FW: more of the same-Early theory

[Sig Rosen]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Philip Corner <php...@tin.it>
Date: Sun, 10 May 2009 09:19:16 +0200
To: Sigmund Rosen <sigr...@earthlink.net>
Subject: more of the same

On Sat, 9 May 2009, Philip Corner wrote:

> OK, there's another response which opens up something i did not have
> time to say before: I appreciate Mailman's caveat about theory. To
> assume that such writings are a perfect fit to the music itself cannot
> be justified. Far from being prescriptions as to how composers did
> compose (as opposed to what they became: telling students how they
> should compose) many are in essence polemics----what composers should
> not be doing that they are in fact doing.
> I hardly need bring up the most flagrant examples. Attenzione! Ph.

Dear Phil,
I agree. But your email only came to me, I think. I think everyone else
might be interested too. Maybe resend?

-Josh
Philip Corner
php...@tin.it

Hello Sig; I have already put in my 2cents about this student's
request and since you have not passed it on i assume that it is of no
help and in that you are probably right.
I am surprised that no scholar has pointed out that four very
different composers are mentioned and therefore four different
styles. Actually i believe that there is a different style for every
composer; there is no "common practice".
For sure one benefits from the tradition and does well to study it but
encouraging imitation is no way to get creativity going.
My story about how i treated one of my students is an object lesson in
the perils of heavyhanded academism, so you know my opinion on this
subject.
A composer must have something to say and it is obvious it is not what
someone else already has.
My long since gone friend the great Canadian painter Paul-Emile
Borduas used to say, "There are those who love the past well enough
not to try and copy it. Or, in the words of Basho, "Do not follow in
the footsteps of the masters, but seek what they sought."
I would still appreciate your response to my query, "How does whether
they wrote scores or not have anything to do with performance practice?"
ciao, Ph.

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