Re: [Harp-L] feasible goals

[Jonathan Ross <jross38@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Richard Hunter wrote:
> Virtuosity per se is largely a 19th-century phenomenon that  
> flourished through the 20th century, during which periods it was  
> essential to realizing big compositional ideas.

Good points, except I'd note that virtuosity was a big part of  
Mozart's Europe-wide popularity in the 18th century.  And even  
Beethoven's virtuoso piano playing was a big part of his early success.

> In the 21st century, when producers are making hit records in their  
> bedrooms with sample libraries, it's a lot less important.  It is  
> indeed about results and nothing else. Playing an instrument is  
> just one way -- probably not the most important way where pop music  
> is concerned -- of realizing the idea in a composer or producer's  
> head.

I think the producer is not the best example.  The most interesting  
forms of rock now are neo-punk and neo-garage.  Neither camps are  
particularly virtuoso friendly.  The example I made (and which Tim  
Moyer quite accurately pointed out) was that for producers amazing  
technique is considered the norm.

> That said, new developments don't invalidate previous discoveries  
> -- they add to them. There will always be a place for interactive  
> music played on real instruments by real people.  That place just  
> won't be on the pop charts, most of the time.

Agreed, although even in non-pop forms technique seems to be less  
indulged.  I doubt someone like Trane's massive technical feats would  
go over that well today, in part because it's been done before and  
people know how to do it now.  Exploring the total range of  
instruments has been a theme the last hundred-odd years, and it seems  
to be lessening.  Thus even Jazz and classical stuff I hear now tends  
to be more about the overall concept and less about the individual  
technique--indeed, the technique seems to simply be de rigeur(sp) for  
entry into the field.

I wrote:
>Name one "Gen X" guitar
> hero?
 >You can't, at least not from any major band.  And
that's
> already a generation ago.

To which JP Pagan responded:

"Steve Vai? John Frusciante? "

Frusciante is hardly a guitar-hero like Eddie Van Halen, Clapton or  
Hendrix were.  Indeed, he's not even the most noted instrumentalist  
in his band (that would be Flea).  As for Vai, he's really not "Gen  
X"--he was already 30 by the time the 90's hit.  If he was ten years  
younger, that would fit, but it doesn't.

JPP:
"sadly, no. and Stevie's contributions, easily the
greatest of the three, have mostly been in the
non-harmonica vein. "

Agreed--and it sort of makes my point, I think.

"but, i still have high hopes (at the moment)
for his harmonica jazz album!! go Stevie! (and ditch
the strings!)"

I prefer when he brings out the clavinet type funk sounds myself to  
the strings--I'm not a ballad lover in general.  But I wholeheartedly  
agree--I'd love a jazz album from Stevie.  Won't happen--he follows  
his own muse, and that's probably for the best.

On hip-hop and electronica and harp:
"two people come to mind. one bills himself as "Hyper
Harp." i haven't heard him, but he plays harp over
clubby music around Chicago."

I've heard him, though not in that vein.  Jeff Grossberg, IIRC.  I'd  
love to hear what he does, but it doesn't seem to be getting out there.

"the other is Yuri Lane,
the "Human Beat Box" who also plays harmonica and
often mixes it into his beat box pieces "

I've come across him.  Interesting stuff, though it didn't really  
move me, but what I heard was just a demo or such, not a full-fledged  
idea as such.

"John Popper's
also guested on an album by Cee-Lo (currently at the
top of the charts collaborating with DJ Danger Mouse)"

Interesting.  I'm glad to hear it.  I could see his style working in  
pop-hop easily enough.

Me than JP:
> I don't expect anything to change.  The harmonica
is, was and always
> will be a small instrument in the much larger
picture, never really
> central to any genre.

"well, there's always the Harmonica Trio "genre" ;) "

:)



 ()()    JR "Bulldogge" Ross
()  ()   & Snuffy, too:)
`----'