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Date: | Thu, 13 Jun 2002 11:02:24 -0500 |
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Kevin Sutton responding to Mike Leghorn:
>>... Maybe we can be more observant and appreciative of the music that
>>surrounds us every day. I, for one, could really benefit from that. ...
>
>Music does not surround us every day. Ambient noise surrounds us every
>day. Music is something that is created. It doesn't happen by accident.
True enough. It's also something that composers don't necessarily create
and that doesn't arrive by a creative artist's intent. We talk about
bird song, for example, or the music of the ocean. Any art requires an
audience. It takes a human being to recognize that the ambient noise one
hears is art, whether it's coming out of a symphony orchestra being led by
a conductor or a set of wind chimes moved by the breeze. This goes back to
the questions of the Twenties: Is a public urinal art? It is if you choose
to consider it that way -- that there is an aesthetic component to it
divorced from the intent of its creator or the uses to which it is normally
put.
>>Stravinsky and Britten had completely different objectives than Oliveros.
No kidding.
>>Obviously the work and skill that Oliveros put into composing her "music"
>>can't compare with what went into composing "Rite of Spring".
This ultimately equates aesthetic worth with complexity -- a false notion
if you can think of one counter-example.
>>Also Stravinsky and Britten have received a lot more credit for their work
>>than Oliveros (I've never even heard of Oliveros).
Oh my! I thought you'd actually heard something. In general, don't you
think it a bad idea to comment on something you haven't heard?
>I want to see Pauline Oliveros or Paul Chihara or Morton Subotnik or Larry
>Austin sit down and write a piece of absolute music.
Well, Paul Chihara has done so, actually. Don't know about the others.
Of course, whether you would *like* it is another matter. But this really
says "A four-year-old kid could do as well," which probably means that
you don't understand the skill of the techniques these composers use,
as opposed to more traditional techniques. I don't really understand
why music has to be notes on a page or something with a high degree of
invariance. I also don't see why music has to be listened to -- that
is, beyond a recital of the process for generating the music. Now, the
description of the Oliveros program doesn't, I admit, seem tremendously
interesting to me (or, for that matter, particularly strong-minded).
But she *has* written other works.
Steve Schwartz
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