 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: stuart
Date: 1999-05-21 22:57
Does anybody know what aproximate point in history did western symphonic musicians/audiences begin preferring the music of past eras over the music of their contemporaries?
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Author: Don
Date: 1999-05-22 01:04
That's like asking a question of an economist. Talk to one- thousand Band Directors/Conductors and you'll get one-thousand different answers.
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Author: Dee
Date: 1999-05-22 02:33
My personal opinion.
When composers went to the 12 tone row, extreme dissonances, etc. Although Schoenberg did well with the 12 tone row, all his successors couldn't seem to come up with something that could be listened to. They seemed to be simply experimenting with no goal in mind and so ended up with no music. Same problem with harsh dissonances. Too many composers put them in just to put them in. There was no purpose to the music. Stravinsky could handle them well but few others could.
By the way listen to the background music in movies. Some of it incorporates a lot of modern elements and the audiences love these at concerts too.
Unfortunately the composers who write things that can be listened to, seem to be composing strictly for movies etc rather than composing music for separate performance. I suppose it has to do with making a living no doubt.
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Author: Laura
Date: 1999-05-22 10:33
It was really only in the 20th c. that people began to prefer playing dead mens' music rather in preference to that of living composers. For example, it was extremely unusual when Lully's (Louis XIV's favourite composer) music was played for over 20 years after his death, and this was only because of the monopoly the monarch had over the arts and the control he had as an absolutist monarch.
I think that this also had something to do with increasing technology, and the increasing inaccessability (is that a word?!) of modern music, that people began listen/play music of earlier eras.
--
Laura
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Author: A. Brown
Date: 1999-05-22 14:13
In the mid- 1800's, with the change in music sponsorship from the courts and chambers of rich people to the concert halls of the general populace, composers began to have a different place in musical life. At this point composers were still expected to also be performers/conductors. The decline of patronage was hard on their security. With Mendelssohn came major revival of "The Messiah," and renewed interest in recycling older compositions. Unlike audiences, composers have always studied the music of their predecessors when they could get it. For example, after Mozart passed through J. S. Bach's hometown, his writing began to include more contrapuntal elements.
For an extended discussion, read Norman Lebrecht's book "The Maestro Myth" to see how music, politics, and business all have interconnected.
AB
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Author: jim lande@erols.com
Date: 1999-05-24 03:38
If you measure EVERYTHING played today -- and count the radio, CDs people buy, etc -- you will find that most music today is new music. Yes, I am talking rock and pop. Most of it doesn't have a clarinet part, so naturally, you don't get to play much of it, unless you do a lot of half time shows. I suspect the new to old ratio is been similar over time, it was just that 200 years ago you needed to hire musicians and maybe someone to write out parts.
To what extent were composers also entropreneurs(sp) and therefore possibly have some influence over what got produced?
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Author: steve
Date: 1999-05-24 18:08
...Does anybody know what aproximate point in history did western symphonic musicians/audiences begin preferring the music of past eras over the music of their contemporaries? xxxxxxxxx
another great topic....I think that this has _always_ been the case.....as far as I can tell, all new ("classical/symphonic/legit/whatever") music was met with resistance and disgust during it's time....in N. Slominsky's book "Lexicon of Musical Invective", a collection of critical reviews (going back to the 18th cent.) absolutely trashing composers for pieces composed during their time (that have now become standard dead guy's music) makes hilarious reading. I think this comes from the basic conservative nature of listeners saying "I know what I like....why take a chance...on the Beethoven guy..."
there are also responses to the critics from the composers in S's book...a 19th century German composer (Reger? I can't remember) responded to a critic..."I am sitting in the smallest room in my house. Your review is before me. Soon it will be behind me." It sounds even better in German...
s.
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Author: HIROSHI
Date: 1999-05-25 02:57
Maybe since public at large started to enjoy buying new things in 1950s,especially,since they started to feel how they look like from other people:this is the real meaning of 'life style'.I think this trend is conspicuous to American people,who have very short tradition,only 200 years.This may offend Amerian people but I think it's true.And this disease is propageting worldwide although other nations' people have many old things to respect and if intelligent do not select things only because they are new.Alan Bloom's 'Closing American Mind' will be a must reading to remedy this disease.
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 1999-05-25 03:11
HIROSHI wrote:
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I think this trend is conspicuous to American people,who have very short tradition,only 200 years.
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500 years from setllement by Europeans, but still very short. You've got to start counting from 1st settlement, not the founding of the country.
Some of us don't think we have a "disease". Japan suffered through some very "interesting" times during the early 1900s, too (as documented by Soseki in "Wagahaiwa Neko de aru" and "Botchan"), and self reflection and doubt in the 60's ("Kamen no Kokuhaku" and "Kokoro", by my favorite Japanese author).
Every country develops & evolves, sometimes making missteps.
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Author: jim lande@erols.com
Date: 1999-05-30 20:37
We Americans may not know any history.
This is good.
When we throw a civil war, it is finished (from a cultural perspective) and forgotten (emotionally) in a generation or two.
They really know their history in the Balkins, the 'British Isles', etc etc.
In this country Japanese, going into Korean grocery stores are treated very rudely. This will change in a generation -- any bets on how long the cultural memories will last in Korea.
Most of the folks who ended up on our shores really wanted to leave somewhere else. Anything new sounded good. (O.K., something like one in three went back.) Yeah, we have a culture of embracing the new. And then the old and then the next. Maybe our collective character is attention deficit disorder.
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