tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post4938874823192313995..comments2024-03-07T12:57:35.296-05:00Comments on Varieties of Unreligious Experience: Paradise enowConrad H. Rothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-85135945894909705182007-03-03T08:42:00.000-05:002007-03-03T08:42:00.000-05:00About laughter, I recently had a similar annoying ...About laughter, I recently had a similar annoying experience at the opera. <BR/><BR/>However, it was more of a knowing laughter, the clever laughter of the operagoer pleased to see some speck of their knowledge sung back at them.<BR/><BR/>Grand, as someone who composes, and who has known many composers, I need to say something about your assertion that for many modern composers, the "act of composing and the scores it produced were the important part, while performance was merely secondary, if desired at all." <BR/><BR/>Although this "fact" was a piece of received wisdom when I was a composition major, and I too believed it, it's hooey, albeit superficially plausible.<BR/><BR/>Who wants their music sitting on a shelf, useless and unperformed?<BR/><BR/>Anyway, I'm just happy to see more musicians show up - perhaps we'll get Conrad over yet!Andrew W.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00071098030747838202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-7777938262620041112007-03-02T22:57:00.000-05:002007-03-02T22:57:00.000-05:00Conrad, it was a toss up in my mind between the Ba...Conrad, it was a toss up in my mind between the Babylonians and the Etruscans. I chose alphabetically. It's not that I have anything against Gilgamesh but what can I say, I've always gotten a good laugh out of Noah's Ark.Blue Geneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16144609809461765488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-19853446393583642742007-03-02T20:13:00.000-05:002007-03-02T20:13:00.000-05:00The great difference between musical pieces and no...The great difference between musical pieces and novels rests in the fact that the novel is a static form while the musical piece must be continually reperformed anew. Drama takes this one step further in that stage notation is frequently minimalist and the new productions may differ drastically from the old. I appreciate this as a concept though, like you perhaps, I admire more the unchanging elements of the performance, found within the script.<BR/><BR/>(Paul: what a wonderful expression! "The private library is an extension to one's palace of memory, filled with unvisited rooms and unlocked doors". I heartily agree, and also feel that my collection of books provides me with keen joy, despite my inability to read them all)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-15782581260023843152007-03-02T19:57:00.000-05:002007-03-02T19:57:00.000-05:00I stumble back here, only to rub my eyes in bewild...I stumble back here, only to rub my eyes in bewilderment, as if the madness of Sutor has infected the <EM>Varieties</EM> themselves. Still, mustn't grumble.<BR/><BR/>BG: automatic applause, yes. Personally I wish people wouldn't clap after certain (good) performances, it kills the mood. On my plane back from Phoenix the passengers <EM>clapped</EM> after landing--I could hardly believe it! But... Babylonians? What, you're down on Gilgamesh now? I'd prefer to attribute sitcom hell to Menander.<BR/><BR/>Grand: firstly, I didn't say I applied my feelings to music. I enjoy music, but I don't really <EM>appreciate</EM> it for the very reason of my aesthetic; nonetheless, I understand the importance of your 'performative' outlook for the full comprehension of music as a serious artform.<BR/><BR/>However, I don't think that my view makes music into a museum piece, any more than it makes the novel into a museum piece. As for 'bourgeois', I find this an odd accusation--and still more odd as a criticism--not that I am not 100% bourgeois, more that the bourgeoisie tends to value music and drama most highly of all. I can't think that this particular charge has much merit.Conrad H. Rothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01916542057749474124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-30569159462258306892007-03-02T17:31:00.000-05:002007-03-02T17:31:00.000-05:00Many composers of the twentieth-century avant-gard...Many composers of the twentieth-century avant-garde viewed music the same way you view art. The act of composing and the scores it produced were the important part, while performance was merely secondary, if desired at all.<BR/><BR/>I disagree with that attitude in the extreme. It makes music a museum object rather than an experience. It's so...bourgeois.<BR/><BR/>Methinks I have a blog post on that subject lurking on the horizon...Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11441032952952378525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-81108041399026951682007-03-02T16:19:00.000-05:002007-03-02T16:19:00.000-05:00I just left a comment on the Siganus/Noetica threa...I just left a comment on the Siganus/Noetica thread. Probably not worth reading, but I may have roused the beast... I mean the hydra.<BR/><BR/>Language, as for La Berma, Proust may be more aligned with Conrad after all: <BR/>" Ceux même qui ne la [Odette] connaissaient pas étaient avertis par quelque chose de singulier et d’excessif – ou peut-être par une radiation télépathique comme celles qui déchaînaient [what do you know, another use of this word commented at length in the thread. Proust catches everything!] des applaudissements dans la foule ignorante aux moments où la Berma était sublime – que ce devait être quelque personne connue.<BR/><BR/>And BTW, isn't the automatic applause the equivalent of the nervous laughter at the Beckett play? I think this is simply a human response. Come on Gawain, not *everything* worthy of ridicule comes from American pop culture! Surely the Babylonians must take their fair share of the blame for idiotic sit coms as well. <BR/> <BR/>The narrator's first (and correct) instinct is to be disappointed by La Berma's performance. He subsequently changes his mind and starts to admire her, but his admiration for her is an extension of his admiration for Bergotte who praises her. In the end, though, he outgrows Bergotte, as does Bergotte himself in fact, right before he dies as he is admiring Ver Meer's "View of Delft."Blue Geneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16144609809461765488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-75958008655527562672007-03-02T12:10:00.000-05:002007-03-02T12:10:00.000-05:00And, er, maybe Noetica is currently busy patching ...And, er, maybe Noetica is currently busy patching up her/its/his beloved <I>cimetière marin</I>.<BR/><BR/>>>> “La houle a creusé sous le cimetière marin faisant s'affaisser des tombes.”<BR/>01/03/2007<BR/>http://reunion.orange.fr/web/Actualite.php?refactu=8428Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-63185422894029087462007-03-02T12:03:00.000-05:002007-03-02T12:03:00.000-05:00No, maybe it's not over yet. I suspect the echidna...No, maybe it's not over yet. I suspect the echidna is just slowly walking round the backstage, looking in dark corners for someone called Godot, squeaking desperately, before coming back in front of the public to say that... that... Well, he'll tell us. Things might take time to happen, and patience is — apparently — a virtue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-11837818170924912502007-03-02T11:37:00.000-05:002007-03-02T11:37:00.000-05:00I love that thread, and I'm sorry the Siganus/Noet...I love that thread, and I'm sorry the Siganus/Noetica show seems to have closed. But we have the written record, which must suffice. Still, to have heard Berma intone "Non, vous ne tiendrez pas de moi la vie!"...Languagehathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285708503881129380noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-78973698219890823742007-03-02T11:35:00.000-05:002007-03-02T11:35:00.000-05:00"I could swim in an ocean of books forever, I thin..."I could swim in an ocean of books forever, I think, never even needing to read."<BR/><BR/>What a painfully resonant phrase. I long ago realized that I am happiest and most comfortable when surrounded by books; not just arrayed on shelves (though those help) but piles surrounding me in bibliophilic nidification.<BR/><BR/>Sometimes I feel abashed that I haven't read them all, but that's not the point, is it? I know their number, and call them all by name. The private library is an extension to one's palace of memory, filled with unvisited rooms and unlocked doors.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-53671507485921829332007-03-02T10:52:00.000-05:002007-03-02T10:52:00.000-05:00I was in London yesterday, we could have had lunch...I was in London yesterday, we could have had lunch together.Roberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00533678970029159873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-2090871088141289402007-03-02T04:57:00.000-05:002007-03-02T04:57:00.000-05:00about the laughter: it's a pavolovian response; p...about the laughter: it's a pavolovian response; people have been trained to it by the lauigh track on American comedy shows. happens in opera, too. and outside my window, every night, when the street dogs do a group howl-out.Sir Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07953581535133000686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20433842.post-52240481468594757462007-03-02T04:56:00.000-05:002007-03-02T04:56:00.000-05:00yes, i've noticed that about your precious brain.yes, i've noticed that about your precious brain.Sir Ghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07953581535133000686noreply@blogger.com