> What a lovely post Keith,
For me it was the Brahm's Requiem and the first time
singing with the
orchestra. We had plenty of first class choruses in Tulsa but never had I
experienced the orchestra with the descending three part women's chords with
the resounding D pedal point. It was an important moment but I will never
forget the absolutely sublime chords as the chorus rose higher and higher in
Schoenberg's magnificent Friede auf Erde. Peace on Earth or the first time
I really "got" the Beethoven Ode to Joy which seemed musty the first time I
heard it. It took many hearings for me to crawl into its eccentricities.
I will never forget the first singer that I taught that opening baritone
solo too. I almost cried because it had come to mean so much to me on the
reservation. Or playing the trombone in the Prelude to Act III Lohengrin.
On and on.
orchestra. We had plenty of first class choruses in Tulsa but never had I
experienced the orchestra with the descending three part women's chords with
the resounding D pedal point. It was an important moment but I will never
forget the absolutely sublime chords as the chorus rose higher and higher in
Schoenberg's magnificent Friede auf Erde. Peace on Earth or the first time
I really "got" the Beethoven Ode to Joy which seemed musty the first time I
heard it. It took many hearings for me to crawl into its eccentricities.
I will never forget the first singer that I taught that opening baritone
solo too. I almost cried because it had come to mean so much to me on the
reservation. Or playing the trombone in the Prelude to Act III Lohengrin.
On and on.
That is the place where I experienced community in the
non-Indian world.
Peter Drucker imagined the ideal of the modern corporation as an orchestra.
If you've never played in one or even sung in a chorus you have no hope of
knowing what he meant. The closest you can get is the imaginary "higher
beings" in the old star trek series or ESP.
Peter Drucker imagined the ideal of the modern corporation as an orchestra.
If you've never played in one or even sung in a chorus you have no hope of
knowing what he meant. The closest you can get is the imaginary "higher
beings" in the old star trek series or ESP.
Reading your article I agree that we must stress amateur
musicians once
again but it must be secular. It never left our churches over here for
the concert hall. The Concert Halls have died while the churches have
flourished. You can experience more music of more variety in church in
America than any other place. Quite the opposite from Europe. On the
other hand such live and participatory music has been cut off from the
non-Christian people who do not have this music available in the secular
world except in dead recordings.
again but it must be secular. It never left our churches over here for
the concert hall. The Concert Halls have died while the churches have
flourished. You can experience more music of more variety in church in
America than any other place. Quite the opposite from Europe. On the
other hand such live and participatory music has been cut off from the
non-Christian people who do not have this music available in the secular
world except in dead recordings.
Don't get me wrong. I love my Abbado tapes and there
are many singers that
I never would have heard except on recording but it was singing on stage
with the Richard Tuckers, Cornell McNeil, George London, Anna Moffo, or
watching the great Cherokee ballerina Yvonne Chouteau from the stage that
touched my heart and opened my soul. I can put all the missing parts into
the tapes because I played in orchestras, sang in choruses and performed on
the stage with the greatest singers in the world from the time I left the
reservation at 17. On the reservation almost everybody did some kind of
art. We all sang, played instruments and did the traditional crafts.
Today many families maintain their ties by doing crafts together and
traveling around to the Powwow summer festivals to dance and sell the crafts
that they make during the winter months.
I never would have heard except on recording but it was singing on stage
with the Richard Tuckers, Cornell McNeil, George London, Anna Moffo, or
watching the great Cherokee ballerina Yvonne Chouteau from the stage that
touched my heart and opened my soul. I can put all the missing parts into
the tapes because I played in orchestras, sang in choruses and performed on
the stage with the greatest singers in the world from the time I left the
reservation at 17. On the reservation almost everybody did some kind of
art. We all sang, played instruments and did the traditional crafts.
Today many families maintain their ties by doing crafts together and
traveling around to the Powwow summer festivals to dance and sell the crafts
that they make during the winter months.
