Re: [microsound] NEW from and/OAR: Francisco Lopez

[Visa Kuoppala <visa.kuoppala@xxxxxxxxx>]

The comments below brought to my mind an essay by Simon Waters titled 
"Beyond the acousmatic: hybrid tendencies in electroacoustic music". 
Waters made a couple of good points which I feel are relevant here:

------------------------------
"Cultural activity has ceased to be a strictly historical phenomenon, in 
which artefacts and ideas are constantly being lost and forgotten, and 
has become instead an accumulative phenomenon in which artefacts and 
ideas from all historical periods and cultures exists simultaneously in 
present. This releases such a confusion of meaning-generating contexts 
from different times and places that the common cultural experience 
which enabled critical assessment has all but disappeared. This lack of 
consensus affects compositional judgement at the public and private 
levels. How can one decide what is current if there is no sense of 
historical flow and how can one judge the intentions from others from 
what they produce? Is this quotation cynical approproation or parody? Is 
its political agenda conservatism or radicalism?

Evaluation is particularly problematic for a generation of composers 
convinced of the benefits of investigation, integrity and personal work. 
It is far more difficult to distinguish between postmodern ironic 
juxtaposition and pure laziness or incompetence than it was to see value 
in the earnest searchings of modernism."
------------------------------

In the light of this viewpoint I find it quite natural that "people like 
to be told 'what it is' before listening". In many cases if the work is 
incompletely framed, critical assessment becomes quite problematic. In 
experimental music cover art and design can thus serve an important 
'framing' role in that it sets the work into a context...


P.S. I just re-joined the list after a three-year break, so hello all!


Visa Kuoppala
Centre for Music & Technology
Sibelius-Academy





Adern X kirjoitti:
> On Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:58:40 -0700, a Bad Day on the Midway, Bill Jarboe <billjarboe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>   
> > I have no objection to good 
> > design ,I'm noticing that many people like to be told 'what it is' 
> > before listening. What happens when no-one states 'what it is'? Do you 
> > refuse to listen or just mentally tune it out?  
> >     
> >  
> >     I once heard an objection to a c.d. by John Hudak. They didn't know 
> > what they were listening to... I didn't offer any hints. Later the same 
> > person liked it and even played it for someone else who was very 
> > impressed.  
> >     
>
> If you believe the important aspect is the music, what you are
> listening is not important but imho you are losting something.
>
>   

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