Musical Terrorism

[Tacye]

And do you find the War Requiem or Child of Our Time contentless beauty or believe they should not have been written because they are not pleasant subjects?

[Liam M]

What I see is a very judgemental self righteous woman feigning offense.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

It seems many of these responses are not in scale with the poster’s position.

[janelle-lake]

On a sort of related

[rolf den Otter]

The arguments, brought by Kathy Elarte remind me of a song by the rockband “living colour”:

I look at the T.V.

Your America’s doing well

I look out the window

My America’s catching hell

Do you really want to neglect what is happening outside the window?

Rolf den Otter

http://www.youtube.com/user/EuropeanArchive

[Karen Johns]

Just goes to show you- you can’t trust the TV! Thank goodness I don’t watch a whole lot of it.

But then that brings up the question: Just how much does media influence the way others think of America? But that may not be appropriate for this forum, which is about harps.

[Liam M]

Karen,

Perhaps I could answer quickly and we could take the discussion elsewhere should others object?

As a multinational with ties, (And homes), on three continents; I travel a bit. When I travel, for safety and convenience,

[Karen Johns]

“I do believe though music is a constant and a universal language.”

Truer words were never spoken, Liam. I consider music to be my first language, English my second. Someday though I may learn the Irish language, since I have immersed myself in this style of music.

[Liam M]

Perhaps we both should reserve space at the feet of Audrey, RED FOX! I admire what she has accomplished, Irish is quite difficult I have found and I already have more then one language.

[Peter Hoogenboom]

This is an absolutely brilliant thread!
I do understand the reactions of the composer and the performer, but in my opinion this thread has taken a much wider perspective of the role of ‘modern’ musician present day’s society.
I myself am very much a keeper of old traditions and values. Still play the old vinyl records, enjoy their imperfections. We play baroque music on the old Lyon & Healy.
On the other hand I am very much someone who enjoys modern music, jazz, pop, rock, even rap and metal and I especially like the crossovers. I find harp being used more and more is different styles of crossover music. The electro acoustic harp is a great technological push forward to explore more possibilities and styles.

I will not disagree the artistic value of the spoken piece, not by the composer, nor the performer. I just have a certain taste for myself. I know what I like. It is true that some pieces need ear training to appreciate, but I fear I will never truly see the reputed beauty in Mahler’s work. It is in this way I will probably never find the supposed beauty in this much discussed work.

I too have the uncomfortable feeling that modern composers feel the need to be extravagant, difficult and extremely uncomfortable to the ear. I can dig the dissonants, really. Music doesn’t always have to be angelic, happy, cheerful and so, it can also be sad, emotional, dark etc. But at least it must be inviting to play again and again. It is this part at wich a lot of modern music fails to meet my needs.

We do a little ‘avant garde’ ourselves. Starting next weekend my wife, Janne-Minke will play in, presumably one of the worlds first, crossover progressive metal band. We will however make sure the material will be worth listening. Hope you can appreciate and we will post some demo’s once available. All comments will be noted gracefully.

[niina]

This sounds to me just like ‘In Your Face’ theatre. Where the whole idea is to shock and upset the audience into thinking more deeply about issues that are going on around them in society. These people write plays or compose music with the arrogant thought that they are the only ones with any sense of what is happening, and they must teach us about it. Just like the yob who drives his car down the street with very loud music playing and his windows wound down. “Listen to this NEW band, they are amazing and have something to say and I must make you listen too”. I think most of us, even at my young age know full well what is going on in the World, without someone forcing it on us in the guise of art and getting us to PAY THEM for it!!!

The more we try to push boundaries in this way through art, the more desenitised we become to those horrors, and the less likely we are to want to listen to any messages, from wherever they come. I’d rather be told about them via campaigns, charities, documentary makers or news; not from composers and writers who feel they need to educate us and charge us at the same time.

[tony-morosco]

Sorry but what composer, writer, painter or other artist isn’t trying to get people to think about deeper stuff or trying to get their views across? That’s the difference between craft and art. Art says something.

If you don’t have something you want to get others to think about you don’t become a serious composer. You just write ad jingles.

People only get upset at artists when they disagree with what the artist has to say, but they all are trying to say something. But it’s not about agreeing. It’s about how effectively the idea is conveyed and how effective it is at getting others to just consider the ideas.

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