Re: your mail

[james langager <jlangage@d.umn.edu>]

On Mon, 5 May 1997, Greg Romero wrote:

> 
> 
> > James, I liked your distinctions between storytelling and 'stand 
> > alone' compositions. Is this an absolute distinction or is it a result 
> > of our (relative) inability to follow the narrative elements that may 
> > be in Mozart?
>  
>      Isn't this just a question of absolute music and programme music?
> And what distinction is there really between the two if the listener
> isn't aware that he is listening to to something that is programmatic?
> I wonder how many listeners really know (or care) what the whole "plot" of
> Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique is, and does it diminish listening
> enjoyment if one is not aware?  I actually think it diminishes my 
> enjoyment when there is supposed to be a story behind the music. 

I don't think any music should have an actual plot. It's different.
Rachmaninoff tosses you around. Mozart just.. caresses you. I also think
an actual plot completely kills my ability to enjoy music.. literal plot,
that is. it's a very abstract concept. hard to explain

>      Aside form the fact that I really don't care if there is some
> programme behind the music, how exactly does one define it?  Can one call
> the music that Schumann wrote programmatic even though he often attached a
> name or a story to it only after it was completed?  Or how about Verklarte
> Nacht which is a thirty minute string sextet on a bad poem of about twenty
> lines?  

art is different than literature, though literature can contain art.
literature is a story. art is more of an impression. not necessary one big
emotional blast, but a series of them that leaves one with a certain
genius not previously there. Literature, however, is less vague, and a bit
less personal. well, as for story telling, I think the distinction is less
literal and more obvious than where you're heading... well, at least my
definition. 

>     As far as Mozart is concerned, I wonder how conducive sonata-allegro
> forms and rondos are to narration.  Not very, I think.     
> 
>