Re: GG's Opinion

[brian scott gaona <bgaona@students.uiuc.edu>]

Dear Morgan, 
	I think your honesty with yourself and self-awareness about your
opinions of composers and your feelings of GG's coments on them will be
one your strongest assets as a developing musician. I think that honesty
is at the source of all art. 
	As for the "rebellious" side of Bach's music, I am quite convinced
that it exists. Take a look at the _Bach Reader_ (for just one example,)
and see if you can find the passage where "Bach is Reproved" for adding
strange notes and harmonies to his music, early in the section on primary
sources. 
	I will admit though, from our retrospective point of view, the joy
of listening to bach probably will not come from the racy idea of breaking
tradition, (since at this point Bach really represents "tradition.") I
guess it's just fun for what it is.  and that the genius and perfection
of his forms really seems to fuel the passion of his music rather than
smother it. 
	This is my feeling about the composer, but let me say again that
your honest feeling about any composer is more valuable than any contrived
appreciation.
			
			Welcome!
			-brian




On Tue, 14 Dec 1999 DjangoGrap@aol.com wrote:

> Thank you everyone for your quick responses. I'm on the Hal Hartley list too 
> and lately people have been so increadibly unhelpful it's a joke, which makes 
> me think twice about joining mailing lists.
>     I'm reading Mr Ostwalt's (sp?) book for the second time and have very 
> mixed feelings about Glenn's opinion's about different composers i.e. ; he 
> hated Schumann, Chopin and Schubert, liked Baroque and Modern but not 
> Romantic, only liked Mozart's early works etc. etc. I know that I go through 
> emense changes in perspective and opinions about everything, not just music, 
> and it's hard for me to put my own musical tastes into perspective compared 
> to someone I admire greatly like Glenn. It is almost like haveing a second 
> father and being ashamed of having my own opinion. 
>     I used to not even like Bach that much, because I found his music too 
> "logical" and too "perfect". Although I'm trying to learn to play the piano 
> myself so I can see the advantage of the counterpoint and the tutorial value 
> of learning Bach. I used to have arguments with people about this subject not 
> that I want to cause one here. But I can't stp thinking about what Glenn 
> would have to say (certainly much) about the theory that all of the 
> mathematical perfection in Bach's music lacks the passion and danger that 
> later composers had, the bravery to take chances. But I guess for his time 
> maybe this was what he was doing, maybe I'm just too modern to see the 
> "rebelious" side of Bach's music?
> 
> Morgan McDannell 
>