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Re: Musical snobbery (was Re: Songs for BL)

D.LANCASTER@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Cameron Mabon wrote:
>
> .........So the less you know the more you enjoy?   Ignorance is bliss?  Would
> you apply the same criteria for car maintainance or brain surgery - I
> suspect/hope not!!!

No - not at all. Who said anything about being ignorant. Just that understanding
'real' music is a pleasureable activity. And why do you compare music to brain
surgery etc.? Is that not like counting apples and oranges?

>  If everyone was content to accept music at face
> value and dispense with understanding we wouldn't have any composers
> and there would be far fewer conductors around...

True - each to their own.

> Surely art (sorry, Art) works on a number of levels and the more you
> listen to a piece of music the more those deeper levels are revealed.  The
> reason I enjoy a work such as Paganini Variations, for example, is because
> every time I listen to it I can find something new.

But nevertheless, you like listening to it beacuase it is pleasant on the ear.

>  Contemporary
> music can be quite complex so it probably takes more listenings - and
> a greater commitment on the part of the listener - before you arrive at a
> point where you can appreciate it most fully.

Correct. But as I said in another reply to Cameron's mail. be careful not to get
involved with the elephants.

> More commercial music (pop, musicals, Edrich Seibert arrangements
> etc.) is intended to be more immediately accessible so generally speaking
> doesn't have so many layers to grasp.  It is less complex and more
> likely to drive you insane after four or five hearings.

I disagree. It is the 'clever' stuff that drives me insane - not Siebert etc.

>   (Jazz is
> altogether another matter since it is different every time).

(see earlier reply to Cameron's mail)

> The effect that music has on you is due to the decisions the composer
> took about which notes to write.  You can appreciate the music
> without knowing the structure of chords or compositional techniques,
> but a even a little knowledge about how Rach 2 was composed would help
> you to enjoy listening to it even more, and would certainly be
> beneficial to your performance.

The word 'little' seems to be very appropriate. A great in depth knowledge is not
required. Therefore - good music!

>  If some
> musicians choose to delve further to try to discover what makes
> music tick, or what binds those layers of meaning together it doesn't
> necessarily follow that they are being snobbish or trying to get one
> over on everyone else - perhaps they are just curious.

Maybe - but how can you call John Cage's 'Silence' music for example?

> Actually, and being fairly honest, I must confess that I didn't enjoy
> Songs for BL very much but not because it was too modern - I just
> didn't find the musical ideas particularly interesting.

What ideas? I didn't know therre were any. Other than the soprano bit that goes
like 'What a load of rubbish.....'

>   I suspect
> it hasn't done the 'campaign for the promotion of contemporary
> band music' any favours because now every time a new piece is proposed
> folks remember their reaction to BL.  There are much better pieces
> out there and better composers waiting for the chance.  (Elgar
> Howarth is a brilliant musician - formerly a great trumpet player and
> now a genius with the baton, but outside the band movement he isn't
> known as a composer...)

Why not?

> I like modern music, not for the clever things that composers do but
> for the sounds it makes.  Grimethorpe Aria is one of the best pieces of
> music I know, and sometimes, when I'm in the mood I get out my Harrison
> Birtwistle CDs and listen to them purely for pleasure!!!

Each to their own as said before. But if I were you - i'd start taking 2 tablets a
day!!!

:-)

Monkey


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