Joel McNeely

Very exciting debate Joel,

I'm especially drawn to that kind of discussion since, in my country, the debate over modern and "musique contemporaine" has always been high
in the 50s it was big idealogically, then it became even bigger politically in the 60s, when it was time for the politics to replace the Malraux / Landowsky gang, by the Pompidoux / Boulez gang...Art and politics...Or how to benefit from public funds to take power....

One of the most famous representatives of modernism is Pierre Boulez, and I have always been both fasinated and reppeled by such a strong musical personality, I am fascinated by his intellectual and artistic strength, integrity and mastery of his art(some of his music is viscerally fascinating and beautiful, his conducting is superb), but I find detestable the consequences of his attitude towards other trends of XXth century music that have lead to litteral institutionalised intolerance and despise (non modernist composers and film music have been major casualties for a long time)

I have always felt a kind of schyzophrenia towards "music of our time", contemporary modernist music fascinated me because it has always been a guideline for integrity, musical inspiration, depth, pure invention and genius (with a strong preference for composers like Ligeti, Penderecki, Lutoslawsky, Dutilleux, Boulez's best works, etc) but I was not emotionally satisfied without my share of "dramatic" or "programatic" music by John Williams, Jerry Goldmsith, Joel Mc Neely, James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal or Ennio Morricone, with whom, apart from my tastes for movies, I always found genius in terms of harmony, orchestration, gorgeous melodies, other forms of emotion and invention that I needed...And I couldn't help but love non modernist composers like Barber, Korngold, Rozsa, Randall Thompson, Copland, Phil Glass up to John Corigliano or simply because they were able to express other forms of beauty that I would embrace as a unique form of beauty, simply indispensable for our world....(I won't even mention the fact that there has been a century in our world when people like Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Stravinsky, Roussel, Honneger, Berg, Koechlin, Britten, Herrmann, Vaughn Williams, Walton, Hindemith,Prokofiev, Chostakovitch existed....I mean maybe this era won't be repeated again for hundreds of years....)

To go even further, there's no way one can match a simple beautiful folk song with a beautiful voice and guitar with hours of boring orchestral nonsense...Very often, simple genius strikes you like thunder....I remember when I first heard Jewel Kilcher's first album, some of her songs were simply perfect, so pure, so musical, so beautiful...or when I rediscovered David Bowie, or Bj�rk...or the first time I heard John Coltrane...

So I guess it's a weird combination of self conscious hierarchy that one makes in his or her mind and eclectism that makes musical education, it involves the mind, the heart and the body, it involves a search in time - history - and space - geographical and ethnical alienation - it's a complex process that can be often rationalised, theoratically explained but always leaves a vast gap of Mystery.....

Now on the issue of education for conservative people....Well, I guess one can blame social determinism, the dictatorship of the market, the lack of will from politicians who do not favor education, even less musical education,...I remember Maurice Jarre said once that in a way film music can be an ideal path towards modern classical music. I agree with the maestro when I hear great film music, I think many film music fans can fall in love with complex and beautiful music through the relationship this music has with moving images and drama and the unique emotions the combined art forms can produce, so I guess film music not only has its own identity and specificity but can lead gently, at its best, to a more varied a richer musical world

Hi Joel,

I emailed you last week about this post, but had some more thoughts and figured this was the more appropriate place to continue commenting -

What is sticking in my mind from this debate is the "bullying" of those in charge over those who are learning or just starting out. I think it's ironic that the arts is supposed to be a profession of self-expression and freedom, but students end up being pressured to conform (even if they're supposed to conform to "non-conformity"). And this happens in other fields besides classical composition.

For example, we took the kids to an open studio over the weekend. A dozen or so MFAs, one of which was our daughter's art teacher for a year, were displaying their latest pieces. When no one else was in his work room, he pulled out an almost-finished piece that my husband had posed for with a couple other people. He wanted to show us how it turned out, but was clearly embarrassed by it and quickly put it back in its hiding place. Turns out his professor said it was "too sweet" and that he could "put a label on it and sell it" - and therefore it wasn't worth finishing. The sad thing about all this is that this guy is my age - 44 - and we get the strong impression from him that he still doesn't know his own "voice" in art. You get the feeling he is constantly hearing the voices of current and past teachers and striving to please them. His skill is incredible, but he paints stuff intended to be hung on someone's wall but which no one would want to buy. And I have no idea what he LIKES to paint. Incidentally, our daughter stopped enjoying art (temporarily, thank God) partly because this teacher was telling her that watercolor isn't "serious" art and that she should stop drawing cats. At 15 though, that is her voice.

This happens outside of the arts, too. In my counselor training, there is a "right" way to do it - you shouldn't be confrontational, tell your client what you have figured out, ask "why" questions, lean back in your chair, dress down, and so on. But eventually most counselors realize that they're not being effective acting like someone else, and it's often a crisis. Do I break "the rules", quit, or keep pretending? A friend of mine - a very good counselor - will come right out and tell a couple he thinks they have a lousy marriage or tell a teenager they're talking about suicide in order to get attention. He works nights in an emergency room in a bad part of town, and he just doesn't have time to earn the right to be blunt. Of course, when it makes sense, he is also extremely comforting - and genuinely so. He knows who he is and brings that into his work.

And even in business - when I was getting trained in focus group moderating, I was told not to react - to be completely objective. Sorry, can't do it. And I know from previous work that I get people to talk to me more freely and honestly when I am myself. When I'm truly objective, people shut down. I think I'm emotionally intelligent enough to know how to have a conversation without making people say stuff that isn't true just because I appear to be interested. And I don't think saying "mm-hmm" always implies agreement.

Back to art, and to get to my point, my husband has worked with an art mentor whose specialty is helping people discover what they want to do with their art. She leads them through a series of discussions ranging from why they do it (beauty? protest? to impress people?) to what they like in art (such as "hand" - seeing the brush strokes and sketch lines; strong contrasts or soothing color palette; settled or precarious composition; people or nature or trucks or abstract or.....and so on). The idea is to draw/paint/sculpt from your core. If audiences like your stuff, so what? If audiences don't like your stuff, so what? You decide if that is important or not, who your audience is based on what you want to do, and the best way to find and attract that audience. Never mind what critics say or what's in vogue; there will always be a place/audience/use for what you create.

It's too bad this woman is so disorganized - she is a gold mine for those who find her by accident (like my husband did). The young composers Kevin talks about could really benefit from something like this, as could other musicians. I think that would be fascinating work.

Thanks, Joel. I'd love to hear from you sometime.

Bryn

Bryn,

Thank you. That is a wonderful post. And I'm sorry, I don't remember you from Eastman. Maybe a picture would jog.

This is a VERY large discussion and sadly, deadlines keep me away from discourse for now. But thank you for keeping the discourse going!

All best,

Joel