[NewMusic] Roscoe Mitchell at Mills

[Tom Duff]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007, Henry Kuntz wrote:

> I must comment on Tom's assertion...
> I just found a (very bad) online review of this concert, which was in Feb
> 1976, not in 1977:
> http://www.m-etropolis.com/wordpress/p/two-concerts-of-new-music/en/ 
> 
> Since I am the person who originally published this piece in my newsletter
> BELLS, I will have to take issue with Tom that it is a "very bad" review.
> Obviously, I did not attend the performances myself, so I cannot comment on
> the "objective reality" of his experience versus Mr. Tepperman's. However,
> the review raises any number of music and music-related issues that (perhaps
> more in 1976 than now) were on people's minds -- things like the relation
> between what the writer calls "Euro New Music" and "New Black Music," the
> differing aesthetic approaches of each (and their "validity"), and the
> relation between electronic and acoustic instruments, and so on.
> The author, Barry Tepperman, unexpectedly passed away recently, so he is
> unable to comment himself. However, just before his passing, I contacted him
> regarding updating his bio and about this piece of his going online. He
> expressed his satisfaction to me about what he had written: "Reading what I
> had sent you at BELLS yesterday evening I'm surprised at the substance and
> insight of what I was writing then..."
> Without wishing to demean Tom's experience of these events, I must defend
> the integrity of the article and Mr. Tepperman's right to his own point of
> view. As I said, I was not at the performances. I do not necessarilly agree
> or disagree with Mr. Tepperman's conclusions, but the pieces are well
> written and thought provoking.

Of course.  The minute after I sent that out I noticed that the review had
appeared in BELLS, and that a 2-word dismissal was probably inappropriate
in this forum.  But I'd already responded to myself once & it was bedtime.

What I didn't like about it was that it failed to address the music on its
own terms, or indeed any terms.  He doesn't like Martirano and Reich, and
apparently thinks that's their fault, though he can't point at anything
specific.  Maybe they just aren't interested in the same things he is.  
Likewise, he doesn't seem to know what he likes about MEV+Mitchell, except
that they have "identity and power."  Had he written about the
relationship between their musical acts an his reaction, it might have
been a good review.

Furthermore, he imputes racism to the audience because someone left after
seeing, but before hearing, Roscoe.  Imputing motivations to early-leavers
says more about the imputer than the leaver.  I leave performances before
the end all the time -- usually it's because I have a morning meeting at
work or my sciatic nerve is hurting from sitting in those damned folding
metal chairs.  If everyone thought my concert-hall perigrinations
reflected my opinion of them, I'd have no friends left.  (That said,
sometimes I do leave because I don't want to hear any more.)

Is it not clear what an insult it is to call someone a racist and justify
it solely on the basis of their leaving a concert early?  As I said, I 
think it reflects more on the writer than on his subject.

--
Tom Duff.  I did not intend to mislead the committee