Ray Harrell wrote:
"... what is missed is how incredible the skill at both thinking and
writing was in the 18th century. Not only are our musicians less literate
but that 18th century audience knew if he was faking it."
Whoa! You refer to composers and performers in the same sentence and I am
not sure where you draw the line, but ... why did 18th Century audiences
prefer Salieri and countless other now 'minor' composers to Mozart? How
come Gay's Beggar's Opera outdid Handel's, whereas it is hardly heard
today, and considered less of a work?
If you are referring to composers, would you really call Schnittke,
Messiaen, twhistle, Nyman (to name but a few) less literate than their
18thC. counterparts .... and would you call the rare performers who manage
to perform with something for want of a better term that I'll call 'line'
(legato, no down beats, even in staccatto, modernistic music) ... those
people who make you want to dance and/or weep when you hear them play ...
any different from the castrati and virtuosi who took Europe and the New
World by storm in the 18th C?
I am reminded of a story about Stravinsky and his violin concerto - I
forget which of the world class violinists it was who premiered it at the
time, but the story goes that after he had looked through the manuscript,
he went to Stravinsky and said, 'Maestro, this is unplayable'. Stravinsky
smiled and replied, 'I know. What I am after is the sound of somebody
trying to play it.'
I don't know what the first performance sounded like. Nowadays it is
played 'note perfect'.
It was the same with the four-minute mile. People said 'it can't be done',
but as soon as the concept was envisaged, all that needed to happen was
for the possibility that was inherent in it to materialise - and for the
event to be allowed to be made manifest.
The artists, thinkers, philosophers who are ahead of the thinking of the
age in which they live are the people who challenge our thinking and help
us progress as a human race. Art and philosophy (and scientific discovery,
for that matter) are but metaphors that enable us to understand the
complex things called the self, the world we live in and just where we fit
in to that world a tiny bit better - if we use that knowledge with
respect.
And here lies the crux of the matter ... progress is fine if it is managed
with responsibility. Each person will find the route to their own progress
in a different way. All who do so are likely to benefit the whole of the
human race. Some will see the potential of machines and computers. Some
will be content with finding fulfillment in a time-honoured agricultural
life (whether they choose to use the advancements of modern technology or
not). Most of us will have a variety of ways in which we seek to become
whole. Maybe it is the values that power this process of progress that
will make the difference - maybe progress for progress' sake matters
little.
I found it interesting that you merged two threads in your reply, Ray - I
have also been tempted to do so ... for in answer to Diana's query in LO
12641: "Should a consultant use as a criterion of success that he become
dispensible, or become indispensible?"
I would say that consultants are like artists - we need artists to stretch
and chllenge us. They need people to challenge. We are interdependent.
Different needs arise in different ages. Our ability to adapt sees us
through. That is one of the reasons why learning and analysis are so
fundamental to us - our survival depends on our ability to learn and
analyse. Through the quality of our cooperation and the effectiveness of
our communication we can achieve transcendence of the dualistic
'dispensible - indispensible' frame of existence and reach something that
is 'inavaluable' to all concerned - a true 'performance' in which
performer, listener, conductor, composer, (even outsider - now there's a
challenge!), come together in an integrated act that manifests a bit of
the potential we were previously unaware of _ which will be different for
each of us - that will then work as a catalyst for change in each of us -
when we let it.
Returning to LO12647, and Ray's message,
"This tremendous lack creates a problem in skill and erudition in
composers, performing artists and audiences. They should be the model of
a LO but unfortunately they often are starving and struggle simply to
exist."
Starving and struggle for existence are sometimes the greatest catalysts
for liberated creative breakthroughs. We need the quiet reflective times
of low challenge as well as the times of hard challenge that stretch us
physically, morally and spiritually. An interesting idea to follow would
be what things to work on to enable consistency in progress and
development across these periods of high/low challenge.
Leon
Leon Conrad
The Conrad Voice Consultancy
website: http://www.actual.co.uk/conrad
--Leon Conrad <100755.1675@CompuServe.COM>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>