Klarinet Archive - Posting 000199.txt from 2004/05

From: "Dan Leeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Rossini Variations
Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 15:24:02 -0400

A really excellent and objective analysis. I congratulate you
for articulating your thoughts on the matter.

One point: formulaic writing is part and parcel of what is often
referred to as a composer's style. Mozart was a very formulatic
composer, so was Beethoven. You'd go crazy with a composer who
changed styles with every other composition. Besides, a formula
has several beneficial effects: (1) you can write faster; (2)
your style becomes recogniziable and you become known; (3) people
can make a living writing about your style.

As for Charles Ives, if he had a style, I'm still looking for it.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Allen Levin [mailto:alevin@-----.net]
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 11:11 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] Rossini Variations

I'll explain it this way (in the present tense, only, to save
words):

Both have considerable natural talent.

Both have the ability to turn out great quantities of music on
demand.

All of their music sounds like all of the rest of their music.
There never
seems to be much genuinely new material.

Most of their music sounds "made to order" from a list of
formulae.

All of their best music is of short duration, the themes are
mostly
self-contained and not susceptible of intellectually challenging
development. (Ironically, Rossini is best known for a small part
of one
overture, when he hoped to be remembered for the rest of that
opera. Williams is best known for the theme from Star Wars. He
has
written some things that attempt to have more development: but
they fall short.

To mangle a metaphor, their music is not found in the wading
pool; but it
is definitely found in the shallow end of the swimming pool.

Allen, I've puzzled about this comment for a couple of days.
Did you
>mean more than just that both of them wrote for 'musical
theater' (I
>include film as a type of 'musical theater') in addition to
other forms
>of music?
>
>
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