Klarinet Archive - Posting 000118.txt from 2003/09

From: Bear Woodson <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Missed all the Fun
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 04:02:56 -0400

Hello, Klarinet List.

In the last few weeks of being busy with a lot
of composing, transposing, and editing, if looks
like I missed all the fun. I got flamed by the
so called "scholarly" duo or Tim Roberts and
Danyel Franke again.

It's no secret that I've been studying Music
Theory of the 18th, 19th and 20th Centuries, plus
Music History and Counterpoint of the 16th, 18th
and 20th Centuries, on and off for 30 years, and
hold Master's Degrees in these areas. This includes
hearing lectures and having private composition
lessons with several famous, award-winning com-
posers. It's also obvious to scholars of these topics,
that EVERY word I've ever said and written about
these things are all facts.

Those things that I've said that refer to music
over 50 years old, are readily verifiable in text
books, universities and libraries worldwide.
Things that I've said about newer topics, like
Modern Compositional Techniques and the
"Chromatic Functional Modality Harmonic
Language", that have only been invented within
the last 50 years, are often not yet written down.
But at least these things can be explained, and
show that they do make sense.

Isn't it an amazing coincidence that MOST of
what Tim Roberts and Danyel Franke have written
against me and about Counterpoint, Music History
and Music Theory, are verifiable as NOT true! If
anyone wants, I can easily re-print the entire text
of their childish rants, because I save the headings
of all the Instrument Lists to which I subscribe,
and some of the articles. (I also saved the vulgar
E-Mail that Tim Roberts sent to me privately, that
proves that he knows that what he is saying is
neither valid, honest, nor fair.) Here's a sample of
their genius one of their rants on the List weeks
ago:

> Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 12:29:11 +0200
> To: "Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
> From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?ferengiz=E2de_
> dani=EAl_shawqy?= <rab@-----.de>
> Cc: <klarinet@-----.org>
>
> Moreover, please try to think about whether
> you really have to write this kind of 16th/17th
> c. music for an instrument that was conceived
> in a very different period for a very different
> kind of music. Why don't you write your
> retro-fugues for viol consort, lute or virginal?
> Danyel Franke

Anyone who knows Music History well should
be rolling on the floor, laughing at this glaring
stupidity by now! Danyel Franke has confused
Renaissance Era "Consorts of Viols" with Baroque
Era Fugues! Those "Viols" were bowed FRETTED
instruments, that were replaced by the Violin Family
more than 100 YEARS before the definition of the
"Tonal Contrapuntal Fugue" that J.S. Bach wrote,
had solidified, around the time of Bach's birth in
1685. Poor Danyel Franke knows even less about
Music History than he does about Counterpoint. .
. . and that's hard to do!

Neither Tim Roberts nor Danyel Franke state it
precisely, but it sounds like they both think that
Fugues were ONLY written hundreds of years ago,
and never since. HOW can they NOT know of the
MANY 20th Century Fugal Works in MODERN
Harmony?!?!? Some have even won major awards
in the last few years! One of the most famous and
controversial of fugues is:

THE GEOGRAPHICAL FUGUE (circa
1920's) by Ernst Toch (1887-1964)! It doesn't
even USE melody. It is done in German (and
later in English) RAP!!! Yep! It uses SATB
SPEAKING the rhythms of Geographical
Places! (Some people call it 1920's "Weimar
Rap"!)

The nice thing about Counterpoint is that it is
very a black and white issue: it's either on the page
or it isn't! Although it takes years of practice to
write Good Counterpoint that flows lyrically, it
takes very little to recognize the melodies by ear,
and see it on the page, to know that it really is a
certain type of Canon, Single-Subject Fugue, or
Double, Triple or Stretto Fugue, or not.

