Thanks, Michael (and everybody else who had such nice words):
Michael Berman wrote:
> Wow. great review. I hope it was published somewhere, it deserves to be.
Nope, a Zornlist exclusive again (though I wouldn't be averse to someone wanting to post it somewhere...).
> But when I did it was in Philly. Do you know if he still teaches there? I'm not sure it was Temple, I think it was a smaller music college.
I don't know, but it seems likely.
> Does Shepp have any new recordings out? Will this band put something out?
I don't know of any Shepp recording more recent than the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble disc of a year or so ago. But I'd love to think that the better parts of last night's chemistry might somehow have been preserved.
SS
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Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2000 13:58:35 -0700 (PDT)
From: Sigmund Nonanima <absurdbastard@yahoo.com>
Subject: Things literary, things musical, things
Patrice wrote:
>Do you seriously believe that we had to wait for the
>20th century to discover experimentation?
I agree with you, we should get over this "modern"
self-back-patting, and it can safely be theorized that
things would be a whole lot different if we did (get
over it, and if we had to wait for the 20th
century...)
BUT it seems to me that we had to wait for the 20th
century, or the few years preceding it, to discover
the kind of experimentation that questioned not only
conventional aesthetics (had been done), conventional
morality and its place in art (had also been done),
and just, I guess, convention in general--
artistic experimentation in the early 20th century
actually questioned the foundations of meaning and
value in not only art, but other forms of
communication (or, as some modern philosophers might
contend, a futile attempt to even mime the theoretic
act of communication...)
and entering a signed urinal--only to have it
rejected, then placed behind a curtain--in an
exhibition that fancied itself avant-garde...come on,
THAT's revolutionary
(incidentally, I saw one of the Duchamp-approved
copies of the Fountain at SFMOMA a month ago when I
went to see Magritte and had my soul scraped out...)
>Also, as a global comment, the connection
literary->music is more often than not as shallow as
quoting. I >mean, you read a novel; you like it; you
write a >piece that you name after your last
infatuation. To >stick to this list, ELEGY is maybe
one of the very >few instances of music with a strong
literary >connection and which works (without the
obvious >recourse to lyrics/text). I find most of
these >attempts, usually, pure wishful thinking and
quite >naive (not to mention the "open umbrella"
attitude >attached to such vain exercises: by naming
my piece >of music after a genius of literature, who
would dare >to attack it).
All good points--very good, indeed (read in a deep
voice, vaguely British accent, pitch and volume
decreasing as the pharse nears its end)--and I just
gotta say that I'm sick of pop stars claiming all kind
of literary inspiration, or even inspiration from good
musical sources (re: Bono, that drunken hack, claiming
that Trane's A Love Supreme changed his life...), and
then immediately assuming a kind of
psuedo-intellectual aura, impenetrable and righteous
(and for the people! for the people! name one rich
rock star who's still actually for the people)...okay,
I'm ranting, but just try asking anyone of these
preening MTV or proudly off-MTV poseurs to expound on
their high-brow (in quotation marks) source and you
get a confused spittle-fest of platitudes and violent
misunderstandings...
sorry for the bellowing, but I just get so, so, so....
>How many pieces of music (without lyrics/text of
>course) with alleged strong literary connection (like
>title, inspiration) could you name that really work?
Well, WITH text, how about the Byrds Turn Turn Turn
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! but seriously...
Liszt's Dante thing isn't too bad (not counting
fascist Wagner's self-interested editing)
Rimsky-Korsokav's Scherherzade isn't too bad, either,
expect for the dripping romanticism, I guess
Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra is great, I think,