Howard,
--- howard posner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Really, really bad example. Lots of ensembles do
> "German Music,
> 1712-1720." They title it "Complete Brandenburgs"
> and sell lots of
> tickets.
>
But this isn't quite fair - "Bach" and "Brandenburg
Concerto" are names people recognize. Beatles tribute
bands sell a lot of tickets too, (sadly, probably
much, much more than the Brandenburgs schtick) but I
doubt too many folks are dropping their change to see
the ultimate tribute to Herman's Hermits or The
Troggs. (I would not be surprised to find dedicated
members of a Herman's Hermits tribute band on this
list - but this will only prove my point.) Now, how
many rock bands specialize in "British Popular Music,
1965-1968" unless they're some sort of novelty act? I
don't wanna be a novelty act.
This is with Bach, a recognized name with works of
true substance. But even a concert of all-Weiss
masterworks would be a hard sell to all but hardcore
lute players. (A somewhat well-known viola da gamba
player I know claims Weiss is "weird and
incomprehensible." What the...???) These will also
be works of great substance, but if you get folks to
come, you'll have a lot of empty seats after
intermission.
>
> > Well, were is Babbitt's
> > music today?
>
> Right where it always was. I daresay it has as many
> rabid fans as it
> always did -- about 37.
>
Unfortunately, rabid is the word. While this type of
music has always had relatively few fans, Babbitt
simply gave voice to the agenda of an academic cadre
that sucessfully elevated atonal serialism into a
position of undisputed hegemony in university
composition programs throughout the world during the
50's and 60's and that limped along as a real force
well into the 1990's. (Without contradicting myself,
I can say that there were some great masterpieces
composed in this style.) It didn't matter how many
people liked or hated the music - what mattered was
how "RIGHT" those in positions of authority within
academe _thought_ they were.
During this time period, if you wanted to be taken
seriously as a composer, there was almost NO OTHER WAY
than to write music like this. Forget about the fact
that the only people in the audiences are a couple of
other composition professors and students. Those
philistines in the Outside World don't appreciate the
Serious Importance of the Esoteric Issues we have
agreed to address in our sonic constructs, anyway...
and why... why, the poor unwashed fools probably
wouldn't be able to tell the Massive Difference in
tone between a 7-course and an 8-course lute even
after having it repeatedly explained to them in
painstaking detail!
The future of early music isn't quite this bleak, but
I have been disturbed to a couple of EM concerts in
which the audience was made up almost entirely of
musicology students...
Chris
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