Of J.S. Bach's hundreds of Fugues, during the
45 years or so, that he was composing, he only
wrote THREE Triple Fugues (confirmed by Bach
Experts), and SIX Stretto Fugues, that I can find.
In the last 3 years I've written 2 Triple Fugues
and, in the last 4 months, 11 Stretto Fugues. Every
Counterpoint Scholar that I know finds this excep-
tional, but to Tim Roberts and Danyel Franke, it
simply isn't good enough! I'm also one of the few
people in all history, to have an Entire Dissertation
written about themselves, Before becoming famous,
and that also isn't good enough for them. I guess
we should alert the media and universities, and
have them change the standards by which all the
Music History and Counterpoint texts are written,
to please our Resident Maven Duo!

Perhaps the next time that these two make a
feeble attempt to commit International Liable, it
might be less obvious and self-debasing if they
had a clue as to what they were talking about.

In addition, here's something for all List mem-
bers to think about, that is a flaw with most of the
public:

Most people accept J.S. Bach, Hindemith and
Mozart as geniuses on the word of experts, since
they don't have the expertise to know WHY they
are geniuses for themselves. If you had met them
in their lifetimes, and they said that they had
written a certain sonata, fugue or concerto, would
you call them a phony? Now ask yourself if you'd
believe them, or insult them, if you met them Before
and After they were famous as geniuses? Now ask,
WHEN did they become geniuses? Were they all
idiots until the paparazzi declared them as geniuses,
and they were magically transformed into geniuses
at that moment? Or weren't they geniuses when
they wrote their works, which, for some composers
was years BEFORE they were famous?

Isn't it the precise definition of Bigotry, to pre-
judge that the Only composers who have merit, are
already famous? And yet many people think this
way. (I've had this conversation with many people
for years. Most people have pulled this kind of
Bigotry on all the inventors, composers and achievers
of history. The public feels that if they can't under-
stand it at first glance, then it must be trash; but his-
tory proves the opposite to be true: that things are
mediocre if they can be understood well immediately,
and innovative things of merit always take more time
to learn to appreciate.)

Whatever merit my music does, or does not have,
it hardly hangs on the words of hecklers, whose
every word exposes the emptiness of their pretenses
to expertise. Isn't it interesting that EVERY Expert
in Both Counterpoint and 20th Century Harmony,
have all been impressed with, and liked, my music?!
The problem is that most of my works, like those of
all scholarly composers, require experts to both play,
and follow the Counterpoint and Music Theory, in
them. I've written very few works for Beginning
Players, but even those use 20th Century Music
Theory.

Meanwhile Tim Roberts and Danyel Franke, who
have never seen my scores, nor heard one note of
my music, apparently feel so threatened by, and hate,
my music, that they continue to slam it. How can this
not be Bigotry?

So far, everyone who likes Shostakovich, Bartok,
Hindemith, etc., and Modern Jazz, have all liked my
harmony, because the Harmony is the mostly the
same, only the Styles are different. It has been no
surprise that the same people who hate those styles,
hate my harmony, too. (Sounds fair to me! Especially
since all of my friends, who visit me in person, are all
fans only of Rock or Country / Western Music, and
therefore hate all Classical Music, including mine; but
it never hinders our friendships. I call that maturely
accepting the Right to Choose, and I doubt that Tim
Roberts and Danyel Franke would ever understand
that.)

So WHY do Tim Roberts and Danyel Franke
keep embarrassing themselves, by opening their
mouths, and saying stupid things, the further
prove the falsity of their expertise? I don't know.
Got problems?

Bear Woodson
Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA

"Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
Bachelor's in Music Theory & Composition from:
Arizona State University and
California Institute of the Arts, Dec. 1977
Full Fellowship at the Richard Strauss Conservatory
under Dr. Peter Jona Korn 1979-1980
Master's in Music Theory & Composition from:
Arizona State University, May 1996
Nominated in Spring 2003 for:
Arizona Governor's Arts Award and a Pulitzer
for the patriotic "Fanfare for the Fallen Heroes
of the September 11, 2001, Attack" Double Fugue
http://www.fluteconnection.net/
Then click on "Contemporary Composers",
then click on "Bear Woodson".
http://catalog.lib.asu.edu/search/a?SEARCH=McGale

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