At 6:28 AM -0400 3/27/08, dhbailey wrote:
Most music appreciation classes leave the class members with the
impression that the historical music history periods all produced
only masterworks by superior composers and fail to address the fact
that much of what was written during those periods is no different
from much which is written during our own lifetimes -- Crap.
I think that every course, middle school, high school or college
level, should be required to begin with the statement of Sturgeon's
Law. And that it should be asked time and again on exams so that
people have a more realistic image of any historical time period,
whether music, literature, dance, or the plastic arts (painting,
sculpture, architecture).
I don't teach Music Apprec, but I do teach a 2-semester Survey of
Music course for music minors and general students. My disclaimer is
nowhere near that blatant. I emphasize that we'll be dealing with
the music of the composers recognized as the most important, for a
variety of reasons, but that during their lifetimes there were
thousands of other musicians holding down good jobs and writing music
that fit their needs at the time.
I think I would begin such a class with the statement "90% of
anything is crap. That includes the Baroque Era of music history,
which we will be studying in this class. You're lucky in that we
will be studying the 10% of Baroque music which isn't crap, but I
want you all to remember that while these composers we will be
studying were creating these masterworks, there were many more
composers turning out efficient but hardly worthwhile music that we
won't be studying."
While I may have brought up Sturgeon's law in the first place (or
perhaps that was a different discussion on a different mailing list),
it is at best a generalization, so we have to remember this: "No
generalization is ever true, including this one!"
My caution has to do with the definition of "crap." Since I've just
been researching baroque chamber music in our library, I would apply
the following modification to S's Law in regard to baroque chamber
music: 20% or so is outstanding (and that includes 100% of
Telemann!); 60% or so is competent and enjoyable; 20% is inferior.
That bell-curve distribution seems to me more realistic than S's Law.
It might be applicable to the music of other periods, in other styles
as well; I'm not prepared to argue that one way or the other.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