A Doctor once asked me if there were any great American
Indian operas or
works of art. I mentioned the Deer Dance and the Navajo "sings" but he
thought that was strange. Opera means "work" and is a multimedia work of
painting, dance, instruments and of course singing. The Deer Dance is a
nine day festival filled with all of the above and a Navajo "sing" is a many
day solo tour de force of design, dance , singing and drama, all for the
same reason as the original Greek dramas at Epidoris. Healing the soul and
the community. We have forgotten the reason for the music in the first
place and forgotten how to feel. We have also forgotten that it takes
great skill and development to do both in the more advanced disciplines.
works of art. I mentioned the Deer Dance and the Navajo "sings" but he
thought that was strange. Opera means "work" and is a multimedia work of
painting, dance, instruments and of course singing. The Deer Dance is a
nine day festival filled with all of the above and a Navajo "sing" is a many
day solo tour de force of design, dance , singing and drama, all for the
same reason as the original Greek dramas at Epidoris. Healing the soul and
the community. We have forgotten the reason for the music in the first
place and forgotten how to feel. We have also forgotten that it takes
great skill and development to do both in the more advanced disciplines.
That is the one place where I disagree with your
article. I find the music
of the composers that he thought failures to be as beautiful and enriching
as the "old favorites" that he mentions as well. In fact I find the newer
works indicative of the time from which they are drawn and that for me is
what a large part of it is all about. I'll never forget an audience
weeping at a Holocaust minimalist piece at the Guggenheim. It was
minimal, simple in concept but incredible in execution. The dancer ran up
and down a ramp as fast as she could for almost thirty minutes. The ramp
was wood and resounded with her feet as a drum as the history of the
holocaust was projected on Frank Lloyd Wright's white walls of the museum.
At first it was annoying, in the end the actual devastating fatigue of the
dancer as she simply ran up and down, changing directions at each end was a
inescapable for us as for her. Her task (a part of the aleatory art form
since it was filled with chance decisions unthought before hand) and the
reality of the banality of her task along with the inescapable reality
translated as being trapped, courageous, determined and for a moment
connected us to the reality of a truly trapped individual with our being
guards who made her continue to the end. The parallel was devastating as
the entire audience wept no matter what people they were from.
of the composers that he thought failures to be as beautiful and enriching
as the "old favorites" that he mentions as well. In fact I find the newer
works indicative of the time from which they are drawn and that for me is
what a large part of it is all about. I'll never forget an audience
weeping at a Holocaust minimalist piece at the Guggenheim. It was
minimal, simple in concept but incredible in execution. The dancer ran up
and down a ramp as fast as she could for almost thirty minutes. The ramp
was wood and resounded with her feet as a drum as the history of the
holocaust was projected on Frank Lloyd Wright's white walls of the museum.
At first it was annoying, in the end the actual devastating fatigue of the
dancer as she simply ran up and down, changing directions at each end was a
inescapable for us as for her. Her task (a part of the aleatory art form
since it was filled with chance decisions unthought before hand) and the
reality of the banality of her task along with the inescapable reality
translated as being trapped, courageous, determined and for a moment
connected us to the reality of a truly trapped individual with our being
guards who made her continue to the end. The parallel was devastating as
the entire audience wept no matter what people they were from.
What are the physical forms of the theater and their
meanings? The
orchestra is the underworld that feeds the themes of life to the people on
the stage while the audience is the angels or demons who determine the
success or failure of actual performance. Something that we learn about
life and transfer into our own world as humanity. Who has not enjoyed and
learned from Baron Ochs and the Marshallin in the last act of Der
Rosencavellier as he realizes that she has had a tryst with Octavian but is
unable to turn it to his own advantage and the heavenly trio that follows as
the Marshallin gives up her 17 year old lover to his new wife? What do we
learn about the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the little turbaned
servant who leaves nothing behind to be used against his mistress at the
end?
orchestra is the underworld that feeds the themes of life to the people on
the stage while the audience is the angels or demons who determine the
success or failure of actual performance. Something that we learn about
life and transfer into our own world as humanity. Who has not enjoyed and
learned from Baron Ochs and the Marshallin in the last act of Der
Rosencavellier as he realizes that she has had a tryst with Octavian but is
unable to turn it to his own advantage and the heavenly trio that follows as
the Marshallin gives up her 17 year old lover to his new wife? What do we
learn about the culture of the Ottoman Empire and the little turbaned
servant who leaves nothing behind to be used against his mistress at the
end?
