New Music Criticism on the Mean Streets of the Intertubes

1. Re: Tim’s point – I think it’s impossible to tell if what KingBolden’s saying is “new music criticism” or “Christopher Rouse criticism” or just crankiness.

   And that’s where my confusion about the origin of this type of commenter comes from. I simply don’t understand the motivation to post a two-sentence dismissal of a piece in a public forum. While it’s fine for KingBolden to not like the piece, I’m not sure it’s fine for someone to claim publicly that the piece is “useless” and not offer any concrete explanation at all for why that might be so. There’s a criticism there that’s claiming something more than the readily acknowledged subjectivity of saying, “I don’t like this.” At least this piece is lucky enough to have multiple folks jump to its defense.

2. Very well said, Steve. KingBolden’s putdown is fairly typical, but I am sometimes impressed by the informed defense (how would they know about the different instruments representing different characters unless they’d performed or studied the work?), even in the midst of name-calling.

   Go to just about any John Cage performance/interview on Youtube, and there will be people trashing the man. It impresses me that music like Cage’s, which really isn’t all that new any more, can still gravely offend people.

   I happen to like Ogoun Badagris a lot, and I’ve never heard a recording that’s done it justice (maybe my lame playback system?) You definitely don’t get the experience listening to it compressed on the internet. Heard live, it’s an adrenaline-inducing experience.

3. Tim’s right; the point of Christian’s post wasn’t so much the Rouse piece, as it was this new form of “fandom / criticism”. Pieces suddenly appear in the webby arena, where instead of “I quite liked the motivic interplay in the opening section” you get “THIS ROCKS!” vs. “THIS SUCKS!”. It may seem pretty midless sometimes, but there is a kind of engaement, passion, even knowledge running through the rough edges, trolls and Russian-brides-for-sale spam.

4. Is this “new music criticism” or just “Christopher Rouse criticism”? There’s no need to lump the two together, and neither should there be a need to impulsively defend one for the greater cause of the other. It’s perfectly OK for KingBolden not to like this piece (and he may like other new music). My view on this piece as performed here (I don’t know much else by Rouse) isn’t far off KB’s actually: for me it just doesn’t have the depth (call it spiritual) appropriate to the themes evoked by the title or the composer’s own programme note (http://www.christopherrouse.com/ogounpress.html).

   Something shouldn’t be defended impulsively simply because it is new music: that way lies the silencing of all criticism and the death of the genre.

5. Sure, Joseph, but you’re never going to catch up on those millennia until you take the first step, and the next, and the next…

6. Chris, I’m not saying Rouse isn’t meticulous. But he is making percussion music from within a tradition that has been somewhat halfhearted, short (starting from around the time of Haydn and Mozart), and still still primitive. In other parts of the world people have been continuously working on and passing down percussion music for thousands, or more likely millions, of years. I applaud his efforts, but he is quite seriously millennia behind.

7. Joseph: Ogoun Badagris is over 30 years old now. Rouse is meticulous about stick information, where to play on the drum head, and other percussion specifics in his scores. I don’t believe that he was trying to write an “authentic” Haitian piece here, merely using the influences and the mythology. The result is a gripping, ferocious work.

   To place this piece in a different context, in 1976, when Rouse composed Ogoun, the idea of a 4-1/2 minute allegro in 6/8 was startingly fresh in a sea of American academic aperiodicity and intellectualism. Give the guy some props.

8. I wish composers made themselves more aware of the developments in the field of percussion music. This is definitely a case where concert music is light years behind the advanced practitioners like Han Bennink, Milford Graves, and the whole damn country of Brazil.

9. I always wonder where these negative comment-posters come from. It seems like any piece of new music that goes up on YouTube and gets decent views attracts at least one. Are they browsing for music to bash? If not, how do they wind up there.

   It is heartening to see all the Rouse defenders, though. New music could probably use some more name calling.

   Separately, this piece was new to me – so, thanks for brining it to my attention, Christian.

10. For those of you in the San Diego area, Christopher Rouse will be in town for the West Coast premiere of his Third String Quartet by the amazing Calder Quartet, with whom Rouse worked closely. And a premiere by Chinary Ung on the same program. Should be a good concert!

    http://www.ljms.org/SummerFest-2010/Performances/SummerFest-Commissions.html

    Half-price tickets are available online through Goldstar.

11. Along with Ku Ka Ilimoku, this is one of the best percussion pieces written since 1970. Christopher Rouse rules hard.

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