In a message dated 5/25/2007 10:42:26 AM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Les Marsden) writes:
> 4) Perhaps most important of all: if some work of art strikes me VERY > negatively - in whatever discipline, I make the very forceful effort to > return to > that art, over and over, with time as the refresher, to really try to > determine a) what it is that doesn't communicate with me b) why c) is it the > piece > or is it me and d) have I personally GROWN or do I feel the same way NOW as I > did when the initial reaction hit me? The "Phil Daley v. The World" thread has become a flame war. But Les articulates an important point here, which needs further examination. My response would be entirely sympathetic to Les's system, if I had a thousand years of life left. But the reality is that you can't listen to everything, much less go through steps "a" through "d", above, "over and over." So what is a reasonable expectation of the audience for music in this situation? I use an "earned points" system. If we're talking about a composer who has already demonstrated significant ability to put notes together, he/she gets something close to Les's regimen out of me. >From there on down, there's a continuum--all the way to the composers who consistently demonstrate that they have no clue. They get nothing from me. Most listening experiences are, of course, somewhere inbetween. There's an analogy with the choices we make about the amount of effort we put into anything else in life; if you are bored by the first five soccer matches you watch, it seems to me you have no obligation to watch a sixth one. The crunch comes with respect to a piece you don't know by a composer you don't know. I think, if you want to call yourself a member of the community of professional musicians, you have to give it a chance. That experience will either compel you to give it a second listening--or not. And then perhaps a third, and so on. With each experience your judgment gains more credibility. In other words, you don't get to dismiss new repertoire out of hand, but you are not duty bound to persist in your inquiry either, if the rewards aren't there. David Lawrence ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
