Kurt Hoffman wrote:
quoted 5 lines i'm all for appreciating every sort of music on its own terms.
> i'm all for appreciating every sort of music on its own terms.
> Beethoven, Derrick May and Howlin Wolf all made great art. I still
> think the idea of "high art" is useful for understanding why
> Beethoven did what he did, and of doubtful utility in appreciating
> the others.
What about Autechre? Miles Davis? Frank Zappa? Where do you draw the line?
I guess I have a grudge about this issue because I've spent some time in academia
myself...I remember taking 20th century analysis as an undergraduate and limiting
our study to 12-tone rows, set theory, etc. I asked the lecturer one day why
Hendrix and Coltrane weren't on the syllabus but didn't receive a very convincing
answer in response...
Interestingly, I noticed from another post on this list that Autechre had Curtis
Roads (an academic composer from UC-Santa Barbara) open for them at their LA
show...what's really interesting to me is the crossover and merging of the
academic/popular worlds in contemporary electronic music.
There's a brilliant article by Kim Cascone about this in Computer Music Journal
(vol 24 #4, Winter 2000), it's called 'The Aesthetics of Failure: Post-Digital
Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music'.
quoted 2 lines regarding conventional instruments, yeah you can get more variety of
> regarding conventional instruments, yeah you can get more variety of
> timbres with a powerbook, but it's just one approach to make music.
Sure, but it's an approach that opens up vast new worlds of sound to explore...I
was a jazz/pop/studio bassist for ten years before I got into electronic music,
but now I've swapped my bass for a laptop on stage because the laptop can do so
much more.
quoted 6 lines You seem like a sophisticated listener, with taste ranging from Schoenberg to
> >You seem like a sophisticated listener, with taste ranging from Schoenberg to
> >IDM. Why do *you* prefer to listen to electronic music?
>
> I don't think electronic/digital instruments are better, but they've
> managed to excite people with their novel possibilities and spur some
> interesting work.
Right, it's not a matter of better/worse...however, I do think that one of the
important elements of art is it's contemporary relevance. Good art suggests ways
of dealing with new experiences and how to live in new contexts, which is why we
always need new art/music -- the world and our experiences are always changing,
perhaps never more quickly than right now. Autechre (just using them as an
example) are relevant to our contemporary situation in a way that Beethoven
isn't...at least that's my opinion.
John
--
John von Seggern
DJ/producer
Digital Cutup Lounge
Hong Kong
http://www.digitalcutuplounge.com
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