At 11:27 AM -0400 6/23/02, Christopher BJ Smith wrote: >At 5:20 PM -0500 6/22/02, John Howell wrote: >> >> >>Irving Berlin not only survived but flourished not being able to read or >>write a note of music. He could play what he wanted (supposedly only in >>the key of F#, and I guess the pianos rigged with movable keyboards to let >>him do this are right there in the Smithsonian), and he hired musical >>secretaries to take down his songs and put them into notation. > > >I've heard that account from many different sources, and I find it >hard to beleive that Berlin's assistants were only taking down >musical dictation. Berlin's harmonic sense was (by all other reports >of people who heard him play his own songs, like Alec Wilder!) quite >limited, and the harmonies of his tunes are quite sophisticated at >times, to which I think the credit should go to his assistants. > >Like Linda, I have often been in the position of arranging a melody >that some client has played to me using I, IV, and V chords, and >making it quite lush using my own harmonies, to his delight. I >suspect that Berlin's relationship with his assistants was similar. > >Because of the way copyright laws are set up, the person who worked >out those beautiful chords to all those Berlin tunes doesn't get a >penny of royalties, as only lyrics and melodies are copyrightable. >Yet, IMHO, those songs might not have been the successes that they >were without the contribution of the assistant, so wouldn't they be >due a bit of spare change? > >Christopher >_______________________________________________
To my way of thinking yes, but the laws deem otherwise. It's Sunday, and Margot is away visiting her mother, so I feel like ranting a little. Disinterested parties are welcome to delete the following at will. My mother used to ask me, "Is that a composition of yours or 'only' an arrangement?" My response was, "My compositions are my natural born children, my arrangements my adopted kids. I lavish love on them all." To her credit, she got the point. Still, for me, it is not easy to feel the confidence and strength required to come up with newly formed projects all the time, and my energy often needs a less demanding outlet. Making a personal version of someone else's work, work that sometimes seems a little unfinished to me, can be a rewarding diversion, and it does nothing to diminish my respect for the basic structure of the piece on which I am focusing this attention. If I spend enough energy on a particularly fruitful arrangement, sometimes a work emerges which seems to stand on its own. Nevertheless, it couldn't have happened without the original thing to inspire it - and there eventually gets to be a delicately balanced question of proportion in terms of "credit." How important is harmony, for instance? To me, Bill Evans' application of chordal counterpoint to the bridges of "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Lover Man" (both of them, stunning), or the whole of Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine" has become inseparable from the way I remember those songs in my head. But most listeners are less affected by this and recognize and appreciate the songs even when they are performed with bizarre harmony (in ignorant versions). As one who has learned to respond to harmonic nuance and become fascinated by it, this is a confusing and frustrating phenomenon. On the one hand, the harmony re-makes the song on a deep level (to my ears). On the other hand, the process of coming up with a telling re-harmonization is more like figuring out a crossword puzzle than writing a poem - not exactly, of course, but something like that. The general listener hears no important differences, and the true "credit" goes to the tunesmith. Part of me understands that, another part thinks that the originators of the plots of Shakespeare's plays did not write those plays. Porgy and Bess is monumental. Miles Davis/Gil Evans Porgy and Bess is sensational and inconceivable without Gershwin. I love them both, but must admit to being especially attracted to Miles and Gil. What does that mean? They have translated a great work into an idiom that speaks more personally to me? A famous pop songwriter/singer was a student of mine for a short time - a gifted one who learned at an amazing rate. His work changed a little as he absorbed information he needed to make his work be more interesting and move forward when it got stuck, but it wasn't mine, so I politely sidestepped his elliptical (and kind hearted) suggestion that I might be due "points" on the resulting album. I never could figure out how to make real money out of music. OK - enough. Cheers, Chuck -- Chuck Israels 230 North Garden Terrace Bellingham WA 98225-5836 (360) 671-3402 fax (360) 676-6055 [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
