Originality vs. Innovation

Here's another thought for the day. What is more important, originality or innovation?

Well, let's look at Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, which premiered in 1913. Almost 100 years later, we can still call it original. But were it to be premiered today, we would no longer call it innovative.

Bach is an original composer, but he was not necessarily innovative.

Innovation is something that wears off over time. Originality has less to do with age and is more concerned with what is true.

Style vs. Technique

At a recent confab of composers I attended, the conversation turned to style and technique.

And here's your thought for the day: "You shouldn't steal style. But you can steal technique."

Discuss!

Aurora Borealis

I was very happy with the superb performance of Three Elegies as performed by Aurora Borealis, the new music duo comprised of Stephen Solook on percussion and the charming soprano, Tiffany DuMouchelle. You can read more about them at Tonal Center Trio. (That's the website of the trio that includes Adam Berkowitz on clarinet.)

Here's a pic from the concert, which took place in the intimate Goldmark Hall of Mannes College of Music in New York on March 25, 2007.

Hammers and Nails

I was at the March Salon of the New York Composers Circle recently, and we got to talking about how the instrument you play affects how you compose. I have long suspected this to be true, as a composer whose primary instrument is piano will often "sound" a little different than a composer who plays, say, the double bass.

Pianists might sense music as left and right, with low notes here and high notes there. The piano lends itself to certain melodic and harmonic patterns, etc. A bass player's instrument, on the other hand, is up and down, with a different hierarchy of high and low notes, offering a unique sense of musical patterns that "work."

Which prompted our director to bring up a quote of Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist. Maslow said, "If the only tool you know how to use is a hammer, then you tend to see every problem as a nail."

This is profound! And it underscores why it is so important to stretch your creative boundaries; learn new instruments, hear new music, etc. You don't want to be locked in to using only one tool. Always be willing to try new solutions to your musical "problems."

Copyright is a Blunt Instrument, cont.

More evidence that copyright is a blunt instrument.

The internet is shaking things up in ways no one could have ever expected. Take the recent Google / Viacom battle. Google owns YouTube.com, and claims it is not culpable if anyone posts copyrighted material there. If the copyright owner asks for an infringing video to be removed from the YouTube website, Google will remove it. But this is very expensive for Viacom, to spend all day trying to find copyright infringements and so Viacom says Google must bear the responsibility of policing the YouTube website. Viacom has recently sued Google over this issue.

Can there be a compromise?

Perhaps not, and whoever wins, it will have a detrimental effect. In the New York Times of March 17, 2007, Joe Nocera writes that for either side...

Victory would be sweet, but losing could be disastrous. If Google wins, YouTube will never have to pay much to anyone for copyrighted content, and companies like Viacom will wind up either handing over their material or continuing to ask that it be removed — again and again and again. Smaller companies — not to mention the artists themselves — will probably have less control over their own work. If Viacom wins, YouTube will no longer be able to allow copyrighted content to be posted — which will surely hurt its business prospects. And it will make it more dangerous for any Internet site to use copyrighted material — even when it is legal to do so.

Copyright in the age of the internet is going to make the lawyers rich for decades to come.

Three Elegies: Next Performance

Here is a sign announcing the next performance of Three Elegies, Sunday March 25 at 7:30pm. Goldmark Hall is at Mannes College of Music, 150 West 85th Street in New York City. (Click image for larger size.)

Copyright is a Blunt Instrument

Longtime followers of my audio podcast will recall that I have ambivalent feelings about copyright. Yes, I want my work to be protected, but copyright limits open exchange of cool ideas.

And now we have to ask: What history is being lost due to copyright?

To wit: Check out the great article in the 3/11/07 New York Times about the daunting task the Library of Congress faces in digitizing their collection. If the Library managed to digitize 500,000 text records a year, they would still need 1,800 years to complete the task, to say nothing of the expense.

And to say nothing of who holds the copyright.

Tim Brooks, author of "Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919" (University of Illinois, 2004) is quoted:

"Copyright is a very blunt instrument. Once you have copyright, you have total control; there's very little room in the copyright law even for preservation, much less reissuing material.

Examples of works being lost due to copyright include original recordings of John Philip Sousa's band and Noble Sissle, an African-American tenor whose recordings are owned by Sony BMG.

If there's no obvious money gain in releasing these old recordings, they just sit in the vault.

How much new music of today is being kept behind the closed doors of copyright?

Reaching New Audiences

I'm the Managing Director of a composers collective called the New York Composers Circle. For our concerts this year, we've decided that each composer should say a word or two about our piece, in an effort to better communicate with audiences. On the one hand, I think the music should speak for itself. On the other hand, audiences have been scared away from classical music for decades. If saying a few words now and then makes our art more accessible, then by all means we should do it. We have a responsibility to build new audiences for our music. And after all, popular musicians from Mick Jagger, Kanye West, and Dolly Parton are always asked to give interviews about their new albums.

Anyway, here's a pic of me at last night's NYCC concert at Symphony Space in New York, where Three Elegies was performed. (Click images for larger size.)

Three Elegies to be Performed

Reminder: Today, March 9, 2007, my Three Elegies for soprano and percussion will be performed at the Thalia at Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street. Concert time is 7:30pm. Tiffany DuMouchelle and Steven Solook are the performers. This is a concert being presented by the New York Composers Circle, so lots of other composers and players will be on board. Have a look at http://nycomposerscircle.org/Calendar/calendar.html

Tickets are $15.

Orchestral Movements: 99 Cents

Interesting article in the NYTimes last Sunday (March 4, 2007) about iTunes being one of the futures of classical music.

Quoting from the article: Zarin Mehta, the New York Philharmonic's president and executive director, had this to say about the lone compact disc released by the NY Phil last year:

The CD is “a vanity project, if you like, for sponsors,” Mr. Mehta said in a recent phone conversation. Oh, he added, it will also be sold in stores. “But how many stores are there?”

When an orchestra sees a CD release on a major label as something negligible, you know that the classical recording industry is not in Kansas anymore.

Wow. How true!

The full column, by Anne Midgette, is here.