Quoting Dave Shaw <[email protected]>:
It is a little clunky and overcomplicated in places
Dave's opinion here echoes my own untutored an instinctive reaction to the ms.
A related topic,
I have a problem with composition competitions where manuscripts are
presented to a judge.
Written music can be a frail presentation of a complex idea. Given a
printed version of a 32 bar tune, how would a Northumbrian or Scottish
or English - Irish - American -Shetland - Scandawegian &c interpret
the dots. There are tunes which occur in these various traditions and
have a very different 'feel' depending on the background of the player.
When we lived in Durham, we were involved with a Morris side, among
whose members was an excellent young fiddle player. She had learnt a
lot from Willie Taylor and had had significant interaction with
American musicians from the Appalachian Clog Tradition. So she could
play Morpeth Rant 'a la Northumbrian' twice through and then kick up
the tempo into an old-time American rendition with double-shuffle
bowing 'n stuff. The tune exists in both traditions and this
combination was something we used as 'entertainment' on 4th July
dance-outs.
I am trying to say, very forcefully, that in what we call traditional
music, there is a huge gap between the written notes and the actual
performance. This also applies in ragtime, blues (I think), jazz (I
suppose) and other genres.
So when a competition judge looks at a manuscript, if they do not have
sympathy with the composers background, they could well misunderstand
the intention of the piece. Had Chris Ormston's Bigg Market Lasses
been presented to a composition Judge as manuscript, what are the
chances that any given judge would have had the least notion of what
he was on about.
Johnny Handle has told a story about the early days of the High level
Ranters when they were exploring the old tunes from the Minstrelsy and
so forth. He said there would be times when they would try a
particular tune and think it strange or un-musical, but at a later
practice one of them would come back and say, 'That tune we tried last
time? If you play it like this.............' Whether HLR got it right
or wrong is irrelevant, that to me sums up the attitude we must have
if we wish to mine the rich seeds of our tradition.
So if 98% of the world think that Mr Dunk was on a different planet,
they are welcome to their opinion. If one musician, can make a
convincing fist of his piece, then those of us who failed to see the
inherent value of his composition must say 'OK, I missed that one,
better luck next time'.
Just because a piece breaks some notional (artificial?) rules, doesn't
make it bad music. Much of Billy Pigg's appeal was his rule breaking
approach to his music. On the other hand he wrote some cracking tunes
which I am sure will stand the test of time.
Enough for now.
Barry
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