Last night I went to the "Wagner like" movie "Return of
the King" the third
of the Tolkien trilogy. It was thrilling although more than a little
stereotypical and racist in the attitudes of Tolkien its author. The
"inferior human races" were of course the only turbaned and black faces in the
film while the elves were gorgeous white faces mostly blond. Remember
this wasn't historical Europe but the pre-world "Middle Earth."
of the Tolkien trilogy. It was thrilling although more than a little
stereotypical and racist in the attitudes of Tolkien its author. The
"inferior human races" were of course the only turbaned and black faces in the
film while the elves were gorgeous white faces mostly blond. Remember
this wasn't historical Europe but the pre-world "Middle Earth."
(I didn't make it clear in the previous
version that "inferior human races" was
not my designation but in the script of the
movie. REH)
Of course it was wonderful to see the little hobbits
dreaming of
undiscovered American Indian strawberries and bringing in a huge pumpkin
also developed by American Indian agricultural scientists not in the
pre-world but in the historical present. But those are little things
probably not thought about in Tolkien's English world. But it was a grand
story with great computer human mixes and all on the huge I Max 5 story tall
screen. Fairy Liv Tyler speaking Gaelic was gorgeous and the mountains of
New Zealand are amazing. The orchestra was fun and the fight scenes were
OK, although nothing of the kind of devastation that I felt reading them
years ago. The little Epilogue at the end I found over long and cloying
but the whole film, after the initial enjoyment of the effects, left me with
both admiration and an uneasy feeling.
undiscovered American Indian strawberries and bringing in a huge pumpkin
also developed by American Indian agricultural scientists not in the
pre-world but in the historical present. But those are little things
probably not thought about in Tolkien's English world. But it was a grand
story with great computer human mixes and all on the huge I Max 5 story tall
screen. Fairy Liv Tyler speaking Gaelic was gorgeous and the mountains of
New Zealand are amazing. The orchestra was fun and the fight scenes were
OK, although nothing of the kind of devastation that I felt reading them
years ago. The little Epilogue at the end I found over long and cloying
but the whole film, after the initial enjoyment of the effects, left me with
both admiration and an uneasy feeling.
The good Sam and the evil Smeagal whose altar ego is
gollum same sound as
the Golum in Jewish literature. I suspect Tolkien was well aware of the
Dybbuk and the Golum. Given the other stereotyping and the obvious
connection of the Ring to power which easily could be material power
considering "eating the forest" and creating the hellish factory which
created war machine in film II. The Ring could easily be connected to
industrialization and economic power and poor Smeagol was taken in and
destroyed and turned into Gollum by it. Does all of that story make you as
queasy as it does me? I've heard the story before to describe Jewish
people. Having worked with a lot of European legends not to mention
Shakespeare and the stereotypes from The Merchant of Venice to Beckmesser in
Meistersinger, I felt that Tolkien whether deliberately or subconsciously
was exercising a cartoon stereotype that I didn't want particularly in my
own head. I don't mind Beckmesser or Carmen because they are from another
generation which was more provincial and did not know what we know today.
But seeing this film come out in the 21st century with these hidden
characters I found offensive. Instead of discussing it on the various
sites on the internet dedicated to Tolkien, it is treated as if it didn't
exist. I spoke today to a Jewish student who had a strong reaction to the
first of the three films and refused to see the other two. It took me
three to take offense but sometimes I'm slow.
the Golum in Jewish literature. I suspect Tolkien was well aware of the
Dybbuk and the Golum. Given the other stereotyping and the obvious
connection of the Ring to power which easily could be material power
considering "eating the forest" and creating the hellish factory which
created war machine in film II. The Ring could easily be connected to
industrialization and economic power and poor Smeagol was taken in and
destroyed and turned into Gollum by it. Does all of that story make you as
queasy as it does me? I've heard the story before to describe Jewish
people. Having worked with a lot of European legends not to mention
Shakespeare and the stereotypes from The Merchant of Venice to Beckmesser in
Meistersinger, I felt that Tolkien whether deliberately or subconsciously
was exercising a cartoon stereotype that I didn't want particularly in my
own head. I don't mind Beckmesser or Carmen because they are from another
generation which was more provincial and did not know what we know today.
But seeing this film come out in the 21st century with these hidden
characters I found offensive. Instead of discussing it on the various
sites on the internet dedicated to Tolkien, it is treated as if it didn't
exist. I spoke today to a Jewish student who had a strong reaction to the
first of the three films and refused to see the other two. It took me
three to take offense but sometimes I'm slow.
