Composers: Strangest of the strange?

More musical musings, because it's that kind of week:

This past week, I'm proud to report that I sparked a curious article by Randy Nordschaw on Newmusicbox.org. In response to an article by Colin Holter, I pointed out that the musical realms of, say, Arvo Part and Britney Spears are both necessarily and thankfully seperate. Randy counterattacked my clear "separitist" attitudes, to which I simply replied: "if it's really all the same, or SHOULD be the same, then sell this site to Rolling Stone Magazine and be done with it."

That being said, I spend a lot of time on this blog defending new music, though I will this time take a different approach. This week has taught me something:

Composers are a scared, insecure, and frequently unpleasant bunch of people. At least those that haven't "made it."

I include myself in that "unmade" mix. Faced with a society largely indifferent to the best of our efforts, we tend to develop curious defense mechanisms.

I think most composers fit into the following categories:

1.) The less-than-1% making a living off their music. Generally few axes to grind.
2.) The "who cares if you listen?" bunch.
3.) The elite non-elitists, like the guy who kept attacking me for a suppossed elitist attitude, missing the point that he was an elitist himself, and that the very idea of an internet forum on new music discussing elitism is in itself... ELITIST. (phew.)
4.) The "pleasantly-elite," "I have refined taste and can help you with yours" type. I admit membership in this category.
5.) The hopelessly insecure type who will list-off their self-righteously eclectic ipod listening lists and talk about how the Gamelan has affected their piano writing, helping liberate it from a restricting classicism/modernism/whatever-ism.
6.) The "what process did you use to generate your pitch material?" type (my least favorite.)

and, lastly, the
7.) "I hate being poor. Fuck it, let's sell insurance and just ruminate about music on message-boards" type -- this is the category I'm viciously trying to avoid drifting in to.

To be fair, I've probably missed a few categories, and many creative-types straddle more than a few of these. I think you get the point.

I love new music. I love composers. I'm starting to think, however, that somewhere along the line, we got a LOT of it going in an aimless and self-defeating direction. What think YOU, composer and musician types?

Thoughts from a Conservatory

There is nothing like a Conservatory -- or any room of astute academic musicians -- to point out all the things that you don't know about music. The more time I spend in one, I feel rather than learning, I'm just lengthening the list of things "I should already know."

Composition, however, seems to be a different beast. Like musicality, you can clue people in on where to start, but authenticity cannot be taught. What have I learned in school? A lot about history. A lot about reading scores, hearing things better, improving counterpoint, strengthening various aspects of craft, and learning all the different ways I can string a set of notes together.

The music, however, has nothing to do with any of this. Essentially, I'm hearing the same music I've heard in my head since I was teenager. It is only that I'm hearing it better, and getting more of it down on paper. I'm very encouraged that there are still things floating past my mind's ear that I can't quite put a finger on, so I know I still have much room to grow.

All of this rumination leads me to one thought: is it wise to school a musician for so many years? What, beyond the basics of undergraduate education, could I not have learned from a traditional apprenticeship instead? Were it not for the need to find income in a society brutally unforgiving of unprofitable ventures (like new music), would many of us even bother with the schooling? Would a classical music culture more divided from an increasingly delusional academic world prosper, or falter?

Phone-Salesman turned Opera Star

Thanks to Jeff Meyer for sharing the below link with me.

Upon viewing it, I saw yet another example of what real music, and true artistry can do to a crowd of people, even when that crowd is gathered for shallow entertainment. Can anything in the pop-music world achieve such an effect? How else does a phone-salesman bring people to tears?

http://www.maniacworld.com/Phone-Salesman-Amazes-Crowd.html

The Fascists and the Phallus

The great American author Sinclair Lewis wrote that:

"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross."

Many Americans have heard this quote as of late, though not as a result of their literary dispositions or bookishness. This quote, like many other liberal one-liners, has become a popular commodity in the land of bumper-sticker politics.

Unfortunately for Mr. Lewis and his legion of one-liner bumper-sticker wielding liberals, there is no precedence for supporting such a statement. I think it would be more accurate to say:

"When Communism comes to America, it will be in the shape of a giant neon rainbow-colored dildo."

Such a powerful political symbol would be in the front of marches and parades across the nation, proudly followed by the likes of Barrack Obama, Al Gore and his fuzzy scientists, proud Frenchmen everywhere and Dumbledore. "Follow the Phallus!" would be their rallying cry. Actually, now that I think about it, it already is...

