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SEQUENZA21/
340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Zookeeper:   
Jerry Bowles
(212) 582-3791

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David Salvage

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Christian Hertzog
(San Diego)
Jerry Zinser
(Los Angeles)

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Record companies, artists and publicists are invited to submit CDs to be considered for review. Send to: Jerry Bowles, Editor, Sequenza 21, 340 W. 57th Street, 12B, New York, NY 10019

Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Everything is Good, Nothing is Bad

There�s a fascinating dialogue between Pierre Boulez and Michel Foucault reprinted in "Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics," an anthology of essays from the journal "Perspectives of New Music" edited by John Rahn. In the dialogue Boulez and Foucault ponder musical/aesthetic pluralism. While they admit there�s something "liberating" about a cultural discourse which refuses to value one kind of music over another, they fear this "everything is good, nothing is bad" attitude sanctions a conservative aesthetic that resorts to old habits at the expense of engaging new possibilities. If nothing can be better than what I like, why bother with something else?

Two thoughts.

One: in a world of "separate but equal" musics, music appreciation as we know it goes right out the window. If a Christina Aguilera album is just as good as a Brahms Symphony, why teach a class about how to appreciate the Brahms? And just renaming the class "classical music appreciation" doesn�t get around the issue. What is it about classical music that makes it so special that we�re taught how to appreciate it and not other genres?

Two: are people really isolating themselves as Boulez and Foucault suspect? On the one hand, one can think of any number of composers and performers who engage other musics with sedulous dedication. But for every one of them, how many orchestras isolate themselves from new music? How many commercials and TV programs stereotype classical music as old and crusty, rather than seriously paying attention to it?

I don't have answers for these questions, but, whether you love or loathe what Boulez and Foucault stand for, they�re certaintly still worth listening to.
posted by David Salvage 2/08/2005



 
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