Klarinet Archive - Posting 000231.txt from 2008/11

From: "Alexander Brash" <brash@-----.edu>
Subj: Re: [kl] Johann Strauss Waltzes & Rite of Spring
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:36:03 -0500

The Random Capitalization of Things Adds Credence To My Points.

Mr. Woodson,

You are more than free to compose in any style that you wish. However, I'd
humbly offer to you that if audiences, ensembles, conductors, other
composers, and people on this list all use "modern bigotry," as an excuse
not to deal with your stuff, then you might want to look inwards for
blame, and not outwards.

Did you ever think that your insisting on the distinction between Serious
Music and Popular Music makes you exactly part of the problem, and not the
solution? No art has value unto itself, only in how it can move others -
only it how it holds a mirror up to the audience, and make them laugh, or
cry, or realize something inevitable about themselves and their own lives.
Or how it gives them a moment of beauty to latch onto and remember in a
world full of grief of pain. Or in how the composer thrusts himself into
the middle of his work and screams "ME ME ME - THIS IS ME AND YOU *WILL*
LISTEN - I HAVE SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO SAY."

This is why the Blue Danube (or John Adams, to take a modern example) is
brilliant, and Milton Babbit is complete garbage.

Best,
Alexander

On Mon, November 17, 2008 4:39 am, Bear Woodson wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 22:55:26 -0000
>> From: "Matthew Lloyd"
>> <matthew@-----.uk>
>>
>> Tacky? Juvenile? No. Perfection - the Blue Danube is
>> nothing less than perfect.
>>
>> Matthew
>
> Mr. LLoyd,
>
> you are more than free to enjoy ANY style of music that
> you choose, but you Obviously have NOT spent a lot of time
> in Music Theory Classrooms! (I have been thinking
> exclusively in those terms for 38 years, but then I'm a
> composer of Modern Classical Music, so I'm supposed to do
> that.)
>
> The term "Popular Music" was coined way back in the
> Middle Ages, and basically means "music written by and for
> the Music Theory Illiterates". The "Art Music", "Educated
> Music" or "classical" music is therefore based on How Well
> the Composer shows Music Theory Skills (such as
> Compositional Devices, Motivic Development, Counterpoint,
> etc.) in the music, which, too often are Totally Absent in
> "Popular Music". (Some of us have been referring to the
> masses as "MTI's", "Music Theory Illiterates". In spite of
> high education in medicine, science, law, etc., MOST of the
> people in Modern Culture are MTI's, especially Late 20th
> Century Music Theory. so they have a Group Bigotry
> against us boring, nerdy Music Theory Geek Types! *sniff!*
> *pout!*)
>
> These definitions still stand today. In essence, regardless
> of those few Rock Groups who DID have detailed 18th and
> 19th Century Music Theory training, (such as Emerson,
> Lake & Palmer; Queen; Elton John; Moody Blues; etc.),
> they don't get paid for "talking over the heads" of their
> listeners. If the music can't be thoroughly understood on the
> first listening, it is a Failure by Popular Music Standards,
> but it *might* be leaning in a more intellectual direction,
> which is the Mail Goal of "classical" Music: to impress the
> Music Theory experts.
>
> Although I was 9 years old when the Beatles got famous
> in the US in 1963, Paul McCartney STILL can Barely Read
> Music, and never came close to mastering the most baby
> simple basics of 18th Century Music Theory. That fact never
> blocked him from making a fortune! It is a matter of if you
> wish to get $10 each, from millions of MTI customers, or a
> permanent place in Intellectual History and a thousand dollars
> from a handful of experts, once in a great while. How many
> of the living "Beethovens" can you name, Mr. Lloyd? Did
> you even know that many are Women Composers? I guess
> we'll never catch you playing the Joan Tower Clarinet
> Concerto on the sly, much less hearing a Clarinet Concerto
> written by you in Modern Chromatic Modal Harmony!
> (What a pity. It might have been a lovely, lyrical piece.)
>
> When I think of someone trying to defend Johann Strauss
> Waltzes, I think of how TACKY Lieutenant Columbo (actor
> Peter Falk) did it, in the episode called "Etude in Black"
> (Season 2, #1) from 1972. His dear friend, actor John
> Cassavetes, played the arrogant conductor, Maestro Alex
> Benedict, who murdered his mistress, a pretty, young,
> concert pianist lady, so that he could keep their Love Affair a
> secret, and stay employed, as well as married to his wealthy,
> Beverly Hills snob wife. While other people kept praising the
> conductor for his profound renditions of works by Mozart
> and Tchaikovsky, Lt. Columbo was fixated only on his
> TACKY recording of some Johann Strauss Waltzes! (Do you
> have a rumpled raincoat, too, Mr. Lloyd?!?)
>
> http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/season2.htm
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068398/
> http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000393/bio
>
> By the way, I had always thought that Peter Falk was
> really of Italian descent, because he's played an Italian in SO
> many movies and TV shows. In reality I learned a few years
> ago, that he's a 100% Nice Jewish Boy, from a Russian
> Jewish father and a Polish-Czech Jewish mother, but I believe
> he was RAISED in a predominantly Italian-speaking part of
> New York City! This was the same reason why the Nice
> Jewish Marx Brother Boys spoke fluent Italian, and banked
> on it in their acting careers.
>
> Actually I've always admired Lt. Columbo because he's
> such a Fancy Dresser! (At least when compared to me, he
> is!) And then there's Monk, the Defective Detective, Adrian
> Monk, who also brilliantly solves crimes, but has all kinds
> of Phobias and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! (He's SO
> much more Mentally Stable than I could ever hope to be!)
>
> When I started studying 20th Century Music Theory in
> 1971, we used the "Rite of Spring" by Stravinsky (1882-
> 1971) as an Orchestration Bible and as a Text Book on
> Chromatic Modal Harmony. You might say I'm just a
> littttllllle bit familiar with the work. (Its "Motivic Chord" is
> Lydian, or IV, in one Key Signature, against a Mixolydian
> Chord, or V7, in another Key Signature of 3 fewer Flats in
> the Key Signature.)
>
> Charles Camille St. Saëns (1835-1921) had previously
> written a beautiful Bassoon Sonata in his usual harmony that
> was no more innovative than 1770, so it might as well have
> been written then! (Music Theorists are therefore just as
> unimpressed with him, than they are with Johann Strauss.)
> Bassoonists have told me that it goes up to a high E (a 10th
> above Middle C), at the end of an ascending scale, at the end
> of one movement. However it was St. Saëns who loudly
> started objecting to the Opening Bassoon Melody, lingering
> an Octave Above Middle C, at the May 29, 1913 Premiere of
> "Le Sacre du Printemps".
>
> The disagreements lead to a Riot, and the "Rite of Spring"
> was Officially BANNED from Live Performance in Paris for
> many years! Whereas that fact is famous in Music Theory
> classrooms, I've tried for Years to find out Exactly WHEN
> did that Ban got Started and Removed (I think in the 1980's).
> Does anyone know that answer? Because I still can't find it,
> on any website!
>
>
> Bear Woodson
> Composer in Tucson, Arizona, USA
>
> Home: 520 - 881 - 2558
> "Bear Woodson" <bearwoodson@-----.net>
>
> "If Chocolate Powder is made from Powdered
> Chocolate, and Onion Powder is made from
> Powdered Onions, what do they make Baby Powder
> from?" - Bear Woodson (1981)
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>

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