The Banks of the Ohio

"Tom Sherman °_°" wrote in message
...
[...]
Edward Dolan wrote:
I stopped going to concerts in my youth because I could not stand all
the
audience noise. Like Glenn Gould, what good are live concerts anyway
when
recordings are far, far better.
[...]
I was at the second ever performance of Mr. Leppard (and friends from
Indianapolis) conducting his orchestration of Schubert's Grand Duo [1],
and the atmosphere during the performance was electrifying.

Mr. Sherman may be more of a people person than me. I think recordings are
far better than any live concerts which, no matter how electrifying, always
have their annoying distractions. I stand with Glenn Gould.

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota

On Jan 16, 10:12*pm, Jay Beattie wrote:
On Jan 16, 9:52*am, Andre Jute wrote:
[snip]
OTOH, I went to a concert where John Adams was conducting Chairman
Dances and a forgettable Mozart piece,

Compose better.

and his little talk before the
performance was worth the price of admission. *I also got to hear how
he thought his own piece should sound.

Most composers should compose, keep their mouth shut and let their
compositions speak for them. However, once in a blue moon the little
extras are worthwhile. My opinion of John Cage is that his best piece
is 4'33" but I once went to see the aforementioned Joanna MacGregor
prepare a piano for his Sonata for Prepared Piano, and her impromptu
chatter while she worked was the highlight of a day at a festival on
which I went to four concerts; the performance later that evening was
rubbish, as Cage usually is, but I stayed to the end, as I usually
don't for Cage, because I was trying to work out if he achieved what
he intended (answer, no).

Anyway, one thing he talked
about was how he got reamed by his composer-cohorts for writing such a
romantic piece. *You forget that these guys have to impress their
friends, which probably explains why so much modern music is
inaccessible to the casual listener who lacks a PhD in composition. --

I just stand up, say, "This is crap," and walk out when I hear the
sort of self-referential compositions that are excreted by PhDs in
composition. One of the newspapers that carried my music column once
sent me a cutting of a letter they published. The correspondent's
point was that the composer whose work I condemned as slack and
worthless was *entitled* to a better review *for services to music*,
in short that I should have given her brownie points for being a
bureaucrat of music. It was notable that every other reviewer treated
her with the "respect" due to her seat on the Arts Council, the major
funding body of composition commissions. That sort of incest--most
reviewers are part of the music establishment--is not conducive to
excellence. But it takes enormous self-confidence to buck a trend so
pervasive, endemic even.

Andre Jute
Visit Jute on Amps at
http://www.audio-talk.co.uk/fiultra/
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"Andre Jute" wrote in message
...
[...]
I just stand up, say, "This is crap," and walk out when I hear the
sort of self-referential compositions that are excreted by PhDs in
composition. One of the newspapers that carried my music column once
sent me a cutting of a letter they published. The correspondent's
point was that the composer whose work I condemned as slack and
worthless was *entitled* to a better review *for services to music*,
in short that I should have given her brownie points for being a
bureaucrat of music. It was notable that every other reviewer treated
her with the "respect" due to her seat on the Arts Council, the major
funding body of composition commissions. That sort of incest--most
reviewers are part of the music establishment--is not conducive to
excellence. But it takes enormous self-confidence to buck a trend so
pervasive, endemic even.

The absolute worse field in which this kind of incest takes place is the art
world. The prices that can be put on works of art makes matters even worse.
Note how all artists need to gab on and on about their creations, as if no
one can understand them otherwise. They are quite right about that, but not
all the talk in the world can save their so-called art.

It is the public at large that determines the worth of anything, not
academicians. Trust me on this, no one who has a Ph.D. in composition could
possibly compose anything that any normal person would ever want to listen
to. A pox on them all!

Regards,

Ed Dolan the Great - Minnesota
aka
Saint Edward the Great - Order of the Perpetual Sorrows - Minnesota