Hello,
This is Dary John Mizelle (DJM) with the first posting for the blog musicofourtime OOT. The first request is for comments reacting to a quote of Kyle Gann from 1988 (Village Voice), which is:
"Why is great American Music always the underground, never the mainstream?"
He may not agree with it today. If so, he is free to blog a response. In any case it is an interesting question.
There will be much, much more, along with comments, reviews and opinions.
DJM
About Me
- DJM
- Hastings on Hudson, NY, United States
- DARY JOHN MIZELLE (born 6.14.40 Stillwater Oklahoma) (B.A. Sacramento State University, MA UC Davis, PhD UC San Diego). Mentors include: Larry Austin, Richard Swift, Jerome Rosen,Karlheinz Stockhausen,David Tudor,Roger Reynolds, Robert Erickson,Pauline Oliveros,Kenneth Gaburo. A member of the New Music Ensemble at UC Davis (the first free group improvisation ensemble) and a founding member of SOURCE Music of the Avant Garde magazine, he has specialized in the sonic and structural aspects of contemporary compositional practice. For more information see: http://www.mizelle.org
5 comments:
Hi Dary John,
Truer today than ever.
Kyle
“Who understands America’s attitude toward its composers? Why have we heaped honors on the likes of Edward MacDowell and Charles Wuorinen, while geniuses like Charles Ives and Conlon Nancarrow scribbled unheard music into their sixties? Who decides where the spotlight should shine? What creates the illusion that, as Lou Harrison puts it, ‘American composers come with a self-destruct button?’ Why is great American music always the underground, never the mainstream? If I had five minute with God, these are questions I’d ask.”
Kyle Gann. “Calm Within Chaos” (Dary John Mizelle, Robert Ashley). Village Voice. November 22, 1988 (Vol. XXXIII No. 47, p. 86).
To Answer Gann:
Gann’s honest reaction to genuine injustices raises questions that no one can probably ever answer (except for, as he intimates, God). There is, however, nothing wrong with trying to answer them (especially for those of us who enjoy playing God anyway).
First of all, Gann’s career at the Village Voice, with over 500 publications, itself fell victim to some sinister daemons in the “Village Voice Shakeup” of 2005. I followed as much of this sickening soap opera as I could stomach: one “alternative weekly” company bought out another and wanted to drastically change directions for the Voice, causing the resignations of some top reporters, including Sydney Schanberg of the Killing Fields fame. Gann eventually resigned too. I had two “Letters of the Week” published in the Voice the following summer, complaining about its direction of music criticism since the shakeup. The bottom line is, Gann’s beat has been done away with. It’s gone.
My similar career as a “new music” critic began at the Los Angeles Times in 1985, one year before Gann started contributing to the Voice. My reviews were typically crammed into short-and-sweet, four-paragraph stories, while the Voice generously allotted Gann a full page to express his views. Still, I couldn’t resist comparing a list of Gann’s publications at www.kylegann.com/Voice_biblio.html with my own at www.angelfire.com/music2/greggwager and here is a list of every composer that we both wrote about for the past 2 decades on different coasts: John Adams, Maryann Amacher, Milton Babbitt, Eve Beglarian, Luciano Berio, Bill and Mary Buchen, John Cage, Barney Childs, Anthony Coleman, Nicolas Collins, Henry Cowell, Mario Davidovsky, Morton Feldman, Peter Garland, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, John Halle, Lou Harrison, Jerry Hunt, Charles Ives, Art Jarvinen, Scott Johnson, Mauricio Kagel, William Kraft, Aaron Jay Kernis, Guy Klucevsek, Bun-Ching Lam, David Lang, Fred Lerdahl, Todd Levin, Tod Machover, Ingram Marshall, Salvatore Martirano, Olivier Messiaen, Meredith Monk, Michael Nyman, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Arvo Pärt, Larry Polansky, Steve Reich, Wolfgang Rihm, Terry Riley, George Rochberg, Frederic Rzewski, Erik Satie, Giacinto Scelsi, Stephen Scott, Peter Sculthorpe, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Carl Stone, Morton Subotnick, Louise Talma, James Tenny, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, David Van Tieghem, Lois V Vierk, Kevin Volans, Iannis Xenakis, Julia Wolfe, Christian Wolff, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Remember those names, because, as I said before, this beat is now gone out of both mainstream newspapers and “alternative weeklies.” Amy C. Beal has recently followed the course of American experimental music in her book New Music, New Allies, especially how it was nurtured in West Germany after World War II. All of the names on the above list owe something to that scene, which originally sprang from the American military and their efforts to promote American culture in that part of the world.
