[silence] Petr Kotik's Umbilical Cord

[Joseph Zitt]

One question that arises is how far one can stretch and misinterpret a
given score and still have it be the same work.

In my own case, I've taken a sort of Creative Commons attitude. I said
in the introduction to Surprise Me With Beauty that performers may
find clashes with what they can do in performing some of my pieces. If
they do, then doing what is right for the people is more important
than doing what is right for the piece. And if, in doing it, they have
stretched things so far that it is no longer recognizable as my
people, they can then consider that they have created a new piece and
should give it a new name, And it would be good for them to note in
recordings and program notes that it evolved from a particular one of
my pieces.

Of course, one can't speak for a composer who is no longer with us to
give this opinion of his work after the fact.

As I've said before, I have significant disagreements with how both
Glenn and Petr have interpreted Cage's scores. But I can enjoy
listening to each as differing representations of the work.

Working from a Jewish perspective, of course, I have respect for both
oral and written traditions and the balance between each. Petr and
Glenn, respectively, seem to represent the more absolute adherence to
each. But there's a lot of balancing room in the middle.

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:38 PM, john saylor <js0000@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi
>
> On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 3:23 PM, Glenn Freeman <glenn@ogreogress.com> wrote:
>> The really great
>> music can endure such changes, becoming the 'classical music' of the
>> future and thus free of the limitations of tradition.
>
> 'classical' music is a marketing term.
>
> why should we care about the future [shouldn't we try to make a better
> present (musically)] ?
>
> and, if you take a cage score and 'misinterpret' it [according to
> kotik], but make music that you and others find compelling- what's
> wrong with that?
>
> --
> \js  [ http://or8.net/~johns/ ]
>
> --
> To join or leave the Silence mailing list, please go to https://list.mail.virginia.edu/mailman/listinfo/silence.
> You can find searchable list archives at http://list.mail.virginia.edu/pipermail/silence/
>