So I went home and watched the real thing, Wagner,
Lohengrin. With the
passionate Abbado in the pit and the Spanish Domingo as the Knight of the
Holy Grail. I listened to all of the blatant stereotyping and it made me
see our Western ancestors once more, clearly. Wagner's music was
unbelievable and those amazing preludes conducted with genius by Abbado.
Even on video it was thrilling. The richness of the score, the singing and
the commitment of the artists made me see the potential of these human
characters of Brabant while understanding how such "artistic souls" could
have decimated my people with impunity and then turned on themselves in
their racism in the 20th century. More than Tolkien's simple tale with
a lot of violence and crude subhuman characters and Godlike white folks,
this complicated story of secrecy and the complexity of what betrayal meant,
the loss of power through transparency is deceptively "simple." The power
of secrecy whether benign or evil and the importance of trust in the same
way that Orpheus "blew it" with Euridice or Coyote did with his daughter
here our myths. In Lohengrin the Gods of the Forest are the evil with the
priestess Ortrud standing in as the revenge element against the more
"modern" Knight Templar Lohengren. That was good religion versus bad
religion with chauvinistic culture thrown in for spice, but this "racist
issue awareness" is new.
passionate Abbado in the pit and the Spanish Domingo as the Knight of the
Holy Grail. I listened to all of the blatant stereotyping and it made me
see our Western ancestors once more, clearly. Wagner's music was
unbelievable and those amazing preludes conducted with genius by Abbado.
Even on video it was thrilling. The richness of the score, the singing and
the commitment of the artists made me see the potential of these human
characters of Brabant while understanding how such "artistic souls" could
have decimated my people with impunity and then turned on themselves in
their racism in the 20th century. More than Tolkien's simple tale with
a lot of violence and crude subhuman characters and Godlike white folks,
this complicated story of secrecy and the complexity of what betrayal meant,
the loss of power through transparency is deceptively "simple." The power
of secrecy whether benign or evil and the importance of trust in the same
way that Orpheus "blew it" with Euridice or Coyote did with his daughter
here our myths. In Lohengrin the Gods of the Forest are the evil with the
priestess Ortrud standing in as the revenge element against the more
"modern" Knight Templar Lohengren. That was good religion versus bad
religion with chauvinistic culture thrown in for spice, but this "racist
issue awareness" is new.
What became accepted was the "problem" of the other, the
conquered, the
inferior, the Smeagal the gollum, the evil spirit. Blacks moved from the
pre-history riders of Mastodons in Tolkien to the little black turbaned
footboy in Rosencavallier. Rosencavallier is older but the point is still
the same. He moves from terrorist to controlled child. Racism then is
diffused. Its just economics and Anti-semitism, racism, religious
intolerance becomes a tool for politics.
inferior, the Smeagal the gollum, the evil spirit. Blacks moved from the
pre-history riders of Mastodons in Tolkien to the little black turbaned
footboy in Rosencavallier. Rosencavallier is older but the point is still
the same. He moves from terrorist to controlled child. Racism then is
diffused. Its just economics and Anti-semitism, racism, religious
intolerance becomes a tool for politics.
How easily we complain about racism in politics like David
Brooks, in
today's NYTimes, assigning anti-Semitism to those who see a connection
between the writers who cut their teeth in the Jewish Commentary magazine
and who to a man have provided a rational for the war in Iraq. Calling
them Jewish is true since most of them wrote for a conservative Jewish
magazine. Calling them Jewish in their cause is not true unless you have
never heard of Tikkun which is more representitive of American Jewery
although most Jews in America support Israel. Wrapping neo-conservative
in Judaism is just as racist as wrapping Tom DeLay and GWB in the American
flag or worse Christianity. But racism is a real issue and it goes far
beyond such trivializing. The attitude towards Iraq is genuinely
culturally chauvinistic since the people advocating the war are appalling in
their ignorance of Islamic culture or even the Arab languages. It is one
thing to indiscriminately retaliate against a state or group that attacks
you as in 9/11, it is quite another just to pick someone and pronounce them
more evil than the rest in spite of their history and their relationship to
you. Death is death. If you kill children from the air or throw them off
buildings they are still dead and in the service of what you want to
accomplish. Both are evil acts. And I do believe in evil. But I am a
man of the theater.
