Darcy, I'm leaving your response intact. It's a revelation -- thanks very much for this explanation. It makes great sense.
(Even as a longtime nonpop composer, I've had a similar and deep longtime love of jazz -- my very first jazz album was Coltrane's "Ascension" ... yes, when it was brand new. I was hooked.) Dennis On Wed, March 17, 2010 11:14 am, Darcy James Argue wrote: > On 17 Mar 2010, at 10:46 AM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote: > >> This makes no sense to me. How could string players have missed this? >> Doesn't >> everybody playing any instrument play at least a little pop or jazz -- even >> to >> earn supplementary income -- if they were born after, say, 1930? No? Yes? > > Yes. > > However, expectations are extremely low. > > Part of this is just a fundamental lack of respect for nonclassical music. I > suspect most orchestral string players have no idea how terrible they sound > playing jazz rhythms or pop rhythms -- and if they do realize it, they simply > don't care. As far as they are concerned, that music is beneath them. They are > wholly uninterested in putting even a minimum of effort into it -- say, > picking up recordings of the Walter Page-Jo Jones edition of the Count Basie > band and trying to play along with Lester Young's solos, imitating his > phrasing and vibrato (which is easily translatable to string instruments). And > even if one person is willing to do a little homework, getting the entire > section to do it? Fuhgeddaboudit. > > Also, I hate to say it, but even the most well-intentioned players, who have > an authentic love and respect for swinging jazz or hard-grooving R&B or rock, > *vastly* underestimate the difficulty of playing that kind of music > convincingly. It is comparable to learning a foreign language, in terms of the > time investment required, the benefits of early immersion, and the telltale > accent that is almost impossible for non-native speakers to get rid of. > > The other, more fundamental, problem is a lack of emotional connection to the > beat, which is endemic in classical circles. It's changing -- the generation > of classically-trained players in their 20's and 30's is *much* better about > this, judging by NYC new music circles at least -- but for the most part, > older orchestral players are incapable of playing music that demands rhythmic > authority or the ability to control placement in relation to a regular pulse. > They don't hear it and they don't feel it. But it's hard to swing if you can't > play four consistent quarter notes in a row. > > Cheers, > > - DJA > ----- > WEB: http://www.secretsocietymusic.org _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
