source file: mills2.txt Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 13:36:21 -0700 Subject: Partch, Bach and Blues From: Will Grant Shostakovich and Britten are two recent examples of musicians who are known to have worked out very large works in their heads. Also, many of DS's Preludes and Fugues were written one a day. Perhaps they even deserve comparison with Father Bach; but for many of us, I think, Bach's amazing facility is to some degree accessible, and what is more miraculous is his unflagging vitality within a narrow system. He would probably have been terrific playing blues, which Neil Haverstick calls a "very tough art form." In which perhaps Bach shares something with Partch. I never saw him in live performance, but from listening to the maelstroms he put on disk, I'd bet that Partch's personal focus in performance was musically more satisfying than his theories. Which is to say (and I'm just guessing), I think Partch thought everything out very convolutedly ahead of time, but when he was actually performing, I'll bet what he did was improvise within fairly predicted limits. The professional cocktail-piano player has much in common, I think, with the ordinary Baroque working musician. I've known many such players, and was one myself, for a couple of years, in a very modest way. The fake book provides access to what is for many audiences a complete known universe of music, and the cocktail player has easily within his grasp the ability to play a credible version of almost everything that exists (within that world). Many players also know one or two Chopins and a simplified "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," to satisfy the occasional request for something classy. The sad truth is that many cocktail musicians are bored to tears. Absolute technical control of a sophisticated system is not enough. Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Tue, 13 Aug 1996 00:07 +0200 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA11683; Tue, 13 Aug 1996 00:08:03 +0200 Received: from eartha.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA11676 Received: from by eartha.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) for id PAA06472; Mon, 12 Aug 1996 15:07:55 -0700 Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 15:07:55 -0700 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@ella.mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu