source file: m1421.txt Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 19:54:00 -0700 Subject: Ivor/Blackwood From: Aline Surman Of course, it's really hard to say one person's music is "better" than another's when you are dealing with really profound folks, as both Ivor and Easley Blackwood certainly are (were). Ivor was not much of a technician, in the sense that his music wasn't that hard to physically play; yet, he was a deep and feeling man, and his best works are beautiful and meaningful; they really touch me. Blackwood is a world class pianist and composer, capable of playing extremely difficult works such as Ives' Concord Sonata; his compositions on "Microtonal" are surely well crafted and technically complex. Yet, I find myself listening to Ivor's "Detweleveulate" more often; I have no reason other than I like the feeling more. And, on the subject of Blackwood's 15 tone guitar etude; the sharp 5ths really bug me, especially because the piece itself is reflective of music ("Baroque") where the 5ths were much closer to pure. In fact, I've always wondered why Blackwood chose such a form for the 15 octave tuning; nothing wrong with 15, but it seems to be fighting the very style it's composed in. I talked with Blackwood on the phone once, and he said that he thought 15 would be good for rock music, and I agree. Rock thrives on dissonance (some styles do, anyway), and I can really see his point. At any rate, all this is so personal and subjective that it's hard to see a right or wrong, just feelings and choices...Hstick