Good points Ray--
I also have been deeply affected by the availability of music on
line, and using the computer for composing..
Many years ago, I decided to try to compose..but had NO idea how to
progress. My idea then--which I STILL follow-- was to, as TOTALLY as
possible, keep myself from listening to ANY older music..so as NOT to
sound dated, in my musical speech, gestures, etc...
I would guess my cut off point was the 1920's. Sounds drastic, but it
has really helped me..
I had many of the CRI, Nonesuch recordings-many which I picked up for
99 cents at record stores-(eg Boulez Structures-)
Now with the Internet (and sites like http://www.dramonline.org/,
which has many ( I believe to eventually be all of the old CRI
catalog recordings) and other sites
eg http://musicmavericks.publicradio.org/, and streaming
performances, from overseas, etc ,I can stay abreast of what's going
on, and totally immerse myself in a way unimaginable to me.
It's as the commercial says."priceless."
I have often felt that many works (the Copland and Carter Piano
Sonatas immediately come to mind) where later in the work, it seems
to just fall apart.--
and being a "Monday morning quarterback.composer" I wonder what they
were thinking!!
Both composers and their musical material were EXCELLENT, so my
thoughts are that these and many works suffered from the composer NOT
being able to sit back-- SOLELY as a critically listening member of
the audience-- and hear his work played back, as many times as needed
during the composing process.
They would either be involved playing it, or reading from score,
which would divert their attention away...
But SOLELY as a listener to our works--which we can now do with
computer playback, and a good mockup--its so much easer to hear, find
and fix areas of pitch, and gesture fatigue, form problems etc.,
and the flow of the piece from beginning to end can really be judged,
Just some thoughts.
Bob Morabito.
On Mar 8, 2008, at 3:29 PM, Ray Horton wrote:
- but the gain has been tremendous. And the new technology, at
which we can share rare recordings by MP3 around the world in
seconds - is fantastic.
And as far as the new technology for composers - it has freed me,
who is both a terrible pianist and could never get an ink pen to
work worth a darn. Back when I had to copy stuff out by hand I got
a fraction of the music written that I do now, and it wasn't played
as much, and the music wasn't as good. (I love the ability to play
it back.) And I still keep sketches, some in pencil and some on
the computer, if anybody but myself ever wants to look at them.
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