[NewMusic] 3rd party music

Tue Oct 28 23:44:53 PDT 2008

I'll pipe in quickly - in fact I missed Djll;s piece because I was in  
Reno canvassing for Obama.  This speaks to both my realist stance on  
music and politics; on politics I'll take the Chomsky stance. Green  
(or whatever) works okay for local elections; there's been a few good  
Green city council members.  The Green mayor of Richmond forged a  
supportive relationship with the East Bay Center for Performing Arts,  
including supporting their building renovation, which is going to make  
a big difference for the students and the artists that teach there  
(though no one from the scene ever comes out when I performed there,  
so I stopped doing it.) But on the national stage, the some of the  
ideologues at the GP want to forego working with those who are  
actually in power (see McKinney's response to Chomsky and Zinn.)  As  
we are coming off 8 years divide and conquer ideological  
fundamentalism, a pragmatic realist like Obama is the best we can do.

So fewer people going to music are so, too.

I actually agree with both Greelief and Walter:

No one gives a fuck about art anymore, because what the hell is art  
anymore? Too often, for me, it is a commodity the needs to be produced  
to justify it's own existence: A composer composes, and improviser  
improvises, because that is what they do, and the volume of material  
they create forms its own form of validation. So "alternative art" is  
most often alternative in "surface aesthetic,"  not in questioning the  
socio/political/economic meaning of it's own production. Forms that  
may question the form of their delivery, are therefor out of the  
picture.

And as part of the iGeneration "everyone is an artist" we get Weasel's  
"too much art/too much information/not enough liesure time/money on  
the part of the consumers/more people in society trying to be a  
musician"

My only quibble is that we actually have fewer people in society  
actually doing music than previously; the sales of home pianos is  
down, fewer music students, and in fact in early societies often  
everyone participated in the music making (as they still do in  
churches, temples, etc.).  With the advent of recording, fewer people  
actually do music as yet another element in their life, like cooking  
or sex;  it was the death of the "amateur" and became the purview of  
the "professional."  Music moved from an active to a passive experience.

However, with the recent rise in easy access to recording,  
distributing, etc. those who did manage to pick up an instrument,  
particularly in a non-institutionalized idiom, was immediately able to  
step into the world of the "professional" by simply recording  
themselves. (By recording oneself, even in an "amateur" or "personal  
use" context, the performer has transcended their immediate place and  
themselves into the realm of the "immortal" professional, in some  
sense, by creating something that is, in it's conception at least,  
impermeable to time). In it's most crass sense, validation as an  
artist is merely the click of a button and a few 0s and 1s.  What has  
emerged in the post-post-modern spectacle saturated environment is the  
meme of  individualist "artist" in the 19th century sense; a  
"maverick" who's deep feeling and brilliance lead them outside of  
societies bounds, yet society needs them; a function of the  
destruction of the notion of a "professional" in the modernist high- 
art/low-art sense. In essence, the mainstream democratization of art  
has led to legions of those who believe themselves the radical outsider.

The "art" is merely the byproduct of a social station; and folks are  
more interested in their social station than allowing themselves to be  
in the passive position of experiencing a work of art on its own  
terms; it is more important to hear art like your art, which, of  
course, affirms your social position.

So maybe people don't go to concerts for music; they go to affirm what  
they believe about themselves.

Which brings up the very pertinent question of just what the hell are  
we doing by putting on concerts? What is its purpose?