today's NYTimes, assigning anti-Semitism to those who see a connection
between the writers who cut their teeth in the Jewish Commentary magazine
and who to a man have provided a rational for the war in Iraq. Calling
them Jewish is true since most of them wrote for a conservative Jewish
magazine. Calling them Jewish in their cause is not true unless you have
never heard of Tikkun which is more representitive of American Jewery
although most Jews in America support Israel. Wrapping neo-conservative
in Judaism is just as racist as wrapping Tom DeLay and GWB in the American
flag or worse Christianity. But racism is a real issue and it goes far
beyond such trivializing. The attitude towards Iraq is genuinely
culturally chauvinistic since the people advocating the war are appalling in
their ignorance of Islamic culture or even the Arab languages. It is one
thing to indiscriminately retaliate against a state or group that attacks
you as in 9/11, it is quite another just to pick someone and pronounce them
more evil than the rest in spite of their history and their relationship to
you. Death is death. If you kill children from the air or throw them off
buildings they are still dead and in the service of what you want to
accomplish. Both are evil acts. And I do believe in evil. But I am a
man of the theater.
What has been missed by those who do not know their heritage, and thus their
ancestors first hand, by participating in the same sounds, rhythms, words
and feelings from times so long ago? Is self knowledge not important and
does not such artistic experience bring us idenity and knowledge of our
history? How poor is value when it is determined solely by pure monetary
profit? How degrading is it to society when the ancestors are made
available only to the wealthy? That is the gift of the communities of
faith to their congregations. But the glue that would cement a society in
all American communities is missing unless they are Christian and can hear
and perform the great Western Masterworks in Church.
Thanks Keith for bringing this Future work of art to the
list.
Ray Evans Harrell,
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Keith Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 11:02 AM
> Subject: [Futurework] Where has music gone?
>
>
> > 246. Where has music gone?
> >
> > And, come to think of it, where has art gone, or poetry, or philosophy, or
> > architecture? Apart from also getting into a real mess.
> >
> > The new book, Music Healing the Rift, by Ivan Hewett and as summarised by
> > Michael Church in a recent review in the Independent, describes my own
> > feelings about modern music -- popular or 'art/serious' -- exactly. I
> > didn't discover choral singing until I was in my early 50s, but the first
> > day I attended a rehearsal with an invisible sign saying "Imposter" above
> > my head, and heard the first notes of Mozart's Requiem rising around me
> > from the basses and tenors, tentatively at first and then more firmly, the
> > tears flowed down my cheeks. And the tears flow now as I write,
> remembering
> > that wonderful occasion. Since that day, I have sung in many choral works,
> > long and short -- though never very competently -- and I've also enjoyed
> > the conviviality and comradeship of being in a choir.
> >
> > Which brings me immediately to something else that we have lost in the
> > course of the past century. Community. I've experienced brief glimpses of
> > community in my life -- sitting in an air-raid shelter during WWII as the
> > bombs fell around us during the Coventry Blitz, and all the street sitting
> > there, neighbourly animosities put on one side for the moment, singing the
> > latest pop songs. And a few other occasions. But not a great many.
> >
> > In the last century, the consumer society has torn the family away from
> the
> > community, has torn the young and the old of the family apart, has torn
> sex
> > away from love and is even now tearing away at natural partnerships,
> > producing increasingly larger numbers of isolated individuals with all
> > sorts of fetishes. I believe, however, that the instincts of community are
> > still deep and strong within us and must necessarily re-emerge. I think
> > that the new managed communities in America are an early sign of this,
> even
> > though they are not everybody's cultural cup of tea at present. I think
> > that a necessary cluster of economic and technological factors must yet
> > become more focussed before communities can become widespread again, but I
> > think they'll return. We have lost too much.
> >
> > I think I might re-read News from Nowhere (William Morris) which I first
> > read 45 years ago but is still a precious book on my shelves. Morris was
> > hopelessly idealistic and unrealistic about human nature, but at least he
> > tapped into something very profound in that book. When the time is ripe
> and
> > the customer demands it from the multinational CEO and the politician
> alike
> > (or perhaps invalidates them both) then we could recreate An Epoch of
> Rest,
> > as Morris subtitled it.
