From:
Siegfried Knoepfler
Date:
16. October 2010 09:52:25 +02:00
To: cyberpluckers
Subject:
Re: an interesting quote
Three days
ago I thought I'm winning back a little more control of my time. In this belief
I began writing this post Thursday morning, after reading the digest that came
in the night before. But then I had to go to work ... and control was taken
away again!
And then all my little
spare time was consumed by reading a flood of digests hotly discussing the
question of lockbars and diatonic (im-) possibilities, nonetheless also
interesting for me, the chromatic player. And I expected an even more
interesting idea, perhaps revolutionising the whole autoharp concept, when Ron
chimed in with the topic "Chordbars or no", but his exposition did
then not really live up to the topic. :)
Anyway, it's
now Saturday morning, and I try to get to the point of my old mail eventually:
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2010-10-14
08:30
While I not
always see fit to (fully) agree with Todd's expressions of strong opinion,
today's epistle belongs to those I really like. I like especially his
criticising the notion of bringing people "to tears at the revelation of
the fragility of perfect beauty".
Indeed, I
mostly try to NOT bring my listeners to tears, just because of the easily possible
revelation of the fragility of my rather limited playing abilities! :)
Seriously, I
won't deny the notion of being deeply moved at the view of perfect beauty. I
find instances of perfect beauty certainly with examples of "poetry in
motion" (Johnny Tillotson, 1960) but particularly with formal constructs
like a strikingly elegant proof in a mathematical textbook or a piece of
computer code which makes obvious that it can't be done better. (In the latter
cases, my deep emotion looks rather like pure envy, however!)
So, in my
musical endeavours, I value my arrangements, based on my exploration of music
theory, over the recordings that I then make to see whether an arrangement
sounds really as anticipated (and to help those who don't judge an arrangement
just on the notation -- after I began to publish, on my Web site, arrangements
I originally made for my own amusement, I also felt the need to demonstrate
that and how they actually work).
Whereas I
certainly always strive for playing as beautifully as I ever can and whereas
I'm often quite unhappy with what I hear listening to the recording, I actually
don't care so much provided that the recording shows that an arrangement does
indeed work as planned: I seek beauty first in the arrangement, it's performance
has much lesser priority.
This attitude
of mine is of course in grotesquely stark opposition to the one which seeks
perfect beauty in the performance, an attitude I presume for all true
autoharpists (= autoharp artists!).
For me,
autoharp playing is not so much an end as rather a means to further my insight
into music. And so I play mainly for my own amusement. At the same time I
appreciate very much the existence of the Cyberpluckers list, where I learned
so much over the years and got ideas that never would have occurred to me.
I'm really grateful to all
the autoharpists who provided insight into music theory as well as playing
techniques and the mechanics and physics of the autoharp and who set standards
that even I use as beacon on my way to improvement (and, maybe, to
perfection?). [If you look into the intersection set of autoharpists that
contributed most in ALL these aspects, you certainly find Bob Lewis; he
deserves most of my gratitude, although I'm pretty sure that he heartily disapproves
of my approach!]
Naturally, as
I confessed before, I also love this list because of the people who bear
patiently my ramblings and allow me to cater to my vanity. :)
Cheers!
Ziggy in Cologne, Germany
http://www.ZiggyHarpdust.net
"The
autoharp is the only instrument where the player can achieve instant
mediocrity." (reported by Joe Riggs)
(I view this
quote as a promise: so far I most often needed thousands of instants for
decently mediocre results!)
Am 14.10.2010
KW41 um 03:34 schrieb cyberpluckers-request@autoharp.org:
< ...
>
Message: 25
Date: Wed,
13 Oct 2010 21:34:01 -0400
From: Todd
Crowley
To:
cyberpluckers
Subject:
[CP] an interesting quote
Cathy
Brittell wrote: <<"Can
a ukulele make a sound that will bring great
men to
tears at the revelation of the fragility of perfect beauty?"
...Interesting
and surprising that this quote should inspire such
discomfiture.>>
The only discomfiture is the way
in which such a statement reduces great
ukulele (or
autoharp or any other instrument) playing to the level of
triteness.
"To bring great men to tears
at the revelation of the fragility of
perfect
beauty" is hackneyed language that fails to capture the ineffable
nature of
great music, art, literature, etc.
What does the
"revelation of the fragility of perfect beauty" mean
exactly? "Perfect beauty" is in itself
a cliche.
I'd rather leave such
things a mystery left to the heart of the
beholder
and not have it put into words.
I've heard all the
great autoharp players in competition and
performance
and I've yet to be brought to tears.
Maybe that's because I'm
an ordinary
man, not a great one.
I've been amazed,
awed, left shaking my head in respect and envy, but
reduced to
tears? not yet.
In the meantime, the
statement about ukes, and in proxy, autoharps,
belies the
populist appeal of these instruments, as expressed by Pete
Seeger, who
said "[we should] not judge the musicality of a nation by the
number of
its virtuosos but by the number of people in the general
population
who are playing for themselves."
If
autoharp teachers/A-list performers keep telling "the general
population"
that they should aspire to "bring great men to tears...", it
promotes a
virtuoso mentality, rather than Seeger's populist appeal to the
"number
of people...playing for themselves."
When there as
many players pursuing the autoharp or ukulele at the
highest
level, as there are classical violinists or flutists, then maybe we
will get a
player with the ability to reduce us all to tears, like Isaac
Stern or
James Galway.
Until then
talking about the autoharp or ukulele in such terms seems
pretentious. It's okay for ordinary people to enjoy
making their own music
without
worrying about the "fragility of perfect beauty." Just as it it
important
for extraordinary people to strive to make the most beautiful
music ever
heard on their instrument with an entire audience passing the
kleenex.
TC
--
Todd
Crowley
www.diatoddnics.com
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