Klarinet Archive - Posting 000565.txt from 2003/07
From: "James Hobby" <jhobby@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] RE: ClarinetFest
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2003 12:24:33 -0400
Well, you did ask. <g> And I preface this with <imo> all the way through.
I think it would be great to have some new rep. to play/hear -- in addition
to the music of the 18th & 19th century. The problem is, in (generically)
modern music, the word "composer" has to a great extent, been replaced by
"technician". MM (modern music) seems to have to follow a formula, which
other generations did, but I feel the soul has been forgotten. MM is
formula for the sake of formula. And some of it is vaguely entertaining.
That's about the best you can truthfully say about it. Like the old joke
about Chineese food, an hour after hearing MM, you feel hungry again for
some "real" music.
MM is rather similar to MA (modern art). We went through a period where
"artists" would pour pain on a canvas and then throw in a bucket of worns,
or make love on it and sell it for art. We went through a period where if
you could draw two straight lines and fill in with three different colors,
you could sell it for art. Most similar to the apparent creation of some MM
is what I call the "flick" period, where the artist would get pain on the
brush, stand back, and flick or spatter the paint on canvas. Is some MM
created this way? Fill a pen with ink and splash it on the mms paper and,
by God, we've got an exciting new composition. It certainly sounds like it
is. Lucky for the artists, there was a sucker born every minute. You
constantly saw the reference made to "one of the most significant artists of
this generation." I don't think significance necessarily equated with
quality, though.
Now, what is the problem? Obviously, there are composers who are quite
capable of writing musical music today. I'm afraid that, to large extent,
the schools of music are to blame, because one person, who has a captive
audience preaches atonal or 12-tone, or whatever it might be, as gospel.
Those students have their values set, with the bar very low.
I actually ran into a version of this last year. The state produced
curriculum requirements for all the classes in the schools. The one for the
instrumental music classes (band) looked like it had been written by one of
the specialists in education that has no idea what music is about. It
suddenly required the students to be taught composition -- one 3-week block.
(That's 15 hours, total.) I couldn't figure out, at the time, why the band
director was doing it, but the kids were trying the best they could given
the lack of knowledge. Their mms was so poor, I offered the use of my
computer and Finale for them to write in, so they could hear what they were
writing, as well. I'd just move to the recliner and let them work. The
twins brought some of their friends over to use the computer, with which I
had no problem. The band director, on every one of the papers turned out on
Finale, wrote "Plagerism is a crime." When I faced him down about this, he
said they had to be copied because they were "too good." I told him, of
course, that they weren't copied; that I saw them enter them -- and with one
exception, were a pile of crap. He, on the other hand, said this was
exactly the type of thing that his college instructor had wanted to
see/hear. I, joined by several very outraged parents, forced him to
appologize in front of the class for the plagerism comment.
So, what do we have? We're stuck with music of the earlier centuries until
we get rid of fads and start writing music that really is music. The
comment by someone else about rubbing the clarinet bell across a drum head,
and the ladies gushing over it, that's like the splash art. It's not music.
It's crap. Many of the compositional methods you suggested have been
generally discredited over the years.
Lastly, it is pointless to program music that the audience won't listen to.
If you have a 700 seat hall, and you only sell 200 tickets, you're not going
to keep the gig very long. Too much of the MM reminds me of a quote I heard
several years ago (I can't remember the attribution): "It is possible for
me to get a manicure by repeatedly dragging my fingernails across a
blackboard. It is, however, not how I would choose to do it." (As I said,
imo.)
Jim Hobby
>From: "Michael Norsworthy" <mnorswor@-----.net>
>Subject: RE: ClarinetFest
>
>Whilst everyone is entitled to their own opinion, I must say that I'm
>shocked by the remark below. Shall we continue playing the same handful
>of pieces at EVERY ClarinetFest? Should the art NOT move forward and
>remain stuck in the 18th-19th centuries? Should composers continue to
>write unintelligent Neo-Romantic crap like so many American composers
>have taken to doing in the last 10-20 years or so? Or perhaps we should
>ask Brittany Spears for a new clarinet concerto...
<snip>
>P.S. I'm sure this will spark many replies... have at it boys and girls!
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