Composers Forum is a daily web log that allows invited contemporary composers to share their thoughts and ideas on any topic that interests them--from the ethereal, like how new music gets created, music history, theory, performance, other composers, alive or dead, to the mundane, like getting works played and recorded and the joys of teaching. If you're a professional composer and would like to participate, send us an e-mail.
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
I'm off to the National Critics Conference in Los Angeles in the next hour, but I thought I'd add more fuel to the flame before I go. Frank J. Oteri
I've recently been reading Colin Symes's fabulous history of recorded classical music, Setting the Record Straight: A Material History of Classical Recording (2004, Wesleyan University Press), and found the following anecdote which fans of recordings by Pierre Boulez should undoubtedly appreciate:
"Pierre Boulez…by all accounts never listens to recordings and does not own a gramophone… He argues that a score ought to be enough of a listening aid and that all forms of listening outside of the concert hall are of questionable worth." (Symes, p. 47)
For me, it added whole new layers of meaning to Josh Ronsen's sadly now offline Pierre Boulez Project which was described on Sequenza21 in an article by Ronsen titled " "Deconstructing Boulez."
Is anyone able to track down an exact quote from the maestro?
Ed. Note: The Blogger software is being contrary today so Frank asked me to post this for him when I can get it work. JB posted by Jerry Bowles
12:50 PM