> >
> > Keith Hudson
> >
> > <<<<
> > THE WESTERN WORLD MUST LEARN TO SING AGAIN
> >
> > Micahel Church
> >
> > Review of:
> > Music Healing the Rift by Ivan Hewett (Continuum, 2003)
> >
> >
> > Until recent times, says Ivan Hewett, music was everywhere, and always an
> > authentic _expression_ of the social situation that called it forth. The
> > idyll was shattered, in the developed West, by the notion that music could
> > be transportable a mass could be taken out of church and performed in a
> > concert hall. Then music began its long retreat from the public domain. It
> > turned into something made en famille, then something listened to in the
> > privacy of a room, until finally the Walkman reduced its operative space
> to
> > six inches between the ears.
> >
> > Hewett's book is fruitfully complex I could have extracted several other
> > narratives which would have summarised music's trajectory just as well.
> The
> > "rift" in his title denotes nothing so banal as that between classicists
> > and modernists. His big theme is the falling-apart of the
> > laboriously-constructed musical realm of the early 20th century, and the
> > perennial desire, among composers, to make it whole again. As he makes
> > clear, that crisis reflects a falling-apart in our entire culture. Putting
> > it together again - if such a thing is possible - would benefit us all.
> >
> > His focus is on composers past and present. Deploying the expertise which
> > made him the ideal anchorman for Radio 3's Music Matters, Hewett writes
> > with easy authority. He has interviewed widely, read deeply, listened at
> > length his nine short chapters ripple with provocative insights. Sometimes
> > the writing is too densely philosophical for the argument to be
> immediately
> > grasped, but that only puts it on a level with its subject-matter.
> >
> > One of Hewett's many sub-plots follows the rise of the programme note,
> > starting with Berlioz's instructions on how to listen to the Symphonie
> > Fantastique, and culminating in the current situation where it's
> > unthinkable for a new work to be presented without copious verbal
> > explication. Herein lies the misery of the modernist composer obliged to
> > teach the audience a new language, but inevitably doomed to fail.
> >
> > Hewett writes so illuminatingly about Birtwistle, Boulez, Cage and Carter
> > that one feels impelled to listen again. Though sympathetic, he admits
> that
> > that their invented private languages don't add up to a reconstituted
> > public realm. He is acerbic about the blind alley of "world music",
> > pleasantly waspish about John Tavener and prophets of the New Naivety, and
> > shows the futility of trying to "remake" tonality. The power of classical
> > tonality in its heyday derived from a perfect reciprocity between form and
> > social function. The genie's out of the bottle.
> >
> > What now? Hewett offers a brilliant tour d'horizon of music's multifarious
> > new directions -- aided by sampling tricks, fuelled by PC notions -- but
> > concludes that if we want to "heal the rift", we can't delegate the job to
> > composers. We must all start making music again. If we play and sing, we
> > will once more listen actively too. And that way lies musical health.
> >
> > Independent -- 1 January 2004
> > >>>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Futurework mailing list
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Futurework mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Keith Hudson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2004 11:02 AM
> Subject: [Futurework] Where has music gone?
>
>
> > 246. Where has music gone?
> >
> > And, come to think of it, where has art gone, or poetry, or philosophy, or
> > architecture? Apart from also getting into a real mess.
> >
> > The new book, Music Healing the Rift, by Ivan Hewett and as summarised by
> > Michael Church in a recent review in the Independent, describes my own
> > feelings about modern music -- popular or 'art/serious' -- exactly. I
> > didn't discover choral singing until I was in my early 50s, but the first
> > day I attended a rehearsal with an invisible sign saying "Imposter" above
> > my head, and heard the first notes of Mozart's Requiem rising around me
> > from the basses and tenors, tentatively at first and then more firmly, the
> > tears flowed down my cheeks. And the tears flow now as I write,
> remembering
> > that wonderful occasion. Since that day, I have sung in many choral works,
> > long and short -- though never very competently -- and I've also enjoyed
> > the conviviality and comradeship of being in a choir.
