In this somewhat nihilistically arcane vein I recall Dmitri Shostakovich's instructions on playing his 15th string quartet: "I want you to play it so that flies drop dead in midair, and that by the end of the first movement the entire audience has gotten up and left the building." -as best as I can recall, from an English translation. -Dan
>This is with Bach, a recognized name with works of >true substance. But even a concert of all-Weiss >masterworks would be a hard sell to all but hardcore >lute players. (A somewhat well-known viola da gamba >player I know claims Weiss is "weird and >incomprehensible." What the...???) These will also >be works of great substance, but if you get folks to >come, you'll have a lot of empty seats after >intermission. > >Unfortunately, rabid is the word. While this type of >music has always had relatively few fans, Babbitt >simply gave voice to the agenda of an academic cadre >that sucessfully elevated atonal serialism into a >position of undisputed hegemony in university >composition programs throughout the world during the >50's and 60's and that limped along as a real force >well into the 1990's. (Without contradicting myself, >I can say that there were some great masterpieces >composed in this style.) It didn't matter how many >people liked or hated the music - what mattered was >how "RIGHT" those in positions of authority within >academe _thought_ they were. > >During this time period, if you wanted to be taken >seriously as a composer, there was almost NO OTHER WAY >than to write music like this. Forget about the fact >that the only people in the audiences are a couple of >other composition professors and students. Those >philistines in the Outside World don't appreciate the >Serious Importance of the Esoteric Issues we have >agreed to address in our sonic constructs, anyway... >and why... why, the poor unwashed fools probably >wouldn't be able to tell the Massive Difference in >tone between a 7-course and an 8-course lute even >after having it repeatedly explained to them in >painstaking detail! > >The future of early music isn't quite this bleak, but >I have been disturbed to a couple of EM concerts in >which the audience was made up almost entirely of >musicology students... > > >Chris > > > >____________________________________________________________________________________ >Be a better pen pal. >Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. >http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/ > > > >To get on or off this list see list information at >http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- Rachel Winheld 820 Colusa Avenue Berkeley, CA 94707 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel 510.526.0242 Cell 510.915.4276
