Sunday, February 25, 2007
this music sucks
No matter how generous I try to be, I cannot find anything redeeming in Philip Glass's music. He has ideas, but he lacks imagination. This is not a paradox. Having ideas, in itself, means little, because just about everyone has them. The trick, as a composer, is to have ideas that are compelling and magical.
There is little that frustrates more, for me as a composer, then to see someone of utterly mediocre gifts becoming hugely successful while hundreds of truly wonderful artists are ignored. But this is not something I spend much time thinking about, because thinking about it gets one nowhere.
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3 comments:
i think exercising the desire to utilize our creative gifts in magical, innovative and compelling ways
is being a success.
the correlation between commercial/popular success and artistic success is difficult to measure because our exposure to artists is so limited if we only rely on mass media to make those introductions
for some reason, i watch/read/listen to everything with a heightened awareness about what i'm not seeing/reading/hearing -and based on whose decision?
what stories did not make the paper? what books are not on the shelves? what art is not on display? who made these decisions/based on what?
but it is exactly what you say here: seeing so many mediocre artists w/popular success while hundreds of truly wonderful artists go ignored -
that makes me delight in the resources we have available today
the "independents"
whether independent film festival, or art, or music. it seems to me, more and more true artists are creating their own opportunities for sharing their work
and to a select, but deeply appreciative audience.
i found this piece here went from interesting to redundant rather quickly
but i was moved to listen to the musical scores during the oscars last night and enjoyed watching (can't remember name) win his award and receive the recognition for his 40+ years work.
I was actually turned off by the score for "Notes on a Scandal," as I felt that the music interfered with what was happening on screen. It wasn't until the credits that I saw that it was Philip Glass. I'm no expert, and generally don't have much of an opinion on the score, unless it's blatantly bothering me, but I really didn't like what he did for that film.
I may agree for the big part of his oeuvre, but I find exceptions that I really like, such as some of his violin concertos or string quartets.
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