Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup tuning Master's Degree

[Kraig Grady, TD 167]
> Maybe you relate Europe to be your tradition. I don't think i
> honestly can. This is the maybe a product of being on the west
> coast.

Speaking as a sort-of-bicoastal American, I think it would
be safe to say that the differences in your respective viewpoints
are due to your geographies.

New York (Dante) is *the* American connection to Europe,
and Los Angeles (Kraig) is likewise the (or at least one of the)
principal American connection to Asia. And it's not merely
a textbook comparison - the difference is quite palpable even
in everyday life, excepting perhaps if you spend a lot of time
in New York's Chinatown.

[Dante]
>> If anything, classical musicians have their heads so in the
>> clouds that they're not even aware there are "lower classes"
>> (as you so condecendingly put it)

Altho I didn't study at Juilliard, I did attend Manhattan School
of Music (just up the 'road' [Broadway], in fact in the former
Juilliard building), and I knew and hung out with a *lot* of
Juilliard students. I can vouch for what Dante says, at least in
terms of that particular school.

I distinctly remember not even being able to have a conversation
with Juilliardites at parties, because they spent so much time
in a 4-foot square practice room that they didn't seem to have
any grasp of reality at all, or perhaps they were just totally
burned out from so much practicing.

[Kraig]
> Its the same thing and that is is purpose. Not only are they a
> upper class but also for the most part cultural isolationist!
> At 75 dollars for a decent seat to a concert who can afford
> to go!

I'm not trying to make it sound like I'm in complete agreement
with either of you in this debate, but I'm pretty sure that the
main reason concert tickets cost so much is because classical
music in this country does not have the popular support that
would enable it to survive economically at a more reasonable
price, and the US does not subsidize classical music to the
degree that some other countries (notably in Europe) do, to
take up the slack.

It's really become a pretty desperate situation. A couple of
years ago, the great Philadelphia Orchestra went on strike,
which blew just about the whole concert season. And when I
arrived in San Diego last fall, I found out that the San Diego
Symphony had been disbanded for lack of support! (Thankfully,
by December it had just reformed and begun concerts again).

Of course, part of the cause of this is also the easy availability
of alternative listening methods, such as procuring music over
the web, etc., or in fact, just plain creating your own, which
is becoming easier and cheaper all the time .

(I'm talking specifically about more sophisticated instruments
here. In truth, it costs nothing to create music by singing,
drumming, or constructing your own simple instruments.)

I think the bottom line on this whole academia-elitist thing
is that schools are just another type of tribal community
that have to maintain certain traditions and standards in
order to survive and continue to function.

I didn't finish college, and I don't think that fact has hindered
my musical development one bit, in fact I would not have gone as
deeply into microtonality if I had stayed in school - all my
teachers discouraged me when they found out I was interested
in it.

But at the same time, my ears were opened to whole new worlds
of sound by my teachers and my colleagues, not to mention the
concert and club scene in New York in the late 70s - worlds
that I would have never known existed if left to my own devices.

And BTW, I used to get *orchestra* seat tickets for the Metropolitan
Opera from my school, for free! In those days, they were $40 seats.
I got to sit 30 feet from the stage at 'Wozzeck', for the cost
of a (50-cent) subway token.

So stop it, already! There's good and bad in academia.

Joseph L. Monzo monz@juno.com
http://www.ixpres.com/interval/monzo/homepage.html
|"...I had broken thru the lattice barrier..."|
| - Erv Wilson |
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🔗Kraig Grady <kraiggrady@xxxxxxxxx.xxxx>