Re: Yes! Judaism: A HEADNOTE

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 12/03/2003 at 20:37 BlackMonk wrote:

>----- Original Message -----
>From: "I. Oppenheim" <i(dot)oppenheim (at) xs4all(dot)nl>

>> No, on the contrary. A basic technical ability is only
>> the starting point (As a singer once put it: If I had
>> no technique, I could only weep). It is a thorough
>> understanding of the musical content that is essential
>> for being able to express it in an interesting way.
>
>What is the "basic technical ability?" What is the "understanding of the
>musical content?"
>
>Go back to the examples I gave. All three muscians were brilliant
>innovators. All three were arguably deficient in one or the other of those
>two areas in comparision to other, lesser musicians.
>
>> > And just who is the official judge of who has or
>> > hasn't earned the title of "artist."
>>
>> That is your audience, I would say.
>>
>>
>
>Then Britney Spears is probably more of an artist than 90% of the people
>either of us listen to.

Ouch! (What, third rate street walkers are artists now?) Good point, well
illustrated. Audiences, and taste, are very, very fickle.... How often, to
take but one example, did detractors in the 1960s proclaim The Beatles and
their music would be forgotten ten years hence? (Examples in the classical
music world are legion!) A very loaded question indeed... 


Richard
(Renaissance Man)


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