Steve Schwartz ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Jan Templiner replies to Dave Lampson's:
>
>>...  The "craftsman" quality of the music can be judged objectively.
>>I am by no means an expert on this, and know only very little.  But
>>pointing out parallel fifths or octaves in a fugue is something
>>objective.  The music may be "effective", but it's badly written.
>
>The parallel fifths or octaves are objective.  The assertion that their
>presence marks a badly-written piece is not.  Bach has parallel fifths
>and octaves in fugal texture (works supplied on request).

Indeed.  Some years (OK, OK, 35) ago I met a woman who had had composition
lessons with Ralph Vaughan Williams (bet that got your attention Steve!)

She told me about the time he'd asked her to write a string quartet
(movement) as an exercise.  When she brought the work to him and they
were going through it together, she suddenly noticed something for the
first time.

"Oh, no!" she exclaimed.

"What is it?" asked RVW.

"Look, there: parallel fifths."

"Well, did you *mean* parallel fifths?".

"Yes, I suppose I did."

"So where is the problem?"

deryk barker
([log in to unmask], http://www.camosun.bc.ca/~dbarker)