Musical Terrorism

[michael-rockowitz]

[carl-swanson]

I’m not going to respond directly to posts that have been put on this thread because I have not read all of them yet. But I do want to say that there is a larger picture. I own a copy of ‘The concise(meaning the shorter version) Bakers Biographical Dictionary of Musicians. It’s over 1100 pages long. I have no idea how many composers are listed in there. But 99.9% of them you’ve never heard of. The point is, in every age, less than 1% of the music composed makes it into the standard repertoire. We too have to suffer through many bad pieces in order to hear the occasional good one. And I don’t think anyone, critics included, can predict which pieces are going to last.

At the same time, I believe there are hidden gems that are waiting to be rediscovered. Yesterday on our local classical music station I heard a Symphony by Hans Rott. He composed it when he was 20 in 1878 and was hailed by Mahler and other major composers of the day as the greatest new composer of the age. The symphony was absolutely riveting; a gigantic piece that bore an uncanny resemblance to symphonies that Mahler would later compose. I stopped what I was doing in the shop, turned off the machinery and stood there listening to this glorious symphony for almost a half hour. I never do that. Rott died by suicide at the age of 24, having burned many other pieces that he had composed. So almost nothing remains today of his music. What an incomprehensible tragedy. I got out my copy of Baker’s and Rott is not even in there! Only time will tell with any composer what will survive and what will not.

[Kathleen Elarte]

Take a bowl of your bodily fluids and body waste, mix some blood, get
Your Government to fund it, entitle it “The fringes of MY society”.
Present it at a WORLD Harp Congress as “new” music and impose it on a
World audience.

[tony-morosco]

” I know if I was American, I would not take this sitting down. I would be inundating the World Harp Congress with protest letters.”

Well, as an American I have a lot more important issues to worry about than some musical composition played at a relatively obscure music conference (how many non-harpists even know what the WHC is?), regardless if it is brilliant or garbage.

My country is facing some very serious issues right now and I just can’t find the energy to get that pissed off over some piece of crap music composition that probably no one will ever hear again.

“What does it take to make Americans wake-up? Another 9-11? Or just the trend of Western countries now joining the ranks of the “Let’s target America” with our hate-music?”

Please, the hyperbole is getting out of hand, and I actually find the comparison and linking of things like this and terrorism to be highly offensive.

It’s a piece of music. It may be garbage (to be honest when a critique is as emotion laden and over the top as the one that started this thread I have a hard time taking it seriously) but it is just music. People have taken pot shots at others through music through the history of music (even if you want to call this a pot shot. Having lived in several major US metropolitan areas including NYC the fact is that there IS a higher incidence of drug use in these places) and to suggest that it can be a direct lead in to terrorism is just going too far in my opinion.

[Christian Frederick]

I withdraw my comment “Kathy…thanks for speaking up”.

It’s beginning to sound like she listens too much to Sean Hannity.

I prefer Carol Burnett reruns, and I only look at “new music” from an artistic level, not political paranoia.

[unknown-user]

Wow. Finally, a really challenging and stimulating artistic discussion. It’s been a long time. Briefly, I will say that relying on grants tends to lead to this sort of ridiculous “music” because a proposal has to look good on paper. It’s also the kind of thing that indirectly lost us NEA support for classical music. Most people who call themselves composers are not, or at least, it does not mean they are musical or talented. Some of the least talented composers I have come across have been the most successful. And some, like Michael Torke, are lacking in taste and sensibility. Anyone who incorporates rock music and electric instruments into classical music is someone who does not think. Except about success and money. Most composers seem to be in it for the money, oddly enough.

I find it difficult for some reason to “get my music out there.” I think it is because I am a bit shy, it is truly beautiful and therefore needs protectiveness, it seems, and my limited energy is directed to writing new pieces rather than promoting. With performers too, because they probably don’t practice much, the worst people seem to promote themselves the most, with results that help them but help destroy the harp’s status, roughly speaking. It is our modern world, where people have little education or sensibility, we are stuck with a legacy of worshipping novelty for its own sake, as well as egoism and celebrity-seeking behavior.

Is Meijer covering for a lack of

[kimberly-houser]

This has been a great discussion.

[tony-morosco]

I agree that electric instruments certainly can be use in “classical” music (i.e. Modern Art Music). I have heard it done several times to excellent effect. There is a difference between playing a baroque piece on electric instruments and playing a modern piece written with those instruments in mind.

Also I often enjoy unconventional instrumentation. One of my favorite “avant guard” pieces of music is HK Gruber’s Frankenstein Suite. Among the standard instrumentation are some slightly unusual items like Gamelan gongs and sand paper blocks, but also some really out there things like plastic children’s toys, rubber tubing and paper bags (that the percussionist blows up and pops several times during the performance).

When I saw the piece performed I was blown away. There were clearly some who didn’t appreciate it, and a few even got up and walked out. But I thought it was one of the most interesting, not to mention entertaining, pieces of modern music I have heard in a long time. My only regret at the time was that there were no recordings of it available. One finally came out last year and although I had to have it imported to get a copy it was worth every penny.

To each their own. I can appreciate that some people don’t like certain things, but I think that meaning and value of such things are put on it by the individual as much as by the general public. It makes no difference to me if there are only a handful of people who enjoyed Gruber’s performance of his piece (although I think it was actually more than a handful). What matters to me is that I liked it and hope to see it again some day. And I have a feeling my local symphony would look forward to doing it again as well. I don’t recall ever seeing them so clearly enjoy playing a piece. They were definitely have a ball playing the piece. When half of them pulled out toy instruments, the other half started swinging rubber tubing and the timpanist started popping paper bags they all had such big smiles on their faces.

Of course somewhere there is probably someone writing about this piece saying how ridiculous they all looked playing toy instruments and that the popping bags were just annoying. Vive la difference.

So if someone doesn’t want to see a performance that includes electric instruments then that is fine. It only means it will be that much easier for me to get a ticket.

[Christian Frederick]

David Ice said:

>>But (and this is my own opinion) I have to wonder if sometimes,

[kimberly-houser]

Academia can function both as a preserver of tradition and as springboard for innovation… this greatly depends on the mindset of the individual academic and the institution that they are involved with.

[brook-boddie]

“Ms. Meijer performed a work, that is all, it does not mean she had ANY personal investment in it or that it expressed her views any more than if she had been performing Hindemith or Grandjany.”

Kimberly, you make an interesting point with this statement.

[Tacye]

“I don’t think that we can
totally dismiss the harpist’s willingness to perform it as at least
some indication that she felt that it was worthy to be performed.”

Hmm, maybe, maybe not.

[brook-boddie]

That would be interesting, Tacye.

[David Ice]

I am sitting here listening to Thomas Newman’s score to Wall-E.

[Bonnie Shaljean]

> It would be an interesting project to chart all WHC premiers and see which have sunk without trace and which have been played again.

Very good point, Tacye.

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