Trenchant Schoenberg Quotation
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    any composer worth his salt needs to acquire skill in that craft before finding an individual voice
    You cannot find YOUR voice without first imitating the masters, and doing it well. There are no shortcuts. You have to write a stack of comps a foot or two high.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    it's helpful to ask, is this music?

    I ask that question every time I happen into hearing "Carmina Burana."
    Thanked by 1francis
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I ask that question every time I hear opera. OK... well, I will admit it is music, but I wish all that effort would go into creating music with a more noble purpose. Opera... what a waste. (running for cover)
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,217
    Friede Auf Erde. If you have'nt sung it, go! Find a choir and do so!
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Jeffrey Quick
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    dad29. It's gorgeous. One of my favorite choirs. It is not atonal, but comes very close to losing a tonal center, riding the edge back and forth. Reminds me of one of my earlier works. Will post.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf8sqv6Gyz0
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I ask that question every time I hear opera.


    You don't "hear" opera, you watch it. It's theater. Besides, where do you expect me to find sopranos with horned helmets for Sunday masses?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    I have enough horns around me without needing to put them on humans.
  • Jeffrey Quick
    Posts: 2,048
    Wonder how hard it would be to get any stats on what is actually being used in the U.S. - or would that be too expensive to even survey?

    The only way I can see to do it would be to crowdsource it, with a large and diverse group of people doing it. The difficulty would be in avoiding self-selection. You'd have to run it through something like catholic.com, or perhaps Facebook (certainly not here!) Even then, you might run into a correlation between people committed enough to do the entries, and churches with good music and liturgy. But it would be better than nothing.

    The missing info which frustrates me as a musicologist is: what was the standard repertoire (and the non-standard)? How did it vary between dioceses, and parishes, and through time? How was it affected by particular musicians and bishops? If everyone used worship aids that listed everything sung, and those aids were kept in a file, a picture could be drawn ... but that's generally not the case. Even library catalogs would be helpful, though they aren't time-specific.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • dad29
    Posts: 2,217
    It's gorgeous


    First time I sang that, the conductor pointed out the "Friede, friede" motif, which is the motif of the "Credo" from Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, which is based (of course) on the Gregorian "Credo" from III. Interesting twist to think "I believe in peace" as a Christmas thing, eh?
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