SPIRITUALITY AND CLASSICAL MUSIC - Part V of V, October 2014 WHEN MATTERS WHO PLAYS This post consists of two parts presented in two paragraphs - part one is written more for classical music professionals, especially music critics, while part two is for audience, although everybody can benefit from reading entire thing. Get ready, here it is: If I was classical music listener and someone told me that when it comes to spiritual music, issues exists regarding whether specific soloists would fit the bill so to speak, Id say let me then run from it all and find non-spiritual composer, such as Chopin, who wrote beautiful waltzes and music with lot of romantic appeal ... however music critics, especially those who are old school would tell you that only music to really benefit from is spiritual music ... which is correct if you consider power of classical music to transform peoples lives based on faith .... this fact has also been a reason why certain societies have been partially informing in music education, or even further would focus on ethnomusicological treasures. But why do we need to listen to music critics when music taste is so subjective? Critics are people who have studied music and are qualified to make recommendations to society what to listen to, who are best soloists, which CDs to buy, which ones to avoid, and which ones to include or exclude in curriculums in musics schools. Thats why social responsibility of music critics is high, so when we start questioning importance of soloists backgrounds to determine their suitability as performers of spiritual music, as you may suspect - opinions are highly divided, causing strives and massive displays of egos in motion. One group of critics usually traditionalists, tend to think that spiritual background is most important, and beyond that. Others, including myself, are more liberal about it, and here is why - if I was to listen Alexandres piano music, his spiritual beliefs, if any, are irrelevant; what counts is how his music affects me. In that sense, Id like to bring attention that exclusion of specific performers based on who they are or coming from is essentially, not just rude, but it is backward toward your own society that critics are trying to guard - hearing additional interpretations enlightens the overall music culture and will increase quality in classical music education in music schools. Besides, if I was going to look into backgrounds of performers, I think right place to look is soloists educational background, such as, whom they studied with, like mentors, as those type of facts would tells us more about performers personal philosophy and stuff like that - I think that is far more important. And now we go back to music. The last example I showed you introduces one of the most important composers of the era of baroque, J.S. Bach, which sacred choral and orchestral works Ill play more in December. Here is perspective on Modern Bach, the way Alexandre has introduced to classical music community. In these short examples, which are very popular by the way, you hear several melodies going on at the same time and it takes very impressive skills to be able to distinguish them - because different finger have to touch the keys with different intensities - this type of baroque composing is called POLYPHONY. But how spiritual polyphony is when on modern piano? This question is interesting, because modernism in XX century has dismissed religion. And with full respect for all XX century composers, I do not think any of them can measure to Baroque Era masters. And so modernism had to fade, nowadays we live in post-modernism, which is my favorite style, USA has fallen for postmodernism and rightfully so - postmodernism is bringing back segments from the renaissance into modern structure in art - someone out there had a very brilliant idea. Finally, let me say, backgrounds or not, after attending so many concerts everywhere, I tend to think that many audiences get territorial and like to listen the most performers from their neck of the woods ... I think that is fine, as long as, audiences as well as new generations of music talents have open access to as much diversity as possible prior to making final judgments. It will even make them better competitors on a world stage. Posts will continue starting November 1. Thank you, Oly youtube/watch?v=zvDdSPzXj4Q
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:51:17 +0000
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