BELIEFS
(some possibly odd )
I HARBOR
1. Mozart was a one of the hardest working, most meticulous and dedicated
composers in history.
-
‣ He was not a playboy or a drunk or some sort of idiot-savant.
-
‣ He was not poisoned by Salieri.
-
‣ Not only is he the greatest composer in history, he is the greatest artist in history.
2. Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann did not have a sexual affair.
( I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again: spiritual love does exist. )
3. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Haydn, Brahms, etc. were not
the “Pop artists of their day.”
4. Shostakovich, not Mahler or Wagner or Strauss, understood brass
orchestration better than anyone else.
-
‣ Prokofiev is a close second.
5. Ralph Vaughan Williams is among the great composers
of the 20th Century. So is Ottorino Respighi.
6. Quiz ( with the answers ):
-
‣ Is it still valid to write a tonal piece?
Yes, of course.
-
‣ Is it still valid to write an atonal piece?
Yes, of course.
-
‣ Is the future of music tonal or atonal?
Both.
-
‣ Can tonality and atonality be friends?
Yes, they actually like each other. ( Ask Alban Berg. )
7. A composer should do his own orchestrations. All the great ones did.
( Yes, yes, yes, I know all about Debussy and Lizst. Allow me
to point out a few things.)
-
‣ Debussy meticulously guided and checked the work of Caplet and Büsser.
-
‣ Von Bulow and others did their orchestrations of Lizst as a tribute to the great composer, not because Lizst asked them to.
8. There IS an intellectual aspect to Classical Music and it IS important.
9. Musically, there is only one unusable sound in the world:
someone clipping their fingernails. It is truly ugly.
10. In music, Simple does not mean Simplistic.
-
‣ Corollary: In music, complex does not mean incomprehensibility.
11. The world, bludgeoned by Entertainment and suffocating on Pop culture,
yearns for Art.
12. To a true Artist, marketing, surveying and advertising come AFTER
a work of Art is created, not before or during its creation.
13. Artistic quality and aesthetic worth are not, in any way, influenced by
content and message.
-
‣ When people talk about content and message,
-
they are not talking about Art.
-
‣ In Art ( true Art ) WHAT one does is, perhaps, not at all important.
-
‣ Artistically, it is HOW something is done that is important.
-
‣ In other words, Art is an activity of How, not What.
14. The Artist’s only inherent responsibility is to create Art.
-
‣ All other activities – such as pointing out injustices, revealing society’s flaws, promoting political and moral agendas, and so on – are optional.
-
‣ Let me say that again. All other activities – such as pointing out injustices, revealing society’s flaws, promoting political and moral agendas, and so on – are optional.
-
‣ And that option is the artist’s.
-
‣ Let me say that again. AND THAT OPTION IS THE ARTIST’S.
-
‣ There are many who disagree with me on this.
15. Almost always, a musician knows far less about music notation
than a music copyist.
-
‣ The same could be said for many composers, arrangers and orchestrators.
-
‣ Trust your copyist; he works hard and he’s your friend.
16. Give no credence to anyone who devalues the importance of Art.
He is either ignorant or evilly intended. Probably both.
17. Edgar Allen Poe belongs on the list of All-Time Great American Writers.
So does Willa Cather. Definitely Cormac McCarthy.
18. It IS possible to create a work of Art that does not reflect any
current or past reality.
-
‣ Put another way, it is possible for a work of Art to be 100% imagination.
-
‣ Put still another way, an Artist does not have to rely only on what he has experienced.
19. It IS possible for Pop Music to be Fine Art.
-
‣ Corollary: There’s a lot of bad Classical music too.
-
‣ Put another way, Fine Art is not dependent on genre.
20. It IS possible for Film Music to be Fine Art.
-
‣ Corollary: There’s a lot of bad Classical music too.
-
‣ Put another way, Fine Art is not dependent on genre.
21. If every car in the nation were pink, this would be a pink carnation.
OTHER THINGS
I so much love the written word and somewhere on this site are some scribblings of mine, a few of which are from a novel I’m still writing. Lately, I’ve begun to think that if I don’t take some vacation time away from music, I’ll never finish it – a thought which leaves me with the specter that I just may, indeed, never finish it.
My favorite authors (and I love to read) include Austen, Faulkner, Wharton, and Cormac McCarthy. I discovered some years ago that there is far more truth in fiction than non-fiction but that’s not why I prefer fiction. The reason I prefer fiction is because I am in love with Fine Art. Fine Art is important. Fine Art is vital. Fine Art is the life-blood upon which we all depend and in its history, long past and recent, our Earth has been dangerously anemic.
I do my best at being a Dad and a friend and a neighbor. I love the beauty of baseball, the purity of hockey and the intricacies of football. My all-time favorite movie is The Lion in Winter. I admire people who work together to make things better. I seldom bash politicians. I like the rain and the soil, the flora and the fauna, and the constant turnings of the stars.
I feel that the giving of love cannot result in anything unwanted or undesirable. I feel that the concepts of honor, honesty, integrity, constancy, friendship and even good manners and politeness should be mentioned more often and taken more sincerely. Old fashioned? Hackneyed? Pollyanna? Perhaps. It matters not.
To me there are many important things in the world – Art, work, money, sports, politics, and so on – but the most important is people. The guy sitting in front of you at the theater, the boy with his dog next door, the little girl making her way on a tricycle, the two older ladies going to see a musical, the old men talking about all the things they could have and would have done when they were young if they had just had the chance; even all those people you’ll never meet or see. Truly, this is an incredibly beautiful planet and it is made much, much more so by we who inhabit it.