Klarinet Archive - Posting 000326.txt from 2005/02

From: "dnleeson" <dnleeson@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] composer's intentions
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 2005 15:27:29 -0500

I'm not sure that the issue is how well or how badly the artist
did it, though I think you meant "the creator."

I see it as a question of intellectual property rights. The text
of a Shakespearean play is not casually alterable. The libretto
of a DaPonte opera is not causally modified. The statue of Venus
di Milo should not be covered with a hoop skirt. Such things are
culture clashes of uncertain value and not authorized by the
originator.

What these creators left us is some that they defined and
created. We have no idea what their reaction would be to
alterations to it. And thus, we cannot make conclusions that
arbitrary changes would be gratefully accepted by the originator.
That is simply unmitigated hubris and collosal gall. It is not
dissimilar to the British view that the savage Africans needed
their help to achieve civilization. It is not dissimilar to the
American view that the native Indians could be displaced and even
murdered. That my ideas about how to present a piece are better
than the originator's is not an acceptable basis of argument.

It is, in effect, a presumption that we know more about how to
present a creator's conception that the creator did. That may be
true but we have no way to conclude on it.

Dan Leeson
DNLeeson@-----.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Ormondtoby Montoya [mailto:ormo2ndtoby@-----.net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2005 11:10 AM
To: klarinet@-----.org
Subject: RE: [kl] composer's intentions

Dan, it seems to me that this discussion always comes down to the
issue
of "Did the artist do it well?"

Thus a sloppy moustache on Venus de Milo may be ugly and may
deserve the
most severe criticism; but a well-drawn moustache in a surreal
style
(say, by Dali) might have been an artistic success.

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| Mon Feb 21 - still 63 donations short of the goal. Nothing |
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| costs a couple of bucks - what is the list worth? |
| https://secure.donax-us.com/donation/ |
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Klarinet is a service of Woodwind.Org, Inc. http://www.woodwind.org