insisting that some composer (can't remember who) was still
> >worth a listen, despite having written his masses and motets some forty
> >years previously. In other words, our forebears would dismiss music as "so
> >last week" and wanted new stuff. And while older music was played in the
> >19th C., it was thought that Alkan's emphasis on Bach rather than newer
> >works in some of the come-back concerts he gave in his final years was
> >another sign of his eccentricity. And yet people think it's normal not to
> >like recent music.
>
> The question is, is modern music unappreciated because it is simply not as
> good as what came before? Or is it the pitiful musical education and lack
> of exposure to good music the average person gets nowadays that leaves
> him/her unprepared to accept anything but the simplest harmonies,
> etc.? Personally, I think it is a combination of both.
>
> Bill Hausmann bhausmann1@-----.com
> 451 Old Orchard Drive
> Essexville, MI 48732 ICQ UIN 4862265
>
> If you have to mic a saxophone, the rest of the band is TOO LOUD

-- Richard Bush
Bassoon Reed Maker

---------------------------------------------------------------------