AJDinz1@aol.com wrote:
I just recently got hold of the new hatology release of 'Cobra'. This is only the second ever game piece I have purchased, but my original conclusion was the same. This music is just not interesting unless you have any idea of the theory behind the construction of the piece. It does give me the impression of eavsdropping on bunch of improv musos during a private joke. Does anyone know why this is kept a secret? Professional secret? or even better, what is the theory at work here?
AJ
While it's obviously true that Zorn's game pieces aren't like songs, there's a lot of other music, much of which is frequently discussed or at least name-checked on this list, which is no more or less abstract when heard on a recording rather than a live performance. Do you listen to recordings of European free improvisation (Derek Bailey, Instant Composers Pool, Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker, etc)? Or modern/contemporary avant garde classical music (John Cage, Pauline Oliveros, Helmut Lachenmann, Iannis Xenakis, etc)? Or American avant garde jazz-rooted music (Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, etc)? What about Japanese noise bands or more recent electro-acoustic improvisation? Others on this list could add other genres and categories to this list, but this list may be enough for you to see what I mean. In other words, I guess, do you listen to other abstractly structured music on recordings and you simply have problems listening to Zorn's game pieces? If so, being more specific about what you have trouble with may help. If, on another hand, you haven't heard a lot of recordings of music that's fairly abstract, it may just be a matter of getting a comfort level and/or finding works in this vein that you find immediately attractive (or at least not uninteresting) and moving out from there. That can be a very long term process, but in my experience, any individual's response to works like these is fairly personal. Suggestions can help point you in new directions, but you'll need to find your path of artists and recordings that draw you further into this area of music. Not sure if this will have helped, Herb -- Herb Levy P O Box 9369 Fort Worth, TX 76147 herb@eskimo.com