At 1:15 PM -0500 11/9/02, Darcy James Argue wrote:
This is akin to other annoying semantic disputes like "What is jazz?" Linda seems to want to use the word "composer" as an indicator of quality as well as a descriptive term. Her definition would relegate brilliant composers like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, etc to the status of "noodlers" or mere "songwriters."Not so. You have just named a whole bunch of my heroes. However, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, et al. ARE songwriters. I don't choose to call them composers. Hell, I don't even call Irving Berlin a "composer". You can if you want to. And what's wrong with being a songwriter, anyway? As for "an indicator of quality" faugggghhhhh... that's not what I said at all. I was talking about putting the wrong name to what those people DO. And any disdain I may have implied was not aimed at artists like those you mention. It was aimed at the amateur noodlers or even the professional noodlers who hire the likes of me and Crystal and whoever to do 95% the heavy lifting for them, and then call themselves "composers". Ya know, Beethoven wrote some pretty mundane and less than "quality" stuff... but by golly, he could write it down.
Someone else mentioned people for whom notating things is difficult and they have an "editor" (or more likely "collaborator") to take some of the work load. That's fine, too... They are composers who hire people to do some of the endgame not so heavy lifting, and I can find it in my heart to call them "composers"... even if their music is drivel.
It's not about quality, it's about the job. The work. The art.
But I'm going where I've already been with this discussion, and I've already said that I'm hopelessly opinionated about the designation, and there you are. But don't tell me I'm saying something I don't even feel-- for example that Stevie Wonder falls below my "quality" requirement. Ain't so, never was.
Linda
--
Hear the music at:
http://www.ganymuse.com/
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