Author: mrn
Date: 2009-10-10 20:42
Tony Pay wrote:
> You can understand it all on the following model:
>
> Nondescript person A quotes eminent person X's negative opinion
> of Y, who is almost universally regarded as great.
Leaving aside person A for the moment, I'd say that if X has a negative opinion of Y, there is something to be learned from that, either from X about Y (or about music in general) or from X about himself or the musical style/movement he belongs to.
I'd prefer to understand where X is coming from than simply to discredit X just because he has something negative to say about Y. Chances are good X knows or understands or can hear something I don't--this is especially true if what X says seems contrary to conventional wisdom.
In fact, one need not agree with X to learn something from their opinion. This is especially true if X is a highly eminent musician. A lot of times, it's valuable just to be able to understand the mindset of X.
For example, Weber's statement that the chromatic bassline near the end of mvt. 1 of Beethoven's 7th Symphony was evidence that Beethoven was "ripe for the madhouse" underscores how radically innovative this feature of the work was for the time. Most people today probably wouldn't think twice about a bassline like that--it's pretty "tame" compared to what most of us are used to from popular music, for instance. So we can chuckle a little about Weber's comment, but on a serious note, it can help up put the music in a historical context.
If nothing else, if I ever happen to play a piece written by X, I would want to know something of X's opinions about musical aesthetics.
Incidentally, on the topic of Busoni himself, I recently heard for the first time his Concertino for clarinet, which is a really neat work and sounds like it would be a blast to play. You can sense from the work Busoni had a great admiration for Mozart (as also indicated in Busoni's comment comparing Mendelssohn to Mozart), because parts of the piece sound very Mozart-like, even down to the harmony and orchestration. He even quotes a line from Mozart's Kegelstatt trio about 3/4 of the way through the piece.
Post Edited (2009-10-10 21:46)
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The Clarinet BBoard
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