The Fredösphere

Three ensembles -- Soundstreams Canada, the Tafelmusik Chamber Choir and the Hilliard Ensemble -- teamed up to present a concert of Arvo Pärt's Miserere and Omar Daniel's The Passion of Lavinia Andronicus, prompting another addition to the long-running debate we could call Unified Simplicity v. Fractured Complexity.  Journalist John Terauds sides with Pärt, and the ... oh, just for fun, let's call them the Simpletons.  Hey, usually I side with the Simpletons too.  Certainly I distrust that part of me that wants to show off by writing complex music.  Still, I can't help but wishing Terauds had nuanced his conclusion a bit.  Maybe I'm just a contrarian.  Maybe I'll still recovering from a performance of all 80 minutes of Pärt's Kanon Pokajanen, where a very few musical gestures are cycled relentlessly without variation.  It is possible to pursue simplicity too far.

Speaking of debates, here's another:  the Great Copyright Conundrum.  An editor of some early music manuscripts has successfully sued Hyperion.  This sums up my reaction nicely:

I have sympathy with both sides. Much old music would be unperformable without the expertise and hard labour of scholars. Too many notes are missing; too many vital instructions left ambiguous or unstated by the composer. Scholars are paid to fill in the gaps. But they are often paid little, and the gaps are often large (Sawkins said he spent 1,200 hours on the Lalande editions). So they have a good case for being better rewarded. And Hyperion’s treatment of Sawkins was, at the very least, tactless.

Finally, everyone should read Donald Pittenger as he guest blogs at 2 Blowhards.  He recalls his less-than-satisfying experience as an art student.  He does a great job of exposing the failures of his teachers while -- and this is key -- not blaming them for the problems caused by his own fecklessness and uncertainty.  That was certainly my experience:  "too soon old, too late smart," indeed!

As an aside, let me explain that one of the character defects I had in those days was the implicit assumption that my instructors would instruct me in what I would need to become an artist, and that I didn't need to learn things on the side. Naive, yes; foolish, certainly; but that was the way I was. I recently took up painting again and most of my book-buying and internet off-loading deals with techniques and examples. Better late than never, I suppose.

Give in to the dark side, you knob:  read the whole thing.