Re: [Harp-L] Over Blow Survey

["Seth Williamson" <hazelmotes@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:03:08 -0400, Richard Hunter  
<turtlehill@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> When Coltrane got to the atonal stuff, he had already taken the tonal  
> stuff as far as he could.  On "Kind of Blue," you can hear him  
> systematically exploring scale after scale.  It's not noodling.  It's  
> not technique driven.  It's idea driven all the way.

With all due respect, I submit that NOBODY can take "tonal stuff" as far  
as it can go.  It's a bottomless well.

And it may be that Coltrane was "idea-driven."  But that doesn't mean it  
was good or even interesting music.  Elliot Carter's string quartets are,  
intellectually, amazingly coherent and even profound -- but almost nobody  
can stand listening to them either.

The profundity of an intellectual concept on one hand, and beautiful,  
emotional music that affects you deeply, can and frequently are, two  
entirely different things.  It's not enough for music to be intellectual  
or "idea-driven."


Seth Williamson
Slings Gap
Franklin County, VA