Well! Those nice people at Sarastro Music have given me the chance to sound off...Avanti!
On Classical Music
I was fortunate to meet Artur Rubenstein on several occasions. Once he was talking about the role of the performer and he said to me, "But after all, we're all entertainers..." It took a long time for that to really sink in. Music is the profession in which we've chosen to make our living. 'Greatness' is what you might achieve after you're dead. It's wonderful, of course, to send everyone home from a concert having been spiritually moved ~ but it's just as valid to send them home happy, or entertained. We tend to forget that that is a form of spirituality as well...
The distinction between 'Serious' and 'Light' Classical Music is patently absurd. It's just another way for a minority to say, "I'm better than you are because I have much more discriminating taste. Music like operetta is dismissed because it is 'merely a good evening's entertainment' ~ a good evening's entertainment! ~ as if that were easy to do! 'Light Classical' is a purely subjective label: after all, in the 1950s in America, Mozart was rarely performed because his music was thought to be 'light'.
Critics may call it 'pandering to the lowest common denominator' but part of our 'job' is to broaden people's interest in music. Let's face it, Liberace, The Three Tenors, Progressive Rock ~ the list could go on and on ~ have brought more people to classical music than any modern atonal composer ever will.
Stravinsky was once asked how he came to compose such beautiful music and replied, "Because I needed the money..."
On Modern Music
As far back as you want to go, there has been a close relationship between clasical and popular music. Mozart composed dance music for 'discos' at the Imperial Court in Vienna; so did Beethoven ~ and most of the other composers of that period. Even to this day in Vienna, Strauss, father & son, are regarded with the same respect as Brahms and Mahler.
All this stopped after World War II. I know of no real classical work that has drawn on rock, dance ~ even the electric folk scene ~ for inspiration. In a century or so, people will look back on the Avant-Garde as a temporary aberration in the history of art. The vast majority of modern music has become such an intellectual exercise that there is no room for ~ or often ability to include ~ emotion.
People want to be moved ~ be it laughter or to tears. Many modern scores make wonderful graphic art for hanging on one's wall ~ and that's about the only use one can make of it. All pleasures are based on Tension and Release. Most modern music is all tension, all left brain. Certainly, use the new techniques in composition but give audiences a break!
Releasing tension allows one to start building to the next climax.
On Popular vs Classical Music
Look, I'm a Child of the Rhythm & Blues Era. I can be just as moved by Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, Gloria Estafan, or Gnidrolog as I can by Tito Schipa, Placido Domingo or Joan Sutherland. When I was musical director for performances of Kurt Weill's Dreigroschenoper I had to, sadly, stop myself from shouting 'One more time!' (just not done, don't y' know). There are only two types of music ~ Good and Bad. Any claim that you must listen to one type of music, and one only ~ be it opera or house ~ is simple arrogance. Enjoy what you like, but be prepared to listen to other types of music with an open mind. You don't have to like what others tell you to like ~ any more than you must vote for a particular political party or practice a certain religion.
On Performance
I must admit that I've come closer and closer to Glenn Gould's idea that the recording studio is the best place for producing as close to a perfect peformance as possible. In a concert, the artist has a responsibility to the audience to produce a good performance ~ and that usually means not taking the risks that result in a great performance. Most of us can count those great performances we've given on our fingers, and still have enough left over to hold a champagne glass.
I love the recording studio environment ~ there's an enotional and creative high there that one can rarely duplicate on stage. You just do not have the distractions ~ will someone cough? will an alarm go off on someone's watch during the most sensitive passage? why isn't the action on the piano the management have provided quite what I want?
There is one area where I'm willing to make concessions ~ improvised music. I do enjoy a good session in a sweaty little blues club or on stage with superb musicians. Here, it's the interaction that leads to exciting music ~ listening to what the others are playing, and weaving one's own lines around them, taking ever greater risks and pushing the others to do the same. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't ~ but the community of musicians comes away enriched from a shared experience.
On Transgender
*Sigh* I'm ME - and that's all there is to it. There are genetic as well as social reasons for who I am. Gender is largely irrelevant to my music, with this proviso: How can one find truth in music ~ or anything else ~ if one is pretending to be something one isn't? Maybe I've also learned to express a wider range of emotions than I might have otherwise. Music has always been the one place where it didn't matter who or what I was ~ without it, I probably wouldn't still be here.
Growing up knowing who I wanted to be ~ and what Society would think if I were ~ certainly taught me one hell of a lot of tolerance for others who deserve it. The only thing I really cannot abide is causing another person pain, be it physical or emotional.
So it's just another part of the whole person. That said, I don't intend to conceal the issue; maybe someone will learn or benefit from my experiences. Besides, life's too short to get hung up on something like this. If you really wish to know more, there's another web site which you can reach by clicking on the 'Other' button on the left. No one is forcing you to do so. *smiles*
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