You see, my passionate bumper-sticker one-liner loving liberal friends: Christianity in America may have a historical precedent for being occasionally oppressive, but it has never made America weak. Nor has a God-fearing nation ever turned Fascist since the second world war. The facts are that the Nazi paradigm was built on Pagan superstition and Atheist philosophy (Nietzsche's.) The fact is, the grand Atheist Utopian worker-paradise known as Communism managed to amass a body count to make Hitler, Napolean, and Nero blush. Liberals parade around misinterpretations and sloppy history concerning the Inquisition, while totally ignoring the recent bloody work of their own kind.

There is no historical precedent linking Christianity and Fascism, despite what Mr. Lewis and his post-mortem bumper sticker publication success might lead you to believe. There IS, however, a clear and undeniable linking between Atheism, liberal thought, and more dead people than we can count.

This doesn't matter to the left, however. I've always been jealous of the liberals and their numerous bumper stickers. How comforting it must be to have a worldview supported by colorful snippets, one-liners, unburdened by solid research, information, or deeper reflection. It is no wonder that this perpetually childish offshoot of humanity supports Barrack Obama, a candidate who thinks that one-liners and half-baked visions are enough to run an entire nation.

Not that the Conservatives are doing much better, considering the candidates they're supporting and the great potential leaders they're allowing to be swept aside. Who ever thought that a female Presidential Candidate, especially one bearing the name of Clinton, would ever strike fear into the straight-shooting testosterone overdrive of the Republican Party? All the Jeds, Hanks, and Dicks are shaking in their collective cowboy boots.

As usual, the answers don't lie on bumper stickers. Liberals are wrong about most things, and extreme Conservatives fair only slightly better. The truth generally lies in the middle. The truth is also complex and uncomfortable, hence the general rejection of moderate political candidates who seek solutions instead of playing on fears or perpetuating one-liner political debate (a-la tv-news political "discussions.")

I've become convinced that American Democracy is only a larger, gray-haired version of high-school elections. Since the nation is not likely to drift into actual informed debate anytime soon, the question remains:

Is America ready for a moderate bumper sticker revolution?

Silence and Priorities.

I have a problem.

Chances are, you share this problem as well.

It's a common social ill nowadays, and what's worse, it is often glorified.

We put too much stock in our lives. It is very difficult to seperate what is good, true, and necessary, from what is merely convenient, attractive, and self-glorifying. This is where "careers" replace "callings" and "vocations" are usurped by practicalities.

This social disease has a universal symptom: the lack of silence. The average American fears only death and spiders more than silence, recent surveys show.

Silence is where God resides, and therefore the truth.

The tragedy of the modern Atheistic movement, led by 'intellectuals' like Richard Dawkins, is only succeeding on casting enough doubt to move the uneducated and weak of faith. In trying to deconstruct religion, they are deconstructing humanity. When they say that "the only real thing is the here and now," the miss the most important parts of what makes us human and what gives our lives meaning. They often sight the ills brought about by organized religion, failing to see that one century of atheist/secularist rule has generated a greater body-count than 19 centuries of Europan Christianity combined.

Unfortunately, many people of various belief-stripes, including myself at times, fall into the mistake of overembracing the secular, and not separting meaning from reality and destiny from selfish convenience.

It's a common flaw, and it is only cured by... silence.

The silence leads us inward. Coming inward, we discover God. We go deeper, and the next thing you know, you're living the "examined life."

It's actually really easy to start. It's just hard to keep it going, considering all of the modern American fabric, religion included, is geared to lead us away from the contemplative lifestyle.

When looking inside of myself, beneath the sometimes cheerful sometimes sarcastic exterior, I found troubling things. I found confusion and shallowness of heart. I found a fickle and sometimes selfish nature. I found more fear than I ever thought could reside in me.

It's a troubling thing, when you discover how many of your "decisions" are motivated by a deep current of fear.

So, I have two choices: 1.)Pretend the problem doesn't exist and take the nearest ride into suburban controversy-free paradise, or 2.)deal with it.

What do you have to deal with? What noise in your life prevents you from dealing with your own issues, or from even realizing they are there?

Is the person with their new hummer, burgeoning stock-portfolio, 9 blackberries all keeping track of different financial situations, six personal assistants, a perfect wife and house and job, really living the "life?"

Or, is he hiding from something?