Re: Blues vs classical - was: Re: Subject: [Harp-L] The name "blues"

[The Iceman <icemanle@xxxxxxx>]

It's a challenge unto itself to be limited to notes printed on a page and having to play them "as is" and yet make them your own through emotional interpretation, as classical players do.


The last live performance of Vladimir Horowitz included Mozart's Sonata No. 13 in Bb. He upset the "classical nazi's" by taking liberties with the written music in regards to how he approached the phrasing. Mozart is to be played at a constant tempo. Yet, Vladimir played Mozart's lines in a more Romantic style, speeding them up/slowing them down.


However, the effect on the listener was hypnotic, so who is to say who overstepped which boundary.


The same can be said by how Glenn Gould approached a lot of Bach. Glenn would also hum as he played, which was sometimes picked up in the recording mic.



-----Original Message-----
From: Barry Bean <bbbean@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wed, Jun 4, 2014 3:19 pm
Subject: Blues vs classical - was: Re: Subject: [Harp-L] The name "blues"


On 6/4/2014 2:33 AM, EGS1217@xxxxxxx wrote:
> 'Formal' music education is all well and good--and I'm certainly not
> knocking it but to my mind nothing touches as deeply or beats hearing someone
> expressing their innermost feelings through their music.

I grew up on a steady diet of blues, soul, and gospel, and I've been 
privileged enough to meet and work with some of the world's finest 
players in the genre (and others). But I have to say that the notion 
that a blues (or jazz, or folk, or whatever) musician is somehow 
expressing deeper or more closely held feelings through their playing 
than players in any other genre is misguided at best, and insulting at 
worst. I've never met or worked with a good musician who didn't feel 
what they were playing, regardless of genre. To suggest that improvised 
genres are somehow "truer" than classical genres is on a par with the 
suggestion that "untrained" musicians are somehow lesser musicians than 
classically trained players.

Crux of the issue: There's a reason Baskin Robbins sells 31 flavors.