tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post3116728605096233610..comments2024-03-02T14:20:44.675-06:00Comments on Musical Assumptions: The Soul of Music is PhysicalElaine Finehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14248422399226824168noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-56330894753064157182012-08-01T15:10:28.405-05:002012-08-01T15:10:28.405-05:00"we unconsciously put our vocal and breathing..."we unconsciously put our vocal and breathing mechanisms in positions that might approximate what the singers are doing."<br /><br />Possibly so, but you can do this to recorded or electronic music. I would certainly respond this way to Hymnen and certainly to Bryars rather quirky jesus' Blood....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-75242250805554445012012-06-16T10:52:07.410-05:002012-06-16T10:52:07.410-05:00As a violinist, I'd definitely agree with the ...As a violinist, I'd definitely agree with the love of the physical. I love the motion of my fingers going up and down, my arms moving, and all that. As an audience member, I love watching musicians playing their instruments--listening to music is great, but the fun of watching a performance (or video, I suppose) is watching the physical movement involved.Hannahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17891223387238553615noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-7012739761875960402012-06-09T08:47:25.694-05:002012-06-09T08:47:25.694-05:00I was also surprised by Barenboim's adulation ...I was also surprised by Barenboim's adulation for Boulez. Perhaps there is some personal history there that makes him see Boulez differently from those of us who have observed him from afar.<br /><br />Oliver Knussen is one of the top drawer living conductor/composers, but he mostly conducts now. It is very difficult to compose when your head is always filled with music written by other people. There have been great composers who were lousy conductors too, like Glazunov, Ravel, and Copland, and there have been (and still are) composers who function as conductors only when necessary.<br /><br />many great composers of the past preferred not to conduct their own music. I can certainly understand why. Interpreting one's own music is kind of like evaluating one's own body and soul in front of an audience, and in real time.<br /><br />That task is best left to the professionals, I.e. the psychoanalysts, the critics (maybe), and the historians.Elaine Finehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14248422399226824168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-39191079462648827832012-06-09T03:11:33.451-05:002012-06-09T03:11:33.451-05:00Pleasant enough, but his adulation for Boulez as e...Pleasant enough, but his adulation for Boulez as embodying this imagery is somewhat stretched. Boulez is not so "physical" as a conductor and much of what he has written is cerebral and not particularly moving in a physical way. While he is known as a composer and conductor, there is precious little video of him actually playing the piano. Barenboim as conductor and pianist does not compose, and Boulez as conductor and composer doesn't seem to sit at the piano in public much. So how many top-drawer modern conductor/composer/performers are there really?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10680113.post-47765693529509495882012-06-06T14:17:46.284-05:002012-06-06T14:17:46.284-05:00What the neuroscientists call "mirror neurons...What the neuroscientists call "mirror neurons" seem to be the underpinning of a lot of what you're saying about how through watching others we internally experience what they're doing physically.<br /><br />Also, another way of thinking about the power of music is that, in part, it's physical gestures (with which we express emotion) made audible.Lyle Sanford, RMThttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11312150272934828223noreply@blogger.com