Sorry -- this slipped out of my hands
incomplete a few minutes ago; here's the whole thing:
Wow. If it's just about 'getting it
right' then we can all go home. No live performance - no CD, no
matter how many takes it's been mastered from -- no account can ever be
perfectly perfectly dead-on absolutely-as-it-can-be right-on-the-money
perfect. Or -- merely be 'gotten right.' But that's
not really what it's all about, at least not in my book.
I moved my family here - Mariposa, Ca, just
outside Yosemite National Park - from Manhattan in 2001 after an onstage
accident which ended my career as an actor. Manhattan, LA, London
etc for 20-some years. The smorgasboard of the Arts. But you all
know that; many of you still live in Manhattan. Or LA or
London. Or Boston or DC or Paris or Toronto or any of the other
great cities with a huge variety of live performances from which to
choose. And so my wife and I decided - with retirement at
age 44 and nothing but time on our hands - that this area (which we knew well
from our travels) was where we wanted to raise our young son. I've got a
community here (and I hate to generalize, but why not?) which -- for the most
part -- was in many ways musically naive before I put together this little
community orchestra of 50. Really -- it's very rural; many old-time
families whose genealogy traces their antecedents back 150 years to
the gold rush days (time immemorial for California) and in many ways this area
hasn't been overwhelmed by progress. There's of course influence from
outside; I mean they do got real runnin' water and indoor plumbin', but there
wasn't much -- if anything in the way of live classical
performances. Sure -- they've heard of LPs and CDs and the Tee Vee
and all that, but: as a newcomer to this area I was warned prior to our
first concert to expect a very small turnout. Our home theatre
(built in 1937 as a WPA project) seats 400; but guess what? The
tickets were sold out almost as soon as they went on sale with a huge SRO
contingent -- and every concert since that first one in December 2002 has been
the same. Because....maybe for some a recording is just good enough
-- particularly one which just somehow 'gets it right' but that's not good
enough for me. For some that amazing experience of coming together
to hear LIVE music played by live performers -- even if they're not the most
accomplished or experienced performers capable of 'getting it right' is better
than a glossy, sumptuous CD of of a live performance which, once captured,
is really -- dead.
How does the orchestra sound? Well,
they've grown enormously in the past two years from the 11-year-old first
violinist to the 80-year old second; I've just gotten (finally) TWO trombones
(from a town 45 minutes away with its own 'professional' orchestra
comprised of ringers brought in from three hours away.) If I could
only find a reliable bassoonist I'd really be in business; until then I'll keep
my bass clarinetist busy, indeed. But you know
what? We've got an audience that doesn't care if there aren't really
50 strings and 8 horns; they come for the special experience of hearing live
music. And we're not just talking about locals coming to hear
Uncle Howard or cousin Isabel; we're developing an audience from far outside our
area with few - if any - ties to our players. Or me. I am
still overwhelmed with the change that has happened here -- people have begun to
know the difference between Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, to find that they may
prefer Mozart to Vivaldi, that Dvorak's name is really pronounced that way
and he wrote something other than that 'Goin' Home' song? Guess
what? They're getting hip! They're getting informed -- and
they're getting really really fascinated by this music. Evenm though
it's just live, imperfect, and they sometimes forget and clap between
movements. But I don't mind. That shows me how much
they're enjoying the experience. That and the touchdown cheers at the
ends of concerts and the lines of people with questions and the fact that
there's actually a palpable buzz for a few days after each concert: 'did you
hear how beautiful that --' 'I had no idea she could play like --' 'I wonder
what else he wrote?'
Yeah, I love CDs; I've got CDs coming out my
ears; I've got all the Bruckner Symphonies on CD -- and not just all nine
plus "0" and "00" - I've got 'em ALL in ALL the various
versions! Schalk, Löwe, Haas, originals; if it's been recorded, I've
got it. Anyone else know the recorded works of Heraclius
Djabadary? Interesting stuff! I love
CDs! But -- for me -- they're ultimately a great reference tool
and documents of a performance but as a communicative art form:
dead. Once magic has been captured, it's no longer
magic. Canned, synthesized orchestra? Interesting
concept -- for some sort of necrophilharmonic. Which is why I'm
damned proud when my unions - Actors' Equity, SAG, AFTRA -- stand in unity
against anyone trying to do away with the human component which provides us our
-- humanity. Art is a reflection of humanity; it's arguably the most
important remnant left by a civilization. Yes, I said
'arguably.' If there's no longer any need for <people> to
create that art, one bit at a time, one note, one brushstroke, one stitch
at a time -- then there's not much need for art at all, is
there?
Rant over, apologies for any
unintentional offense but none for my stance --
Best,
Les
Les Marsden Founding Music Director and
Conductor, The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra Music and Mariposa?
Ahhhhh, Paradise!!!
-----
Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 6:33
PM
Subject: Re: [Finale]
Performance/recording
At 03:22 PM 1/29/05 -0500, A-NO-NE Music wrote: >In my
life, I have three live concerts which my tears couldn't stop >coming
out during the show. [...]
