[Fmpro] Shore, Burton, Wood

[Ted Peterson]

Close but dig a little more. You are on the right track with Mozart  
just fine tune it a little. I has to do with Mozart reviewing a  
single Bach work that was in the possession of a fellow Freemason.

On Jun 5, 2008, at 1:46 PM, Fernando Rivas wrote:
>
> Well, not that I’m really after that gold star but Mozart, like most
> composers and musicians of his era was well trained in the art of
> counterpoint. Although Bach’s music and older music of the  
> Renaissance was
> not in vogue publicly it was still known and studied by musicians.
> Undoubtedly Mozart’s inspiration to complete a religious work like the
> Requiem drew him to approach it from the traditional standpoint of  
> older

For the following, I will simply say that we are still too close  
historically to both composers. I've played Britten's "Nocturnal" and  
both conducted and oversaw productions of "Peter Grimes." In the  
sense of form, subject matter and musical integration, I think  
"Grimes" shows some real dramatic innovation. Musically not so much  
but an opera has to be looked at a number of different ways. I love  
the work and it's one of my favorite operas. The British school is  
somewhat eclectic. How many know any of the works of Arnold Bax? He's  
kind of like a British Carl Nielsen (Not the Bridget.) but without  
the output. Nielsen (By the way, the listen to the "Inextinguishable"  
and you will see some interesting similarities to some working film  
composers.) would hardly be called innovative but he has some  
incredibly moving and powerful works. The same could be said of  
Richard Strauss but both "Salome" and "Electra" of which I have seen  
both staged are absolutely incredible. I saw "Electra" done with  
staging by Joseph Svboda in Europe. The staging was so fantastic that  
it actually elevated the music and I didn't think such a thing was  
possible.

But remember how this thread started and it dealt with innovation. I  
agree that innovation is not the end-all of composition. I also  
happen to believe that so-called classical music worked through as  
much of the diatonic/chromatic exploration as could be done and was  
finally punctuated with Cage's "Silence." But that's a personal  
opinion. I talked with Cage at a party and he didn't feel that way. I  
have an interesting story concerning Cage and the performance artist  
Rachel Rosenthal. It's a little long and not really part of this forum.
>
>> composers who have remained were the ones who  innovated. The ones  
>> who
>> didn't innovate were left in the trash heap  of history.
>
> That’s not entirely true. Composers like Sergei Rachmaninoff, Benjamin
> Britten or Samuel Barber are not exactly on the trash heap of  
> history and
> certainly have made a name for themselves though not as innovators.
>

Ted Peterson