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

Zookeeper:   
Jerry Bowles
(212) 582-3791

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(Philadelphia)
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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

Saturday, April 30, 2005
What is Music For?

The question was triggered in my mind by Rodney Lister's tribute to Harold Shapero in the Composers Forum. Next to my desk I have a handful of CDs that I play while I'm working during days or evenings. They are my little friends. I've heard most of them 50, 100, God only knows, how many times. One of them is the New World recording of the Lydian String Quartet playing Shapero's "Serenade in D for String Quartet," his "String Quartet" and "String Trio."

Another, also on New World, is Arthur Berger's Orchestral Music. There's the Naxos recordings of the Norwegian composer Geir Tveitt's A Hundred Hardanger Tunes. There are a half dozen others but you get the picture.

I have thousands of CDs around the house and I listen to music most of the day but the reason I return to my friends so often is precisely because--like true friends--they provide me with comfort and pleasure and don't hold it against me if I fall asleep on their couch while they're still talking. They know it doesn't mean I don't respect their opinions and will make it up by paying extra attention another time.

There are people who believe that the only way to really listen to "serious" music is to go somewhere and sit in a straight-back chair with a bunch of strangers and give the performance your full attention. Some people even insist on doing nothing else while they listen to CDs. And, there is some music that demands this level of concentration. But, frankly, most music doesn't.

I suspect that it is this formal stiffness of classical music that puts off so many young people for whom iPods deliver a running soundtrack of their lives. The music they listen to is friendly and accessible and part of their everyday world--not a special occasion. I can listen to Harmonielehre two or three times a year because it demands that I take out the trash and run the sweeper and then sit down and pay full attention. Harold Shapero's String Quartet can drop by anytime unannounced, no matter how cluttered my mind, or apartment, may be.
posted by Jerry Bowles 4/30/2005



 
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