Original_To:  BITNET%"mbu-l@ttuvm1.bitnet"
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.mbu-l
Date:         Mon, 5 Oct 1992 22:31:00 EDT
From:         "Composition Digest (Robert Royar,
              Moderator)" <R0MILL01@ULKYVX.BITNET>
Subject:      (Fwd: *C&CD*) Jazz as folk music,
              or was that Hungarian folk music? (19)

Date:         Mon, 05 Oct 1992 21:24:18 EDT
From:         IN%"RobertRoyar@Delphi.com" Robert Royar (C&CD Moderator)
Message-id:   <1992Oct05.212418.1.Grendel.Lair@Cratylus>
Subject:      Jazz as folk music, or was that Hungarian folk music? (19)
Reply-to:     IN%"R0MILL01@ULKYVX.LOUISVILLE.EDU"  C&CD
Organization: Cratylus Educational Software

>Robert Connors <R_CONNORS@UNHH.UNH.EDU>
>Message-id: <01GPL8OWLBWW8WVZOQ@ulkyvx.bitnet>
>Subject: Jazz and New Age (*MBU*)

>I once talked to someone who gave me something sorta like this:

>"When I got too old for rock and roll, I figured I had to make some kind
>of choice about the music I'd listen to as an adult.  On the one hand
>there was classical music, and on the other hand there was jazz.  As I
>saw it, on the one hand you had music that had been carefully crafted
>by highly trained masters to achieve the greatest possible number of
>emotional and intellectual responses, that utilized the complete
>range of instruments that had been invented by the most technically
>brilliant culture that existed in the world, that was played in
>varied groups of people who were trained in this advanced technique
>from early ages until each was was an accomplished virtuoso, that
>tapped into a tradition hundreds of years in the building.  On the
>other hand, you had music based on a bunch of folk themes played by
>people who were making it up as they went along."

Bob C. goes on to disclaim the bias of the quotation, but having studied
only a bit of music and having gotten most of my Jazz education from
listening to Ted Flyshaker [sic] interviews about early jazz on the radio
(WPFL in Louisville I believe) I found myself wondering which music (jazz or
classical) was it that "tapped into a tradition hundreds of years in the
building" and which music was "based on a bunch of folk themes played by
people who were making it up as they went along." This latter could easily
describe how Bach (isn't that Classical in the true sense) and his
contemporaries performed his scores.

By the way, Martin, what's Jarret's interpretation of the Well-Tempered
Clavier like?  Do you recommend it?  I'm looking for a piano/clavier
performance on CD of all the pieces from Bach's exercise book.  The Jarret
collection is the only I can find currently in "print".

Another interesting Jazz aside (possibly just radio propoganda): Some of
the late 19thc. NORLANS Jazz bands (some recorded on wax and tin cylinders)
had "klezmar" [sic] muscians newly immigrated from eastern Europe.  Listen
to some of Wynton Marsalis' pieces (talk about a family of Bachs!) for
tonalities found in romanian, hungarian, and other eastern european
music--also sounds from the middle east.  Some of his quotations just reach
out and snap you to attention.  Oh well, jazz is grand.

Hey new age has it's moments.  Is Brian Eno new age--he certainly predates
the classification--his music for airports and that whole series takes the
Phil Spectre "wall of sound" to its logistical conclusion.  See above Bob
Connors' comment re new age: "Audio wallpaper has its uses, and they're
legitimate uses."

 -- Robert Royar (RobertRoyar@Delphi.com) New York Institute of Technology
    "Do not search for the truth. Simply cease to cherish opinion"
                                           - Sengstan, Third Zen Patriarch

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