But the art will move along because of people like Caroline Shaw, even if most listeners aren’t sophisticated enough to enjoy it.
Most classical music “lovers” may finally admit that they only like the music that doesn’t offend their archaic tastes. She might drag down the quality of what people listen to. I think this child will have no effect whatsoever on the art of classical music. If they can be, modern classical music is over. They don’t need to be taught by a precocious child. She has shown no sign of even being aware of current trends in classical music - or even trends over the last century.ĭarius Milhaud once said, “Don’t ever feel discomfited by a melody.” I think modern composers know this. But there is much in there that makes the case that she is pushing against the prevailing trend against melody. I suspect part of her marketing team makes sure that any criticism is removed. It’s interesting that it contains not a single criticism, despite the fact that there has been quite a lot of criticism of her work. AfterwordĪfter reading this, I read the child’s Wikipedia page. And if she doesn’t know it now, she will soon enough. What a Real Composer Createsīut I ask you, do you think the child composer of this: There is no Brahms that I can find - much less Debussy - much much less Francis Poulenc - much much much less Elliott Carter! It’s almost all sweet music by the child herself. And why an audience would applaud after the first movement, is unclear to me.) (She doesn’t seem to have even been told the purpose of a cadenza. Savaged by critics if performed by an adult. (She’s better on the violin than the piano.) Great for a little girl. I listened to her play a middling Mozart concerto that wasn’t really very well done. Almost everything she plays is something she’s written. This all makes me think that this poor young girl has been turned into a trained monkey by her parents and the classical music establishment.
I’d love to read the child’s autobiography when she’s 50.
But I suspect child abuse just as Marjoe Gortner suffered - just in a different way. And it is a major knock on the people who produce classical music. But it is a knock on the people who “enjoy” classical music. Most of it is no more interesting in the juvenilia of Mozart - which he wrote over 200 years ago! The Classical Music Industry Sucks And this supposedly amazing child isn’t interested in any of the music of her own time. But it was still years before he wrote anything I ever want to listen to.īut here’s my point: he was trying to write the music of his time. Mozart studied counterpoint with Giovanni Martini, and the music he created afterward was far more interesting. A great composer will tell you a story as clearly as the best writer or filmmaker. Many composers are known for putting musical jokes in their work. You might just hear a passage as sad, but they aren’t working in generalities. Great composers do amazing things with their work. (That’s almost certainly true because it’s pretty much always true of young musicians they haven’t had the life experience to add anything to the music.) Great Composing Requires a Life Lived And that makes me think her performances aren’t anything more than her copying other performers. Her music sounds like a precocious child’s version of the music before Beethoven. She doesn’t even try to write anything from the last two centuries. So I went to YouTube and found everything I could. But as with word writers, music writers need experience with life.īut I hoped that the compositions of this little girl were limited or even bad modern classical music. (That’s right folks: Mozart wrote a lot of dreck in his early years.) Clearly, he had talent. Nothing he wrote was really great until he was well into his 20s. The best stuff is filled with so much creativity that I had a hard time thinking that a 12-year-old would have much to offer. Modern classical music is incredibly complex - even the bad stuff. She speaks for herself, although she’s obviously been coached as much as Marjoe.
But I certainly can’t speak for Alma Deutscher. I have a hard time believing any child wants to do one thing all the time. Instead, I spent time playing and drawing and putting on plays and generally doing anything that made me happy. But I wasn’t interested in studying it 8 hours per day and my parents weren’t inclined to push me to do it. Now I should point out that I’m not using the word “prodigy” because that was a word that was used a lot about me: I was a “mathematical prodigy.” And I loved math. So why this child? Well, because she wasn’t just a performer she was a composer. I had season tickets to the Portland Symphony for a few years and it seemed every other performance featured some “great” 12-year-old on the violin or piano or glockenspiel. Very accomplished young musicians are hardly uncommon. I saw that 60 Minutes profiled the child musician Alma Deutscher.
0 kommentar(er)