Then you are at concerts for a different
reason than I am. All I want is the music, not personalities of performers
in the way. (And I did say that improv-based music is different -- the
music is re-invented in the performance.) What interested me about the
discussion was talking about replacements for musicians ... so far I'll
trade all your tears for recordings where the notes are actually right. And
it won't be long before virtual orchestras have every bit as much
contouring as pro performers have, but (to my taste, fortunately) without
all that performer "stuff" in the way. :)
Don't get me wrong. I have
performed and conducted and still do, but only because no one else does the
material I did. Early American choral before the renewed interest created a
body of recordings, free medieval and Renaissance concerts in an urban
community without access to it, and post-Fluxus performance art and
extended vocal work even today.
But once a piece is done and recorded,
it's done. Maybe somebody wants a different take. That's fine. But the
hundreds of undifferentiated classical performances of the same stuff are
to my mind just plain stupid. Save your $40 ticket and go buy a bottle of
wine, some spicy take-out, and a $2.99 CD and have a better-sounding copy
you can hear anytime and relive the moment.
At 10:33 AM 1/29/05 -0800,
Mariposa Symphony Orchestra wrote: >BUT: to have that communal
experience with a great >orchestra under a great conductor in a great
hall with >great acoustics: Yeah. Easy choice.
I've
been to concerts in great halls with great orchestras and great conductors.
Maybe not as many as most here because I get bored quickly by concerts. And
I just don't remember anything about them except the extra-musical part --
Bernstein hopping up and down during some Mahler, Stravinsky's plain
conducting in Sacre, Copland's microscopic motions during something of his,
the demeanor of the Czech Chamber the night their country was invaded,
Kubelik at Carnegie switching conducting hands during a Martinu piece to
mop his brow, some painfully bad male singing in Lulu (the earlier
truncated version) at the Met, the yawning horn player during something
Chailly conducted at the Concertgebouw... but the music itself? Nothing.
All better on recordings.
At 09:49 PM 1/29/05 +0100, Daniel Wolf
wrote: >The upshot of all this has been that I've had no enthusisasm
about >producing recordings of my own music, and have really begun to
think of >my music as tailored for concert, live broadcast, and private
playing. >I think that the greater possibilities of electronic
play-back from >scores will change this somewhat, but the ramifications
of this are >still pretty vague to me.
The de facto way of
hearing music today is on recording. I'm not going to try to convince you
that's good -- though it would be nice to hear your music more than by
chance someday, somewhere. But likely I'll never hear you in concert except
by accident. Most composers whose work I've come to know and love has been
via CD (or downloads now). The way things are set up today, going to a
concert means getting ready, dealing with getting there, paying a bundle
for one play and all its mistakes, listening through other junk you didn't
want to hear, probably getting bad seats since so few are really good,
being around noisy people, and worst of all -- having no reverse-scan
button, which I can't live without. :)
I appreciate the private playing
part. There is a communal nature that's fun -- but that's not performance.
That's a physical exchange with its own rewards. Performers do what they
do, and get fulfillment from it. And I enjoy sitting in on rehearsals of my
music (moreso if the rehearsal is for a recording).
As far as score
playback goes, that's on the way. And the effect will be dramatic. I look
forward to it.
At 08:10 PM 1/29/05 -0500, David W. Fenton
wrote: >But were it not for repeated live performances before audiences,
it >would not be possible to get recorded preformances that hold up
under >repeated listening.
If the music is played correctly, the
recording will hold up just fine for me. I have shelves of recordings by
third-string groups that are completely listenable. In any case, I'll pass
on those idiosyncratic emotional readings that 'hold up under repeated
listening' for other people. All I hear is the conductor and the players
getting in the way of the music after a while -- very, very annoying. (What
comes to mind immediately is the ten bucks I wasted on a recording of
Casals snorting through Mozarts EKN.)
>Perhaps all of this is one of
the reasons composers are often >dissatisfied with first performances
of their pieces, precisely >because it's impossible in any first
performance to accomplish more >than just scratching the surface. If
new music works could get 15 or >20 performances by the same group,
maybe folks like Dennis would not >be so bitter about the
results.
I'm not bitter. Who am I to be bitter? As far as performances,
of course more are better because they serve as rehearsals for a
potentially good performance and recording. This fall I had an orchestral
work performed 10 times by a pro orchestra with a good conductor. By the
10th performance, they almost had the notes right. (Hell, it was in C
minor, not some jump-ass atonal thing.) They worked hard and were
dedicated, and the performances were exciting to the audience, and I had
fun because of the 'eventiness' of it all, but I really would have liked
just one measly recording that had all the notes right. As it stands, only
my own electroacoustic pieces are done to my satisfaction.
There's
another factor. I think 90% is what the listener brings to a performance.
The right partner, the right beverage, the right moment in one's life, and
a mediocre performance blooms into a work of genius. If only I had time to
tell all the mis-hearings my music has gotten over the years ... as a
composer, I certainly don't need another layer of performer quirks being
interposed! I'll pass on the deep, rich, emotional, vivid, lustrous,
personal, powerful (etc.) performances. Plain is good, clean is good,
nicely recorded is good. Correct is best. If I feel like getting emotional
over one of my pieces, I'll do it no matter who is playing. :)
So I do
look forward to the virtual orchestra, or at least the assisted orchestra.
Something to, you know, get it right --- and be cheaper, too. Maybe all the
displaced musicians will find themselves composing ... now *there* is an
idea that appeals to me. More people creating. It would be a cultural
change that I'd certainly welcome!
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