Careful

[Mike H.]

I wonder what John Zorn would think about all of the things being
discussed here. Several years ago my friend Carl Howard interviewed
Zorn for a magazine article. In it, Carl had all kinds of theories and
ideas about the meaning behind Zorn's work. Most of his questions were
chosen in an attempt to chaise down these theories/ideas. In the
course of the interview, however, Zorn kept saying "Honestly, I think
you are reading too much into this stuff." I don't think he validated
ANY of Carl's theories or ideas about the work. Of course, this may be
because Zorn didn't want to come off as a self-important composer. It
may also be because he creates a lot of work without taking the time to
worry about what it all means. His work definitely has that manic
element in it.

[Mike H.]

[Mark]

Could be. But I can speak for myself - I am not trying to indicate
what Zorn _means_ by anything. But by the same token, I doubt that he
generated a big list of Jewish spirits and randomly assigned them to
pieces of music that he had written. There has to be _some_ level of
deliberate-ness (deliberitude? deliberation?) about the way the
characters were assigned to the pieces.

And even if the titles WERE assigned randomly, each piece is stuck with
its own literary character now FOREVER, so whether Zorn likes it or
not, there IS a relationship between the characters and the music. And
most of these angel/demon names have a long history in Jewish
literature. There's an interesting story in every single one. So why
not talk about the stories?

m