Monday, March 21, 2005
Two Clarifications
1. Rodney suggests that my Reich/Babbitt story is a musical urban legend. You'd think I would have learned to cite my sources up front, but apparently I have not. (And Rodney -- I appreciate your healthy skepticism.) According to Michael Gordon himself:
"It was really an audience, people who were attracted by the 12-hour concert and were going to go check this out. So they did not know if they liked Milton Babbitt, they were not supposed to like Steve Reich. And they did not know that if they liked Steve Reich, they were not supposed to like Milton Babbitt. And you know, Milton Babbitt came in and he talked, and his piece was played and there was this huge ovation. And then he walked out the back because he didn't want to hear Steve Reich's piece. [laughs] Steve Reich, who did not want to hear Milton's piece and had been waiting outside the building until it was over came in, and then he talked, and there was a huge ovation and then Steve left. And they didn't ever meet."
2. I never meant to equate "uptown" with "serialist." Yes, serialism as an ideology is pretty much dead (Which is not to say that nobody uses the techniques. My friend Stratis Minakakis writes gorgeous music and uses a lot of serialist technique.) My grandfather is dead too, but there's still a family resemblance. Two of my former teachers David Rakowski and Lee Hyla are both fairly uptown and also both fabulous (although they're both substantially more rock-n-roll than, say, Babbitt and Carter.) Based on what music I've heard of his, Rodney Lister is himself fairly uptown. And the list goes on and on. Now the probability that I will like any given uptown piece is lower than the probability that I'll like any given downtown piece, but that is purely a statement about my own taste.
So Rodney -- I'm with you on the observation that "serialism is bad" is a straw man, but my reason for wanting that straw man dismantled is, I think, different from yours. From my perspective (and I know I helped set the straw man up with my title choice earlier) arguing about serialism takes us away from being able to all agree that there still remains an uptown and downtown divide. The food-fight going on in the comments section proves, to my mind, that the divide exists, but at the moment it seems to be illustrating the downtown prejudice against the uptowners rather than vice versa. Is everybody having fun? :)
posted by Galen H. Brown
12:18 PM
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