Owain Sutton wrote:
John Howell wrote:
At 11:25 PM +0000 1/28/06, Owain Sutton wrote:
John Howell wrote:
(Academic: A composer who earns a living teaching because s/he
cannot write music that earns a living, but argues that any music
that sells is a sellout.)
A thoroughly unfair stereotype. Most composers I know who are in
academia would dearly love to be able to make enough money from
writing music to get out of teaching.
Oh, I agree completely! But are they willing to analyze the
marketplace and produce music suited to it? Mozart did. Haydn did.
Bach did. So did DuFay, Josquin, Palestrina and Byrd. I don't
believe anyone has ever accused them of "selling out"!
And I don't mean just movie scores or pop arrangements, either. There
are markets for good, singable church music that an average choir can
handle, and innovative choral music suitable for both professional and
university choruses that is within their grasp. If a composer insists
on writing music that only 3 choruses or 6 singers or 2 string
quartets in the world can sing well, s/he had better know those
performers and conductors very well! Same thing for symphonic music
(when there's a wide open market for wind band music), solo sonatas
and character pieces, and high quality literature for students at
every level. There are lots of markets, but not for people who look
down on them.
John
Some good points, perhaps, although I think you need a bit more evidence
before making such claims about Dufay or Josquin with such certainty!
However, moulding one's music to fit the market expectation is *not*
necessary in order to make a living from composing, and there *are*
composers who do so with music that nobody would describe as toned-down
or sold-out.
However, your general tone seems to look on the composer purely in a
utilitarian manner - particularly in the suggestion that wind band music
is the way forward.
I don't think John was saying that Wind Band music was the way forward
-- he was just pointing out that it is a wide-open marketplace which
embraces new music, so if someone wants to sell some music, writing
music (not necessarily in a pandering or sold-out style) for the wind
band has a greater chance of actually earning money.
As for Dufay or Josquin, they wrote music which their employers liked or
they would have been out of a job. Writing music which someone likes,
or writing music to order, is not the same as selling out, which I
interpret to be more the total abandonment of one's artistic ideals in
order to make some money.
Writing music you detest to put bread on your table is selling out
(think of those horrid German Dances and countless Minuets which
Beethoven and Mozart wrote to put bread on their table) but writing
music which you believe in but is tailored to someone's specific needs
so they buy it is quite different.
And court composers and church composers had two choices -- write music
which their employers liked or go work somewhere else or in some other
field.
--
David H. Bailey
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
