[ANPPOM-Lista] a matter of taste (on elliott carter's music)

Carlos Palombini cpalombini em gmail.com
Qui Nov 8 20:48:39 BRST 2012


A Matter of Taste
By Isaac Schankler<http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/author/isaac-schankler/>on
November 7, 2012No
Comment<http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/a-matter-of-taste/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-matter-of-taste#respond>

http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/a-matter-of-taste/

After the news of Elliott Carter’s passing earlier this week, I was quite
moved by the outpouring of tributes to the composer that I encountered
through social media. Obviously my window to the world through social media
is skewed toward new music nerds, but even so, I have to admit I was
slightly surprised at the extent of the outpouring. Among many of my new
music friends, Carter was a figure who was more begrudgingly admired than
universally adored, though this seemed to be changing in recent years. It
says something about Carter’s musical imagination that even those who
professed to dislike his work had a favorite piece by him.

It also got me thinking about the limits of what we can do as composers to
advocate for our own music. When our music is poorly or (worse)
indifferently received, we may perceive it as a failure of presentation,
contextualization, education, or marketing. The audience just didn’t have
the right frame of reference. Or, maybe we think the problem is the music
itself. Maybe it was too intricate, too subtle, too esoteric. Maybe it was
flawed, or just plain bad.

Most of the discussion around what to do about the state of new music today
seems to vacillate between these two proposals. Change the music, or change
the stuff around the music. I should say that I’m an advocate of both of
these plans in certain situations. But I also wonder if there is a natural
limit to what these changes are capable of. Maybe it doesn’t come down to
intelligence or education. Maybe it comes down to aesthetics, or to put it
more bluntly, maybe it’s a matter of taste.

For example, lots of people like spicy food, including me. But I wouldn’t
call someone misinformed for not liking spicy food, and just because that
person dislikes a particular spicy dish, doesn’t mean that it’s not
well-made. Dissonance in music is similar–some like it mild, others want a
jar of hot sauce on hand at all times. Maybe this seems obvious, but the
difference is that dissonance still offends people in ways that spicy food
doesn’t. No one insists that chefs should stop making spicy food, or that
spicy food has ruined gourmet cuisine forever.

The idea that some music is an “acquired taste” is not exactly new, but I
hope we can learn to avoid those annoyingly classist mistaken assumptions
that often ride along with other acquired tastes. Not everyone will like
Carter’s music, or mine, or yours, and that’s okay.
-- 
carlos palombini
www.researcherid.com/rid/F-7345-2011
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