source file: mills3.txt Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 14:08:42 +0100 Subject: "Go With the Flow" Music From: mr88cet@texas.net (Gary Morrison) In my review of "Acoustic Stick", Neil Haverstick felt that I didn't make clear what I meant by recommending that we listen to the last two tracks as "go with the flow music". Ah, of course! I just now remembered a prime example of excellent music that doesn't make much of any statement at the big-picture level, but is nevertheless a fine piece of music: Bolero. At the formal level, about the most complex structure in Bolero is a gradual crescendo. Beyond that, it's just many many repetitions of a single theme. So then why is it nevertheless a fine work of music? Because the musical statements it makes are very strong in a different vein: Color. Bolero is a superb exploration and exposition of orchestral tone color. In that case, Ravel wasn't interested in saying much formally. The last two tracks, "34 Steps" and "From the West" struck me as of that general nature: They are musically interesting from perspectives of their Indianish tone color, from their texture, in their improvised melodies, in the interactions between the two guitar tracks (in 34 Steps). But I found them less interesting from the perspective of an overall "story" of the composition itself. Or to put it another way, their packaging wasn't their biggest strength, on my opinion. And as with any opinion, some of you might disagree. But again, as I said in my review, I view this as, at the worst, a minor weakness of Neil's new CD. If I didn't make it amply clear in my review, this is fundamentally a marvelous CD, and I recommend it strongly. SMTPOriginator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu From: Carl Lumma Subject: Stick's Shtick PostedDate: 27-11-97 22:33:04 SendTo: CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH ReplyTo: tuning@eartha.mills.edu $MessageStorage: 0 $UpdatedBy: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=coul1358/OU=AT/O=EZH,CN=Manuel op de Coul/OU=AT/O=EZH RouteServers: CN=notesrv2/OU=Server/O=EZH,CN=notesrv1/OU=Server/O=EZH RouteTimes: 27-11-97 22:31:30-27-11-97 22:31:31,27-11-97 22:31:30-27-11-97 22:31:31 DeliveredDate: 27-11-97 22:31:31 Categories: $Revisions: Received: from ns.ezh.nl ([137.174.112.59]) by notesrv2.ezh.nl (Lotus SMTP MTA SMTP v4.6 (462.2 9-3-1997)) with SMTP id C125655C.00763A44; Thu, 27 Nov 1997 22:31:21 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA05204; Thu, 27 Nov 1997 22:33:04 +0100 Date: Thu, 27 Nov 1997 22:33:04 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA05205 Received: (qmail 17896 invoked from network); 27 Nov 1997 13:32:59 -0800 Received: from localhost (HELO ella.mills.edu) (127.0.0.1) by localhost with SMTP; 27 Nov 1997 13:32:59 -0800 Message-Id: <19971127213555984.AAA247@NIETZSCHE> Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@eartha.mills.edu