Day 213: Critiquing and my music
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
213 — Critiquing and my music
02-March-1972
(Donnerstag–Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Like all the rest, a little bit of everything (except
piano).
Heard an El. Musik lecture/concert. Most, not too
good.
REFLECTIONS
Critique.
Sounds
like another full day and a contemporary concert.
This time, as before in the past, I am critical of an
electronic music concert. Today, almost no one
attends live concerts of this type, but in the 70s
and 80s, and in academic environments, you could find
these concerts. My critique is most likely rooted to
the difficulty in attempting to aurally codify an
electronic music composition. The techniques often
result in musical gestures and timbres that sound
almost the same as in many, many pieces that you
hear. That the pitches might be somewhat different
may not make as much difference as in tonal music.
The music, and it’s techniques, might begin to sound
similar. Today, I think I would be less critical and
more appreciative.
Certainly, the same critiques could be applied to my
serious composition as well.
My
music. After my
work in Vienna, my serious writing was only as a
student at Indiana University and Ohio State
University. As I say above, the same critical
observations could be applied to my music as well. I
do think that I am a bit different in that a lot of
my music is actually fairly traditional. If I use
electronic music, it may be combined with some
traditional elements. In Fantasy
on Broken Glass, the
music is a “programme” that is a sound collage of
recognizable sounds of nature and man. A bit corny by
today’s and yesterday’s standards. I also naturally
try to impart some emotion. A good example of this is
my version of the folksong Barb’ra
Allen, part
of Three
Traditional Folk Songs for Soprano,Tape, and
Piano, at my
Master’s recital in Indiana University. Traditional,
new, emotion.
One day, I’ll post an excerpt of some of my music,
especially Barb’ra Allen for soprano, piano, and
tape.
John
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