quoted 10 lines no it's not. this is much too expansive a subject to write about off the> > no it's not. this is much too expansive a subject to write about off the
> > cuff as i am doing here, but i would say that looking at technology as the
> > way to solve your problems, in this case, musical, is simply side stepping
> > the issue. if you can't 'do it' on a simple setup, what is there to say
> > that by simply piling up the gear, piling up the options, piling up the
> > sounds, is going to make your music worthwhile? nothing!
>
> your argument pushed to the extreme says that you don't need an
> orchestra, you should be able to say what you want to say with a solo
> violin. i refute that.
There is, however, a similar argument that is perfectly sensible, and that
is that there are valid things to say musically that can be said with a
solo violin (or, can *only* be said with a solo violin). The solo violin
won't do it for everything (just as a drum machine+synth combo leaves out
a lot of territory), but some amazing things can be done with it. Bach
cello suites rock!
Also, aren't you going a little far by saying that harmony+melody are
completely useless in the 90's? Sounds to me like you're prescribing the
one path music must take... and if anything has died in the Western music
world in the last 50 years, it's precisely this modernist view--the idea
that music progresses along *a* path, that everything that does not move
in this direction is regressive, and that it's the artist's job to discern
this direction and follow it relentlessly. To paraphrase Boulez, "Anyone
who has not felt the necessity of the new serial language is useless."
What an idiotic comment! Virtually all this-listy music is illegitimate by
those standards. Jon, you're substituting a different language ("sound"
instead of "serialism"), but the sentiment is the same, and no less
pernicious today than it was then. Plurality! I for one get bored by
tracks that have a great sound but don't have a statement to make in terms
of pitch material (which includes minimalist statements, too).
Hrvatski: were you the one to state that the standard definition of music
is "what the composer wants to hear"? I've deleted that digest :( --
anyway, don't forget that this idea (the cult of the genius, basically) is
very restricted to a specific geographical area, time and economic class
(19th-century and later Europe, especially Germany, and most prominent in
bourgeois levels of society). Javanese gamelan is built on totally
different social principles--collectivity--no one person originates or
owns a "composition"--it's a social action that happens to result in
highly organized sound--not "the standard definition" of music, but it's
still great music. So it's a non-western culture... there are similar
examples in the west too (folk dance musics, for one). I have to point
this out because Western bourgeois intellectuals have had a tendency to
universalize their own cultural concerns and erase other approaches in
other parts of the world and in other classes. Just something to be aware
of and careful about. J
________
\ / | "Who's Martha Stewart?"
H. James Harkins | "She writes picture books about gracious living."
jharkins@acpub.duke.edu |
\/ | - from _Jeffrey_
"The sky is big enough to let all the clouds pass." -- Kobai Scott Whitney