The Dangers of Ignorance

I heard a story on either Fresh Air or PRI's The World about the dangers of innumeracy, the lack of awareness about numbers and math. And I've read blog posts on the dangers of being ignorant about science. So it made me wonder: what is the danger of being unpossessing of musical knowledge, or knowledge of the fine arts in general? One could speak of living an enriched life, but is it dangerous to live an unenriched life? It is potentially sad, but are there any studies that show this could lower life expectancy or theories that culturally ignorant people are more likely to act violently towards others? And then what constitutes knowledge. I'm reading a book by Jerrold Levinson, Music in the Moment, that argues against the necessity to have conscious awareness of musical structure in order to "understand" any particular piece. Levinson claims that understanding music is the same as attending to the music as it is being played, no underlying theoretical knowledge need be applied. I haven't finished the book yet, so I don't know if I agree with this (I'm leaning towards "no"), but there are certainly arguments that knowing too much about the arts destroys their magical effect. What say you?

PS. My blog seems to be under some sort of attack not by a troll, but rather by someone who enjoys writing violent, misogynistic, and generally sexually immature comments. Anybody else with problems like this?

Brassy composers

Last night I went to a guest recital that featured horn ensembles. The last piece of the evening was composed by a colleague for 12 horns and percussion. The colleague himself is a brass player, and it struck me that all of the pieces I know that were composed by brass players for brass instruments share a key characteristic. All of these pieces are neo-tonal, emphasizing the sonorous harmonic series through lots of quartal chords and triads. Thus they allow the brass instruments to reinforce each other, allowing the strong overtones to align and make the chords ring. This focus on sonority comes from a emphasis on producing beautiful sounds in brass pedagogy. Creating a big, round sound is the goal of every brass player, often to the sacrifice of other musical considerations. Likewise brass compositions emphasize these beautiful sounds to the detriment of more interesting harmonic progressions. I'm thinking of works by trumpeters Tony Plog and Thomas Stevens, and trombonists Jim Beckel and Christian Lindberg. Exceptions to this rule would be jazzers like Bob Brookmeyer who glory in crunchy chords.

Best of the Rest: 9-30-08

1. All At Once: Trumpeter Kris Tiner writes a series of posts of his visit to NYC for some work. The latest one, RECAP - V, has great pictures and tantalizing descriptions of the album he's recording.

2. Joshua Nemith's Cincinnati Pianist Blog (the name could use some work): Joshua's blog has paid off in the recruiting department, netting him some new students.

3. Tonic Blotter: In between bird posts and a diatribe about the Wall Street bailout, MK manages to fit an interesting review of Charles Dutoit's guest turn with Chicago.

4. ClassicallyHip: John Clare gives in to his inner fan boy as he interviews Anne-Sophie Mutter.

5. Fredösphere: Right-winger (and composer) Fred Himebaugh finds something unique in an Obama video to frighten him. And amazingly, this unapologetic liberal agrees with him.

Email post

With my new iPhone, I want an easy way to blog with it. This is an
attempt. I'm also attempting a new way of teaching ear training this
year. The students are composing all of the prepared music for sight
singing and dictations. They are also improvising and sight reading
every day. No text book, though I do have solfege books on reserve for
practice sight reading and dictation. The hope is that they become
proficient at musicking. More on that later.

Rip Van Winkle

It's been exactly a month since my last posting. During this time I had a lovely nap, started the school year, enrolled my son in karate, started my daughter in piano lessons, purchased an iPhone, took another nap, remodeled my kitchen, got my puppy partially housebroken, attended countless meetings, knocked on some doors for a presidential candidate, played Mario Kart Wii, played in the DePauw Tigers pep band for the opening football game, started revising my article on phenomenology, ran a 5k, and took one more nap. I feel rested, and ready to blog again.

I'll cheat by pointing out some good musical things others have written about recently(ish):

John Scalzi and his readers discuss good film scores for Science Fiction movies. I don't know if the person who suggested Flash Gordon should be stoned or awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant.

Speaking of MacArthur, congratulations to Alex Ross, Leila Josefowicz, and Miguel Zenon. I expect Alex to next be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ending the New Complexity riots.

Dave Munger has written about five music cognition topics during my nap. 1) What aspects of conducting are most important for synchronizing beats? 2) The ability of music to evoke memory. 3) Tone deafness is very rare. Bad singing is not (alas). 4) The higher prevalence of absolute pitch among Asian populations is not related to genetics. 5) Music helps learn new words.

Mind Hacks also has three music-n-psychology posts: 1) songs about anesthesia. 2) a review of a review of Daniel Levitin's latest book. 3) binaural beats and digital drugs.

Peter Sagel runs for some of the same reasons I do. I don't think I'll be able to run my upcoming half marathon in 1:30 though. I'll be ecstatic if I'm around 2 hours.

When would you be?

Chad has spotted a discussion topic that seems ripe for possibility in many fields. It started as a time traveler picking the coolest engineering projects of the 20th century to be involved with, no altering of history allowed. Chad altered the topic to scientific discoveries of the 20th century, though one commenter has broken this rule by invoking Archimedes. So I pose the question this way: what musical performance of the 20th century would you most want to either witness or take part in? Imagine performing in the orchestra for the Rite of Spring premiere in 1913, or being in the crowd at Stalag VIII in 1945 for Messiaen's performance of his Quartet for the End of Time? (Of course, that would mean you were either a Nazi or a POW, so quickly jump in and jump out for that one.) I think one of my wishes would be the Geneva International Music Competition in 1955 when Maurice Andre won and started his international solo career. Or to hear him premiere the Tomasi or Chaynes concerti composed for him.

Start dreaming of your own time travels!

FriPod: Funny

Today was the DePauw Faculty Institute, a meeting of all faculty to greet new teachers, hear about the state of the university, and get in small groups to discuss various issues. In past years this was called Funny Friday, though the administration has been trying to move away from that label. This year's Funny Friday was particularly interesting, as we have a new president for the first time in 23 years.

Last week a colleague turned me on to Mitchell and Webb, a comedy duo from Merry Olde England. Today another colleague (who happens to be British) told me he is good friends with David Mitchell, they went to school together. How cool is that? Here is the skit I quoted today that sparked this revelation.

1. "My Funny Valentine" by Rogers and Hart, performed by Matt Damon on The Talented Mr. Ripley soundtrack.

2. V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Asdruck from Symphony # 3 in D minor by Gustav Mahler, performed by James Levine and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [Merrily in the speed and saucily in the Asdruck]

3. Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche Op. 28 by Richard Strauss, performed by Daniel Barenboim; Chicago Symphony Orchestra. [Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks]

4. Divertimento in Bb, K 137 by WA Mozart, performed by the Eder Quartet. [Fun]

5. Divertimento in F, K 138 by Mozart, performed by the Eder Quartet.

6. Divertimento for Horn and Piano by Jean Francaix, performed by Andre Cazalet, Yves Henry.

7. Divertimento for String Orchestra by Béla Bartók, performed by a) St Paul Chamber Orchestra, Hugh Wolff, b) Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Charles Dutoit