Comments on Pacific Symphonic Wind Ensemble: But Wait, there's more!

There would be no McDonald's if people didn...

2009-08-13T20:13:46.138-07:00

There would be no McDonald's if people didn't by Big Macs. The publishers are partly to blame but not solely. This is an extreme example, but didn't the courts find the cigarette companies at least partly at fault for the promotion of smoking. If we as directors and music educators don't buy the crap that some publishers market as great literature, then they will have to change what they produce or go under. Let's face it, no school music program has a bottomless budget. We don't need hundreds of new piece per year. What about promoting the great works already in the catalogue. Some publishers are already doing this.

I truly believe that the bulk of the crap is created by composers who produce a first published piece that has something interesting to offer. The publishers then put them on a contract for x number of new works per year, because their name is hot property. A new composer likes the recognition and doesn't want to screw things up, so they fall into recreating piece one. It is safe and it sells.

I had the pleasure of working with a composer who would likely fall squarely in the category of composer that we are talking about. He is brilliant transcriber, he arranges tunes and orchestrates them with superior craftsmanship. But, I can't say that he is a great composer in the sense that we will be playing his original works 100 years from now. He came to my school a number of years ago and, among other things, worked with my composition students. He brought out a string quartet that was absolutely brilliant. It is likely my favourite composition of his. It sounds nothing like anything I have ever heard him write for bands.

Why can't these composers be encouraged to take risks? Forget the business of writing. What about the art of creating wonderful music? Not every piece has to be a "hit."

One of my current favourite composers, Adam Gorb, I like precisely because he does take risks, and I hope that he never stops. He writes pieces for young band that Hal Leonard would likely never publish because they don't fit neatly into categories. He asks for odd instrument combinations. He makes the musicians count! I'm waiting to hear the piece of his that I truly can't stand. That will mean that he has taken another risk and what a wonderful thing to fail!

So, let's stop buying the crap, so the music stores stop promoting the crap and the publishers stop asking the composers to write the crap. Let the truly great composers write!!!! And lets encourage the composers to take the risks by commissioning them outside of the publishing business.

It seems to be a long-standing problem. In 1981 G...

2009-08-13T10:19:02.394-07:00

It seems to be a long-standing problem. In 1981 Gunther Schuller said "The diversity and richness of our American cultural heritage from its beginnings to the very present is second to none; so is our talent potential. Yet we allow the vast majority of Americans to grow up without any awareness of what is best in our culture; instead we sacrifice ourselves to the gods of commerce and let the stultify us into cultural an musical illiterates."

We still let the commercial interests have too much power - the fact that WASBE felt the need for "damage control" after Mr. Budiansky's talk is only one illustration of that.

Thanks Marc for the interesting article. I first r...

2009-08-13T08:27:39.230-07:00

Thanks Marc for the interesting article. I first ran across Mr. Budiansky's ideas a few years ago with his original NYT article about too many band pieces sounding like they were inspired by suburban housing developments; things like "Rockwood Overture" or "High Castle Gates" (I just made that up, apologies to the composer if those are actual pieces out there somewhere...)
I just checked his website and found his last WASBE update rather disturbing, especially the part where he states some publishers at the conference believed that he should not have been allowed to speak.

For me the truth is in his closing paragraph, the quote from Allen Britton:
"Should not our music curriculum consist, first of all, of the world's most beautiful music?"

My own prime directive is to try to expose my students to great art. Isn't that what education is supposed to be about; Scientists introducing us to great science? English teachers introducing us to great literature? But of course it takes more work to search out and find the really beautiful and great new works, The fine craftsmanship of your local artisan, or local composer is not usually available at Walmart, or Hal Leonard. Sad but true.

Don't blame the publishers, they are just creating product that they think there is a demand for. The prime directive of capitalism would indicate if there is no demand, then there is no product. So the real question might be why is there a demand for "rockwoodharvetmoonshire suite" or whatever the latest "Alfred Reed meets John Williams in a back alley" formula piece is called? Oh and yes of course, all the sixteenth notes and mixed rhythms will be simplified to make it easier to play.

Maybe the question is “Who is teaching music and where / how are music educators being educated?” The problem really begins in university MusEd programs and narrow specialist BMus programs that produce students geared to a specific skill set or even genre of music without first ensuring their students have a basic skill set across genres and styles. Universities have increasing become little silos with a large number of part-time adjunct instructors orbiting around a nucleus of just a few full time faculty more interested in pursuing their own research and areas of expertise than teaching freshmen pedagogy 101. Being a generalist has gone out of fashion.

To end on a happy note we now have programs like Finale and Sibelius in our toolbox. We can create our own resources if we feel the need, but quite often we don’t have the time. Yes, it takes more time and energy to find great art to teach, both old and new. But don't we as educators owe this much to the young musicians sitting in front of us?