At 07:48 PM 1/31/05 -0500, David W. Fenton wrote: >Given that you seem to place ZERO value on the contributions of live >musicians to performance, it's not surprising that you think this.
David, I place enormous value on live performance -- when it's needed, when it isn't mere reproduction, when it does something quantifiably different from virtual versions, and when its use doesn't cause artistic damage. In this discussion I didn't speak of synths or algorithms, for example, but rather virtual ensembles -- which are played by musicians. And I spoke of recordings -- which are made by musicians. And I spoke of definitive versions of my music -- even if the musician who successfully and musically cracks a new piece open is to my mind a miracle worker. These are separate issues. And at the same time, there is no doubt that during a critical period in the artform, a majority of musicians worked against new nonpop by the proportion of time, energy, practice, enthusiasm and understanding they allocated to it, and the hostility they greeted it with. Those circumstances have debilitated an entire generation of players in their ability to make music out of new music. It is frankly not an accident that younger performers returning to the music spurned by their fathers are now making performances and recordings that reveal today what the composers only imagined. It may be an unexceptional fact, but it not an excusable one. However, there remain important solutions to be found. Among them, for example, is not protesting what a virtual orchestra does well but rather finding a solution as many family farmers did to survive -- find new crops to grow. I live in farm country and know how hard it is. I live as a composer and know how hard that is. If you want to represent what I say in your response, I encourage you to try to understand why I say what I say -- even if my words may parse badly from time to time -- and not merely set up some Foxnewsistic soundbite-strawman to pummel. Dennis _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
