Comments for Music in Trains

Comment on Listening: Extracting Musical Data Points by Meredith Warf

Meredith Warf — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 22:43:18 +0000

Love the blog. So true. Thanks for sharing!

Comment on Brown Explains Tonality by Dennis Roden

Dennis Roden — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 02:41:38 +0000

Very much enjoyed the discussion of behavioral expectations in contrasting traditional tonality and other pitch collections. I haven’t thought about these things in a while.

Comment on Brown Explains Tonality by Gerald Warfield

Gerald Warfield — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 00:08:30 +0000

Gregory Proctor was a formidable mind when we were students at Princeton.

Comment on Are Bowings Really So Bad? by Emily Williams

Emily Williams — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 21:58:43 +0000

As a general rule I’m going to have to agree with @harryfiddler. While not all composer’s bowings are bad, and can be helpful in determining what is wanted by the composer as far as an interpretation, in general they are a detriment to string players and waste the players time having to scratch out bad bowings and write in new ones. Composers don’t finger parts either, unless they play the instrument and know what they are doing. You can’t finger a part for a string player just as much as you can’t bow it if you aren’t a string player. Plus, it is the performer’s job to interpret the music. The composer can indicate articulation and give a general idea of what they want, but in the end this is the performer’s decision. If a composer wants a certain thing done they are better off indicating it with articulation markings and leaving it at that, because if they get the bowing wrong it creates more confusion than clarification for the string player. General slurring is fine, that helps us know your thoughts, but even that needs to be done with a grain of salt. Don’t try to figure out which bow direction we are going to be going and slur according to that. Most likely we’re going to change something to make it come out differently anyway. Write the articulation you want and we’ll take it from there. There’s nothing a string player hates more than bad bowings from a composer who has no idea how their instrument works. Getting help from a string player is definately a good idea. Even if you as a composer have to PAY a string player to put good bowings in your part. Do it, it’s worth it! We’re probably going to change them a little to suit our own taste, but at least they will make sense to a certain degree.

Take heart composers. We don’t expect you to know how to bow our parts and definatley appreciate when you respect the art of string players enough to ask for help with such a task!

Comment on A New Sense of Direction by Bob Knupp

Bob Knupp — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:31:14 +0000

The only way to get to the core of Schenker is to read Schenker himself. He’s strange, but strangely insightful. To me, the value of the whole train (blog title…) of thought lies in the middleground: discovering large scale-connections (but not too large), and developing the intuition to musically convey to a listener the inherent cohesiveness of a work. In this way, large works (10 min. or more) can easily grasp the attention of a listener—if a performer becomes one with the music.

As for performers of new music: practice and discovery of music begins only after the notes are learned, period.

Comment on Can Parents Fill In When Schools Cut Music? by Jenna Graber

Jenna Graber — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 05:25:59 +0000

Music, like math, is universal…the more reason to KEEP it in the schools.

Comment on Pre-recorded? So, what? by Emily Williams

Emily Williams — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:00:59 +0000

While I would agree with your overall assessment that sometimes it doesn’t matter if the performance is live or recorded I didn’t think the reasons you stated from the performer’s point of view were very convincing.

If someone hires live music, they should understand that’s what they are going to get, glitches and all. If professional performers are going to be hired and the money spent on them should not those in attendence receive the live performance they paid for? However, I agree that in the case of the inauguration pre-recorded music was an ok option for the following reasons.

1) It was too cold outside for the performers to be able to execute their music well.
2) It was too cold outside for their instruments.

These are really the two most convincing arguments in my mind. Whether or not they might have missed a note here or there is not a consideration in my opinion. What constitutes a “sub-standard” performance anyway? Performers as much as anyone else are human, and so should be expected to make mistakes. It is true that CD’s hold performers to a high level of execution, but reality is that you can’t be expected to give a CD performance everytime. That’s part of what makes music enjoyable. The nuances here and there, even the imperfections make music speak to the heart. I have to say that I think I agree more with “the flip side” in most instances.

Comment on Who Needs Performers? by Pre-recorded? So, what? | Music in Trains

Pre-recorded? So, what? | Music in Trains — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:27:01 +0000

[...] I have written before in defense of live performers (“Who Needs Performers?”), I found the recent attacks on performers who used pre-recorded music rather lacking in substance. [...]

Comment on Who’s in Control? by From: The Performer | Music in Trains

From: The Performer | Music in Trains — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 02:06:43 +0000

[...] is not the first time I have written about the flexibility of scores (see Who’s in Control?), but it I thought it was worth bringing up again to post thoughts from a performer’s [...]

Comment on Classical Music’s Marketing Problem by From Conception to Execution | Music in Trains

From Conception to Execution | Music in Trains — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:15:51 +0000

[...] I suspect it may be related to the public not being quite sure what a composer actually does (see Classical Music’s Marketing Problem). Perhaps, if the public could recognize the dual role of conceptualizer/executer for both [...]