Ah yes, deconstructive criticism, delivered with the kindest of
intentions- If this sincere critic is being slanderously
misunderstood; he should respond, set the record straight, and hugs
all around. It's a small world, after all- and it's that
tunnel-vision vehemence which seems to gather more intensity, the
more narrowly the vision is focused. I remember at a lute gathering
one year a famous player was being shredded for some lute crime, and
my wife said, "For God's sake, it's just a difference of opinion on
interpreting Francesco da Milano; he didn't fly an airplane into a
building!"
My most interesting critique- (not intentionally constructive) was
being pointedly disinvited to leave the stage at a country-western
bar in rural Maine, the benighted new owner had thought that he could
raise the cultural tone of his new venue by sticking a lute player in
bottle-flinging range. By contrast, the next year I started giving
lute lessons to an actual country-rock guitarist, one who was very
used to the flying missile reviews routinely encountered in his
normal working gigs. He was profoundly unnerved the first time he
gave a lute recital before an audience of sober, polite, seated
people who quietly gave him their quiet and undivided attention.
There must be a happy medium somewhere, short of lounge
entertainment, and my apologies for veering off of video reviews into
old reminiscence. It's still a brave new world for me, and I stopped
videoing myself after becoming my own worst critic. Much improvement
needed, but I will be back in shooting range one of these days.
Dan
"Right after I came out with my Hurel album, I received a private
email from someone who regularly contributes to this list. This was
one of the first comments I got about the project. In the rudest,
most brusk manner, this person told me A) What an awful job I had
done with the repertoire B) How could I be so thoughtless as to use
synthetic strings? C) I was being irresponsible to the repertoire and
instrument by even presuming to have such a wretched recording out
there D) I should just hang it all up right then. This was from
someone who was definitely informed about the lute, but constructive
criticism it was not."
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