Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.


Regular Contributors


Adrienne Albert
Beth Anderson
Larry Bell
Galen H. Brown
Cary Boyce
Roger Bourland
Corey Dargel
Lawrence Dillon
Daniel Gilliam
Peter Gordon
Rodney Lister
Ian Moss
Tom Myron
Frank J. Oteri
Carlos R. Rivera
David Salvage
Stefano Savi Scarponi
Alex Shapiro
Naomi Stephan
David Toub
Judith Lang Zaimont

Composer Blogs@ Sequenza21.com

Lawrence Dillon
Elodie Lauten
Anthony Cornicello
Everette Minchew
Tom Myron

Alan Theisen
Corey Dargel



Latest Posts


wither the cd
David Toub

The Rhetorical Question
Cary Boyce

Even in Arcadia there is death
Tom Myron

The Dangers of Liberal Artist Groupthink
Ian Moss

Art and Politics
David Salvage

Paws and Effect
Alex Shapiro

Perceived Legitimacy and the Media, or "If They Te...
Galen H. Brown

COMPOSERS AND THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM
Corey Dargel

Nature or Nurture
Corey Dargel

Voices in the Wilderness?
Cary Boyce


Beepsnort Lisa Hirsch


Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019


Archives
01/02/2005 - 01/09/2005 01/09/2005 - 01/16/2005 01/16/2005 - 01/23/2005 01/23/2005 - 01/30/2005 01/30/2005 - 02/06/2005 02/06/2005 - 02/13/2005 02/13/2005 - 02/20/2005 02/20/2005 - 02/27/2005 02/27/2005 - 03/06/2005 03/06/2005 - 03/13/2005 03/13/2005 - 03/20/2005 03/20/2005 - 03/27/2005 03/27/2005 - 04/03/2005 04/03/2005 - 04/10/2005 04/10/2005 - 04/17/2005 04/17/2005 - 04/24/2005 04/24/2005 - 05/01/2005 05/01/2005 - 05/08/2005 05/08/2005 - 05/15/2005 05/15/2005 - 05/22/2005 05/22/2005 - 05/29/2005 05/29/2005 - 06/05/2005 06/05/2005 - 06/12/2005 06/12/2005 - 06/19/2005 06/19/2005 - 06/26/2005 06/26/2005 - 07/03/2005 07/03/2005 - 07/10/2005 07/10/2005 - 07/17/2005 07/17/2005 - 07/24/2005 07/24/2005 - 07/31/2005 07/31/2005 - 08/07/2005 08/07/2005 - 08/14/2005 08/14/2005 - 08/21/2005 08/21/2005 - 08/28/2005 08/28/2005 - 09/04/2005 09/04/2005 - 09/11/2005 09/11/2005 - 09/18/2005 09/18/2005 - 09/25/2005 09/25/2005 - 10/02/2005 10/02/2005 - 10/09/2005 10/09/2005 - 10/16/2005 10/16/2005 - 10/23/2005 10/23/2005 - 10/30/2005 10/30/2005 - 11/06/2005 11/06/2005 - 11/13/2005 11/13/2005 - 11/20/2005 11/20/2005 - 11/27/2005 11/27/2005 - 12/04/2005 12/04/2005 - 12/11/2005 12/11/2005 - 12/18/2005 12/18/2005 - 12/25/2005 12/25/2005 - 01/01/2006 01/01/2006 - 01/08/2006 01/08/2006 - 01/15/2006 01/15/2006 - 01/22/2006 01/22/2006 - 01/29/2006 01/29/2006 - 02/05/2006 02/05/2006 - 02/12/2006 02/19/2006 - 02/26/2006 02/26/2006 - 03/05/2006 03/05/2006 - 03/12/2006 03/12/2006 - 03/19/2006 03/19/2006 - 03/26/2006 03/26/2006 - 04/02/2006 04/02/2006 - 04/09/2006 04/09/2006 - 04/16/2006 04/16/2006 - 04/23/2006 04/23/2006 - 04/30/2006 04/30/2006 - 05/07/2006 05/07/2006 - 05/14/2006 05/14/2006 - 05/21/2006 05/21/2006 - 05/28/2006 05/28/2006 - 06/04/2006 06/04/2006 - 06/11/2006 06/11/2006 - 06/18/2006 06/18/2006 - 06/25/2006 06/25/2006 - 07/02/2006 07/02/2006 - 07/09/2006 07/09/2006 - 07/16/2006 07/16/2006 - 07/23/2006 07/23/2006 - 07/30/2006 08/06/2006 - 08/13/2006 08/13/2006 - 08/20/2006 08/20/2006 - 08/27/2006 08/27/2006 - 09/03/2006 10/29/2006 - 11/05/2006 12/31/2006 - 01/07/2007 04/08/2007 - 04/15/2007

Powered by Blogger

Monday, September 12, 2005
strongarming

The point has been made lately a number of times, by Lawrence Dillon here and by Kyle Gann (with whom I had some email correspondence about it) on his blog, among others, that, in one way or another people were forced to write certain kinds of music by their teachers, in the bad old days of the 60s, or 70s, or whenver, or now. I may just be lucky, but that doesn't correspond to my memory, anyway, of my student experience, which included New England Conservatory, Brandeis, Tanglewood in 1973, The Dartington Summer School, and private study with Virgil Thomson and Peter Maxwell Davies, so not exactly, as Kyle said, Tennessee Tech or U of Arkansas, but rather closer to what he called the top of the heap, where the coercion is worse. I may have been particularly lucky or I may just have been so pigheaded and such a bad student that I didn't notice. I'm not teaching composition to college students these days, but I do have some idea what goes on at NEC and Harvard at the moment, and it's not clear to me that there's coercion of that type there now (although Galen Brown at one point earlier in the year seemed to imply something different about NEC).

I remember when I was an advanced student at Dartington that people would play some of their music and say things along the lines of, "I used to write twelve-tone music, but I never liked it, I just felt like I had to." My question when I heard somebody say things like that was if what they were just writing something because they felt like they had to then, what it is that "proves" that they're not just writing what they feel like they have to write now?

Another comment that's relevant is one by Virgil (speaking about who influenced who, him or Copland)--"There's no question of anybody influencing anybody else. We all sat in the same draft and we all caught the same cold."

I'm just wondering how much it's really true that there was all that coercion going on either then or that it's going on now, and, if there are people coercing their students to write nasty modern music that they don't want to write, are there also people out their discouraging their students from writing dissonant modernist music? (Also I'm not convinced that very many people either then or now have a particularly clear idea of what it means to write twelve-tone music. (Most ideas seem to be on the level of what Bernstein says about it in The Joy of Music--that it's suppose to guarantee that the music won't come out sounding tonal and that you have to play the other eleven notes before you can play the first one again, which seems to me to be a completely grotesque misunderstanding of the idea.) Kyle gave me some specific instances, and I don't intend in any way to claim that he's not truthful, but still I wonder...

I suppose there's also the question of how intentional the coercion is and how much it's a matter of, as it were, body language, and therefore not at all intentional by the people supposedly doing the coercion. Or, as Lawrence said, how much of it is followers of Babbitt or Carter or whoever, or by peers, going overboard, rather than by teachers.

As a teacher, I can't imagine that anybody would think that anything at all good could come out of trying to force people to write what they don't want to write, but who knows?

I think what I'm saying is, anybody care to share some war stories?

 



Search WWWSearch www.sequenza21.com