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.

Composer Blogs@ Sequenza21.com

Lawrence Dillon
Elodie Lauten
Judith Lang Zaimont
Everette Minchew
Tom Myron



Latest Posts


thoughts on influence
Rodney Lister

influence
Lawrence Dillon

The (Non-)Anxiety of Influence
Tom Myron

The Ethics of an (Autocratic?) Education
Corey Dargel

Well, since you asked...
Rodney Lister

Words, Music, and Performance
Corey Dargel

what works have most influenced my music
Beth Anderson

Name That Tune
Jerry Bowles

Posted by [Dysfunctional]
Corey Dargel

Start Reading This Blog
Galen H. Brown



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
Sunday, January 02, 2005 Monday, January 03, 2005 Tuesday, January 04, 2005 Thursday, January 06, 2005 Friday, January 07, 2005 Monday, January 10, 2005 Tuesday, January 11, 2005 Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Friday, January 14, 2005 Monday, January 17, 2005 Tuesday, January 18, 2005 Wednesday, January 19, 2005 Thursday, January 20, 2005 Friday, January 21, 2005 Saturday, January 22, 2005 Sunday, January 23, 2005 Monday, January 24, 2005 Tuesday, January 25, 2005 Wednesday, January 26, 2005 Thursday, January 27, 2005 Friday, January 28, 2005 Saturday, January 29, 2005 Sunday, January 30, 2005 Tuesday, February 01, 2005 Wednesday, February 02, 2005 Thursday, February 03, 2005 Friday, February 04, 2005 Tuesday, February 08, 2005 Wednesday, February 09, 2005 Thursday, February 10, 2005 Monday, February 14, 2005 Friday, February 18, 2005 Sunday, February 20, 2005 Monday, February 21, 2005 Tuesday, February 22, 2005 Wednesday, February 23, 2005 Thursday, February 24, 2005 Friday, February 25, 2005 Saturday, February 26, 2005 Sunday, February 27, 2005 Monday, February 28, 2005 Tuesday, March 01, 2005 Wednesday, March 02, 2005 Thursday, March 03, 2005 Friday, March 04, 2005 Monday, March 07, 2005 Wednesday, March 09, 2005 Thursday, March 10, 2005 Friday, March 11, 2005 Tuesday, March 15, 2005 Thursday, March 17, 2005 Friday, March 18, 2005 Sunday, March 20, 2005 Monday, March 21, 2005 Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Friday, March 25, 2005 Monday, March 28, 2005 Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Thursday, March 31, 2005 Saturday, April 02, 2005 Sunday, April 03, 2005 Monday, April 04, 2005

Powered by Blogger

Friday, February 25, 2005
two points

I have two seperate comments on this thread, so I'll try to be concise.

1. I don't think it's fair to presume that Brittaney Spears doesn't "think deeply about her art." She's a first-rate performer, whether you enjoy her performances or not, and I don't think you get to be a first-rate performer without a tremendous amount of thought and practice. I am sure that she could perform the "deepest" pop and jazz standards totally convincingly. So she's picked a genre that doesn't get any respect -- so what? Now let's think for a moment about the songs that she performs and the composers who write them. It takes a huge amount of talent and artistry to write a pop song that is as well constructed and appealing as the songs that are written for Brittany. Those songwriters may be applying their talents to a maligned art-form, but their talents are formidable nonetheless. And the production value of her albums is extrordinary -- yes her music designed to appeal to the masses, but it takes talent to appeal to the masses.

2. I think a lot of people take the wrong lesson from the Babbit article. His point was that audiences and compsers need to accept the fact that in many cases they live in different worlds. The audiences need to stop getting angry with the composers for writing music that the audiences don't enjoy, and, more importantly from my perspective, composers need to stop getting angry with the audiences and the culture for not liking their music. David Taub says "Unless composers write music that expresses something, and is not written for other composers at an intellectual level, their music is doomed to be relegated to obscurity." To the extent that any music is capable of "expressing something" (a subject for another day) Babbit _does_ express something -- it's just not something that most people are interested in. And that's okay; Babbit has told us that if we're not interested he doesn't mind if we don't bother listening to his music. But to say that he will be "doomed to be relegated to obscurity" is to imply that the goal of composing is to reach a wide audience. Babbit is interested in reaching a narrow, specialized audience, and at that he is very successful. That neither David nor I find ourselves in that audience is irrelevant.

Where Babbit goes astray, in my opinion, is when he claims that academic specialist composers have a right to public funding in the same way that physics or mathematics specialists do. I'm as big a fan of the NEA and of public funding as anybody, but I see the portion directed to obscure new music as public generosity rather than public responsibility. Math, sicence, and many other disciplines benefit the general public but can't necessarily get the money they need in the market -- obscure new music that nobody wants to hear or ever will hear doesn't. (Although I'd love to be persuaded that I'm wrong about this point.) Classical music isn't "dying" as so many people say it is -- it's moving from mainstream to subculture, and we either need to find a way _in_the_marketplace_ to keep it mainstream, or get over our egotism and accept that we are a subculture and behave accordingly. I enjoy industrial music, and there's some brilliant work out there, but I don't hear industrial bands clamoring for public funding.




Search WWWSearch www.sequenza21.com

 
Sequenza21/The Contemporary Classical Music Weekly is part of
Classical Music Web Ring
The free linking service provided by Classical Music UK
[ Previous 5 Sites | Previous| Next | Next 5 Sites | Random Site | List Sites ]