And, for that matter, Nicholas Isherwood's concert of contemporary  
vocal works by Roman composers was pretty sparsely attended this  
weekend, too.

phoo, so much blather. . .

mg

On Oct 28, 2008, at 6:23 PM, Matt Ingalls wrote:

> well ... was trying to pack a number of thoughts in that post but  
> mainly comparisons with "our" music & 3rd party politics --  
> basically no one gives a shit except those involved - and typically  
> those that are involved stick to their views/desires and don't sell  
> out for more exposure.
>
> as for audience,
> i remember early 2001 the ACME series attendance tanked right with  
> bush coming into office, the dot-com bust, and 9/11 - and if economy  
> is going to be as bad as they say i'm expecting the same thing to  
> happen in 2009 - and i'm wondering if it already has -- i already  
> mentioned Djll - sfSound has been doing great this year, but our  
> show the week before i was hoping would sell out (~125) but we only  
> had about half that, which seemed to me more than just the typical  
> fall slump (our worst turnout has always been oct/nov) and must be  
> something else in the air (economy/depression/TV).
>
> Evan Parker played at 1510!?  how did i miss that?!?
>
> ________________________________________
> From: newmusic-bounces at music.mills.edu [newmusic-bounces at music.mills.edu 
> ] On Behalf Of Phillip Greenlief [pgsaxo at pacbell.net]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 4:06 PM
> To: Bay Area New Music Discussion Group
> Subject: Re: [NewMusic] 3rd party music
>
> strange, i posted this first, in response to matt's post, but it  
> didn't go through....i'm re-posting it.
> pg
>
>
> i'm with you ingalls. i was just spouting off on another list of how  
> disappointed i was with billy bang's show last week (what was i  
> thinking, though...really?). it seems like no one knows how to be  
> themselves anymore, and this whole trotting out of old cliches (from  
> Obama and McCain) seems to have produced an epidemic of lying  
> assholes with no imagination whatsoever.
>
> and yeah, we had a nice turnout for the first night of mockracy, but  
> the second night was abyssmal. the crowd on the first night was  
> mostly djll's friends, and significant others of the members of the  
> ensemble. if we eliminated those people both nights would have been  
> an embarrassment, in terms of audience turn out.
>
> and djll put a lot of work into that show, and it deserved to have  
> an audience.
>
> whatever, no one seems to give a fuck about art anymore. i realize  
> there are "other things" to think about these days (like how to  
> eliminate palin permanently, or how to deal with neo-nazi's planning  
> to eliminate obama).
>
> jeeze, i'm getting old and sounding even older.
>
> laters,
> pg
>
>
> --- On Tue, 10/28/08, Sarah - 21 Grand <21grand at 21grand.org> wrote:
>
>> From: Sarah - 21 Grand <21grand at 21grand.org>
>> Subject: [NewMusic]  3rd party music
>> To: newmusic at music.mills.edu
>> Date: Tuesday, October 28, 2008, 3:14 PM
>> Matt Ingalls wrote:
>>
>> surprised no politics talk here lately
>>  maybe everyone is obsessed elsewhere..
>>
>> -- we are actually all using our spare time to bake
>> cupcakes for Obama.
>>
>> also surprised at dismal turnout for Djll's Mockracy
>> farce last week.
>>
>> -- Possible reasons for the "dismal turnout":
>>
>> 1. the night I went (Saturday) there were about 20 - 30
>> people. For a new
>> music show without "out of town" stars,
>> that's fairly decent.
>>
>> 2. $20 cover charge, with  a $15 student price.  I must
>> confess we showed up
>> late so that we could get in for less, because I was
>> strapped for cash, and
>> my better half (bless his heart) would have been content to
>> stay home and
>> watch Anaconda 3 (with David Haselhoff).
>>
>> 3. A lot going on that same weekend: Evan Parker, good gig
>> at 1510, hair
>> washing
>>
>> 4. half of the potential audience were actually playing in
>> the ensemble. The
>> only two large ensemble shows in the past two years that I
>> can remember the
>> audience outnumbering the ensemble, were a free Mills show
>> and the
>> Moe!kestra at The Lab, though the latter might just have
>> been audience
>> performer equity - 50/50.
>>
>> sl
>>
>>
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Matthew Goodheart
composer ~ improviser ~ pianist
matthew at matthewgoodheart.com
http://matthewgoodheart.com
http://myspace.com/matthewgoodheart