janzen@pipa.DEC (Thomas E. J. LMO4/B5 279-5421 ECL Test) (02/13/85)
2) Is there 'progress' in the arts? Of course not. Arts are made by people, and people never change. The things they express never change (the are no philosophical ideas that have not a long history). Their materials do not appreciably change. It is true that Laurie Anderson uses a balanced modulator to lower her voice, but story tellers have been changing their voices for effect for a long time. She also uses a vocoder, but the effect is similar to choral homophony, which is very old indeed. Her performance could be done with the technical tools of ancient Greek theater. Nothing changes. The more authentic the expression is, the more ancient it is likely to be. "Originality for Originality's Sake" cannot exist, because there is no originality; there is only credibility for the moment. Be sincere, be clever, be technically correct, but assume that you're repeating something heard long ago before historical record. 3) Has the media supplanted live concerts? (both aesthetically and practically) When Subotnik has made pieces just to fit on the side of a record, it certainly has. Live concerts remain only to promote recordings sales. Composing is an iconoclastic experience, and now listening is too. Don't ever forget the popularity of playing music at home in the 19th century. That was the reason Liszt transcribed the Beethoven symphonies. Records don't change anything, although they have more scratchy sounds than a live piano. Maybe not. Anyway, now it is possible for the public to enjoy music without actually knowing anything about music. Sarcasm aside, I remember an editorial in Polyphony, praising the new portable personal keyboards (Casio, etc.) as offering the unmusical and unvirtuosic a means to make their own music, obviating the need for specialized composers. Unfortunately, he ignored the fact that no matter how automated an instrument is, music remains technical; also, if an instrument is automated, then that means that it contains information about the music to be made, i.e., it tells you what music you can and cannot make. Perhaps this is not different from the boundaries of a tin whistle, which can be as expressive as an orchestra. 4) Should the classical arts be federally funded? Once "The Open Mind" TV show discussed this issue. I sent them a postcard that said, The arts, like religion, corrupt and are corrupted by government. Influences on government-funded art, from the explicit to the subliminal, damage the personal expression in the same way fame does. A popular artist is loath to risk losing audience by suddenly changing their work's style or content. Likewise, if an artist knows their livelihood depends on government generosity, it becomes easy to endeavor to please the arbiter of that generosity. Nevertheless, it is perhaps desirable, although not entirely necessary, that government support the arts by building and supporting large institutions with the spaces, equipment, and resources required by today's artists. Housing may actually be a more important possible contribution - not free housing, but appropriate housing. 5) Is current music theory/scholarship helpful? Or has it become a jargon-filled competition for university positions? Criticism never had any value other than the entertainment it provides. We have the newspaper critics, and the journals' professors. Martin Bernheimer (L.A. Times, pulitzer 1983(?)) wouldn't know music if it bit him. He reveals the political machinations behind the filling of a conductor post; he ridicules world-class singers that drop out of a major performance at the last minute for dubious reasons. I have read him neither mention the sound of an instrument and its effect on him, nor the ideas in a piece of music, nor refer to measure numbers. His column has the same importance in the world of music as Erma Bombeck's has in, say, the world of music. The journals are written by professors; education is intrinsically retrospective; professors live in the past; I live in the present; they have nothing to say to me. Tom Janzen Digital Equipment, 150 Locke, Marlboro MA Wed 13-Feb-1985 09:36 EST