So, finally, how do we answer Gann’s questions? Maybe the keyword here is not “mainstream,” “underground,” or even “great” —maybe not even “American.” I’m still most concerned with genuine, independent thinking, and that is still the hardest thing to find—even on blogs. I’ll keep looking and if I find something, I’ll let you know.
From Gregg Wager
www.angelfire.com/music2/greggwager
Here is one from Larry Austin.
Speaking personally as a composer, I've had my fair share of success
with my music through the years, both underground and above-ground.
I've had a few "good" and "bad" reviews from the Village Voice and
quite a number of same from the New York Times. I don't feel
unappreciated. My career as a composer has been girded by my
38-year academic career at three universities...all three of which
supported my composing experiments with generous subventions,
sabbaticals, and challenging colleagues and students. I tell the
story of composer/professor Rodney Waschka, who, as my
doctoral student back in the 'eighties at the University of North
Texas, came in for his last meeting with me as his major
professor and said, "I need you to help me with my CV, so that
I can start applying for jobs." I responded, "What kind of job
do you want?" He answered, "One just like yours."
There has always been a disconnect between "classical" and "popular" music. One appeals to people who think and pay closer attention, one appeals to the lowest common denominator. That applies within the musical community as well. That's why arts funding is supposed to be based on merit rather than being a popularity contest. Of course, when the tastes in American music of those in charge of doling out the arts funding lean less towards Charles Ives and more towards John Phillip Sousa, the whole thing gets turned on its head anyway. That's why ultimately democracy is a dismal failure and a race to the bottom and we would all be better served by a benevolent dictatorship. For my first decree I shall order that all NYC buildings have roof gardens to improve air quality. It won't work if only some buildings do it so the occupants of any building that resists shall be executed by being locked in a small room with an idling taxi. For my second decree, 10% of all income generated by Madonna, 50 Cent and Bruce Springsteen shall be dedicated to funding all composers with any association with Orchestra of Our Time. For my third decree, all pedestrians shall be forced to carry at least one cheerfully colored balloon. I like balloons and you can't mug someone if you're carrying a balloon because you need one hand to hold the gun and the other to take their wallet and you'd only have one free hand because you'd be carrying a balloon (ideally with an OoOT logo on it) so crime would go down. My forth decree is that anyone who allows their pets to breed while the animal shelters are still overflowing with homeless pets goes straight to the gas chamber, front of the line. For my fifth decree, at least 50% of all TV commercials and Broadway shows must be atonal. For my sixth decree, the Pledge of Allegiance shall be replaced by John Cage's 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds. That way our school children can be patriotic and observe a moment of silence at the same time. For my seventh decree the National Anthem shall be replaced by the opening movement of Pierrot Lunaire and all school children and baseball fans will be required to sing it. I could continue but the point is that democracy would never even vote in these modest societal improvements so how can we expect to ever be anything other than "underground" in this system?
Have fun anyway,
Gregor Kitzis
Well, who even programs the music of Edward MacDowell today, anyway?
You'd have to look at many of the "American" composers heralded in his time, who had felt compelled to leave the country in their youth to absorb European musical culture (MacDowell left New York with his mother in 1877 at the age of 17 to attend the Paris Conservatoire, stayed in Europe for ten years, played for Franz Liszt, etc.) before returning with a respectable “education” and CV.
And so on with later generations of “Great American Composers”: Copland, David Diamond, Roy Harris and all of the other Boulanger pupils- they might have reached maturity in the states, but only after they were nurtured and polished up elsewhere, having started their careers the “proper way.”
Nancarrow also left the states, but in exile, and he didn’t promote his own music in the U.S. until he was in his 60’s. Similarly, recognition was late for Ives, who, upon leaving the insurance business, spent much of his time simply making his scores legible enough for other people to read them. I wouldn’t say that either of these composers “came with a self-destruct button,” or that they were ignored by insufferable audiences. I think that these artists needed years to “incubate;” once the music was shopped around, albeit forty years after it had been written, appreciative audiences emerged, e.g. Ives winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for a work completed in 1904 (Symphony No.3), Nancarrow winning the MacArthur award at the age of 70.
Of course it’s tough to labor in seclusion, the light at the end of the tunnel being so dim, and the opportunities so few, yet being so gravely important...remember, Ives had given Mahler the score and parts to that symphony to rehearse with the New York Philharmonic, but Mahler died before he could perform it!
Keith Rudolph
disappoint_mints@yahoo.com
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