[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In a message dated 1/28/2006 4:29:55 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
That might help audiences of today feel more relaxed about orchestral
music the way that audiences of 200 years ago felt. Not a stodgy
presentation to be listened to in rapt silence, but rather an event to
attend for the audience to enjoy themselves and relax.
Either David's choice of the word "relax" is unfortunate, or else we're
badly off the track here. Relaxation is exactly the opposite of what I
teach listeners to do: it leads to the expectation that musical
experience be a comfy chair, which is what almost all the contributors
to this thread are complaining about.
In order to stretch beyond the already-familiar, audiences need to do
some work, which starts with arts education in the schools, public
funding, and all the rest of it. And it's the job of music educators to
motivate people to exercise their brains a little, and accept that
that's part of the process of experiencing art. This is not the same
thing as saying that all "difficult" art is worth the effort. But some
of it is, and in any case, "relaxation" is not the goal.
Why does a concert experience have to be in a non-comfy chair? I listen
much better, absorb more, and assimilate more, when I am not worried
I'll cough or sneeze at an inappropriate time. When I am not
uncomfortable wearing a suit which I hate.
Listening is something we do with our ears and our brains, relaxing is
something we do with the rest of our bodies. Why do they have to be
mutually exclusive?
If you're equating "relaxing" with "not listening carefully" then we
obviously are using the term "relax" differently.
Using one's brains is fine -- being in a panic lest the blue-hair next
to you gets upset when you cross your legs is totally unrelated.
As someone else pointed out, far more people have enjoyed symphonic
music (including atonality, aleatoric music, common-period harmonies,
you name it) in the movie theater than ever enjoyed it in the concert
hall. Why? Because they were relaxed while doing it, not being told
they had to sit and be still and listen to it.
It's possible to laugh and listen at the same time.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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