Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
It's very thoughtful and I think the musicians would have a strong tendency to see it from a similar perspective. I think overall I hold it in higher regard than you do but we both agree it's difficult music. It's like wading through Finnegan's Wake. There's a lot of depth there and a lot to be discovered but it takes a lot of time. I think with a lot of 20th C classical stuff, even that which is considerably easier to swallow than this, like say Berio's Sequenza or Elliott Carter's String Quartets the tipping point to 'understanding' this music is getting to where you know what phrases and sections are coming up. I think the same level of depth is probably here, I claim it is although I have to admit these are rough waters to navigate, but instead of 4 or 8 listens, deep appreciation probably doesn't really start to surface until 40 to 80 listens. Of course, I don't know how much time I've invested in Elliott Carter's chamber music but I can tell you it's a lot and it has paid big dividends because I love it so much now.
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Yeah I know that after many, many listens I can train myself to anticipate phrases and sections, like you said. That's why I said the listener is co-creator and composer of this kind of music. But a lot of modern music is actually
composed to seem like it's random, to create a feeling of absurdity. But there is a difference between spontaneous composing and free improvisation in its purest form. Since it's based on coincidence the musicians themselves don't know what's around the corner and where their playing will take them. It is a pure performance intended to be heard live with all its unpredictability and surprise factor, to exist only in time, as opposed to be written and recorded. Who knows how many performances have not been recorded that managed to catch some essence, to create something special, genius maybe. And who knows how many were crap. That's why I feel recording free improvisation is interfering and undermining its concept. But, I'm glad this was recorded, because it provides a constant inspiration and influence on other musicians who use it and apply it in many different ways. And without it being recorded we wouldn't be able to hear it 40 times in order to create our own inner compositions.