You stole my post title!

Read: the jv3k's opinions of the concert we saw last night



jv3k and its tech guy, rapt in conversation about clarinet glissandi:


No need to repeat what has already been said. I could come up with some witticisms about how awkward it was to have a post-concert talk or about how composers whom qualify "pop" music by explicating the different types of non-classical (western art music for you stuffy types) musics in the form of a mildly condescending rants are just dorks. But then, I guess I just did give you a taste of what I thought about a portion of the concert. As for the music? I begin to wonder the following:

Why do some classical-type composers feel the need to talk about music on the terms of other, more widely known and listened to things (ie. everything else not classical)? I understand that influence and, in some cases, other works direct relation to the work being discussed merit a larger discussion of how non-classical forces might play into the work.

Let me try asking the question again. I can't seem to get a concise and pithy question down.

Why can't composers get past the fact that their music may be influenced by non-classical forces and simply talk about the pure musical forces at work in their works?

Ok, that is a little better but I still can't pin down this question. How about this:

Is it possible to achieve a balance of surface level ideas with deeper musical forces in the explication of a musical creation (more specifically your own creation)?

Fuck - I really can't pin down this question that is bothering me. I know it has to do with the fact that I can't stand composers who go on and on about pop and rock music things being in their music. Besides an overuse of percussion with a steady beat in combination with chord changes (which is all no-shit-sherlock types of things that one can put in their piece to make a Betty Crocker 10-minute music muffin), what other forces can we talk about that REALLY begin to get into the connection between non-classical forces and classical forces? Only composer I know who does this well is タンク. When he explains his music, however, the connection of non-classical and classical is low on the totem pole. He simply talks about the piece for what it is.

For me, the whole my-piece-is-Led-Zepplin-with-clarinets-oboes-and-strings thing is just a gigantic insecurity blanket wet with the urine of those composers who piss themselves whenever they are scared to really try to confront their shortcomings.

So, they should be more like the 4 B's: Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and Bartók?

4 B's! Ha! What a bunch of BS!

I mean they should acknowledge the tradition and lineage of classical composition and embrace it for what it is - not try to gussy it up with mascara, hairspray, low-slung guitar posing, and other besides-the-point issues of non-classical things. Please, be my guest: take from pop all you want. Hey, I am the one who has the Resplendent Crimson movement in my guitar concerto which is an homage to King Crimson. Just stop at the point at which you try to say that your piece isn't a crossover piece but it is (but it really isn't, you say!).

Ok, that was a mildly condescending rant that I didn't see coming.

Other things:

My car died whileI was driving home yesterday. Not the most fun thing to happen. Ends up it ran out of gas. The fuel guage on my car is broken so I use the mileage to tell when I need to fill up. By my calculations, I had at least 30 more miles. Apparently, I can't calculate. Is a new car in the future? I had a pic of the car on the tow truck but the phone crashed as soon as I took the pic. Sadness...
-~-~-~~-~
Today was California-beautimous and I was stuck inside. A view from my cell:


My sentence - 750-900 pages (hard labor):

-~-~-~~-~
The wifer and I tried quite earnestly today to have a tittilating discussion on the pollination habits of bees and the migratory routes of Canadian geese. However, a certain walking 50-spot with a 3-year old's snotty nose thought that such conversation shouldn't be had amongst adults. Eventually, a very intense and impassioned stripping of the many layers that make up the peculiarities of the animal kingdom and its many sized airborne inhabitants was had and hardcore research once again proved to be worth it.
<error 404:file not found - tittilating_research.jpg />