> >
> > Which brings me immediately to something else that we have lost in the
> > course of the past century. Community. I've experienced brief glimpses of
> > community in my life -- sitting in an air-raid shelter during WWII as the
> > bombs fell around us during the Coventry Blitz, and all the street sitting
> > there, neighbourly animosities put on one side for the moment, singing the
> > latest pop songs. And a few other occasions. But not a great many.
> >
> > In the last century, the consumer society has torn the family away from
> the
> > community, has torn the young and the old of the family apart, has torn
> sex
> > away from love and is even now tearing away at natural partnerships,
> > producing increasingly larger numbers of isolated individuals with all
> > sorts of fetishes. I believe, however, that the instincts of community are
> > still deep and strong within us and must necessarily re-emerge. I think
> > that the new managed communities in America are an early sign of this,
> even
> > though they are not everybody's cultural cup of tea at present. I think
> > that a necessary cluster of economic and technological factors must yet
> > become more focussed before communities can become widespread again, but I
> > think they'll return. We have lost too much.
> >
> > I think I might re-read News from Nowhere (William Morris) which I first
> > read 45 years ago but is still a precious book on my shelves. Morris was
> > hopelessly idealistic and unrealistic about human nature, but at least he
> > tapped into something very profound in that book. When the time is ripe
> and
> > the customer demands it from the multinational CEO and the politician
> alike
> > (or perhaps invalidates them both) then we could recreate An Epoch of
> Rest,
> > as Morris subtitled it.
> >
> > Keith Hudson
> >
> > <<<<
> > THE WESTERN WORLD MUST LEARN TO SING AGAIN
> >
> > Micahel Church
> >
> > Review of:
> > Music Healing the Rift by Ivan Hewett (Continuum, 2003)
> >
> >
> > Until recent times, says Ivan Hewett, music was everywhere, and always an
> > authentic _expression_ of the social situation that called it forth. The
> > idyll was shattered, in the developed West, by the notion that music could
> > be transportable a mass could be taken out of church and performed in a
> > concert hall. Then music began its long retreat from the public domain. It
> > turned into something made en famille, then something listened to in the
> > privacy of a room, until finally the Walkman reduced its operative space
> to
> > six inches between the ears.
> >
> > Hewett's book is fruitfully complex I could have extracted several other
> > narratives which would have summarised music's trajectory just as well.
> The
> > "rift" in his title denotes nothing so banal as that between classicists
> > and modernists. His big theme is the falling-apart of the
> > laboriously-constructed musical realm of the early 20th century, and the
> > perennial desire, among composers, to make it whole again. As he makes
> > clear, that crisis reflects a falling-apart in our entire culture. Putting
> > it together again - if such a thing is possible - would benefit us all.
> >
> > His focus is on composers past and present. Deploying the expertise which
> > made him the ideal anchorman for Radio 3's Music Matters, Hewett writes
> > with easy authority. He has interviewed widely, read deeply, listened at
> > length his nine short chapters ripple with provocative insights. Sometimes
> > the writing is too densely philosophical for the argument to be
> immediately
> > grasped, but that only puts it on a level with its subject-matter.
> >
> > One of Hewett's many sub-plots follows the rise of the programme note,
> > starting with Berlioz's instructions on how to listen to the Symphonie
> > Fantastique, and culminating in the current situation where it's
> > unthinkable for a new work to be presented without copious verbal
> > explication. Herein lies the misery of the modernist composer obliged to
> > teach the audience a new language, but inevitably doomed to fail.
> >
> > Hewett writes so illuminatingly about Birtwistle, Boulez, Cage and Carter
> > that one feels impelled to listen again. Though sympathetic, he admits
> that
> > that their invented private languages don't add up to a reconstituted
> > public realm. He is acerbic about the blind alley of "world music",
> > pleasantly waspish about John Tavener and prophets of the New Naivety, and
> > shows the futility of trying to "remake" tonality. The power of classical
> > tonality in its heyday derived from a perfect reciprocity between form and
> > social function. The genie's out of the bottle.
> >
> > What now? Hewett offers a brilliant tour d'horizon of music's multifarious
> > new directions -- aided by sampling tricks, fuelled by PC notions -- but
> > concludes that if we want to "heal the rift", we can't delegate the job to
> > composers. We must all start making music again. If we play and sing, we
> > will once more listen actively too. And that way lies musical health.
> >
> > Independent -- 1 January 2004
> > >>>>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
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