Musical Differences

Much of my musical information came initially from my two composition teachers at University, R and W. 

R told us that the first music was made by early people grunting in caves. He also told us that to compose OUR music, we had to HATE all other music. As if to illustrate this point, as a critic, he wrote of the first performance  of one of my favourite Stravinsky pieces, “Neither St Marks, Venice or I have ever heard such an awful sound” or something like that.  He also had a wicked sense of humor.

On the other hand, we always knew the sort of piece W was writing. If every string quartet in the library suddenly disappeared, we knew  he was writing a string quartet, . When he had finished, they would all be returned. The resulting work was nothing like any of them. 

We notice a similar contrast in approach when it come to a conductor’s interpretation of musical compositions. 

A recent performance by the Cleveland Orchestra had their conductor controlling every single gesture in the music. It was magnificent. 

A week later, we heard the same work performed by a different conductor and a different orchestra in a manner which seemed to allow a lot of freedom to the orchestra. That performance was also very satisfying. 

I remember some time ago Celibidache rehearsing the London Symphony Orchestra which, at that time, had a superb wind section. 

The orchestra was puzzled when, during one of the sections dominated by the wind, he stopped conducting. The players continued for a while then stopped and asked why he had stopped conducting. He simply answered, “You are playing ensemble SO well. You listen to each other as well as to my wishes. You do not need a conductor.” But I noticed that he DID appear to lead the orchestra through that section of the music at the performance. But earlier in Siena, he wanted us to help him re-orchestrate some Schumann orchestral works. Not really being in tune with this particular activity, I peeled off and joined a group going to Cinecittá with the film composer Lavagnino. 

It seems that there is plenty of room for differences in the music world.