Saturday, September 15, 2007
Wrong Notes and Wrong headedness
Mr. Enniv Zarf wants to be judged with the immortals of music for his piano improvisations. He demands that his work be seen as ground breaking. It is not, it is a dull and derivative early post-Cagean mire. A pimple that should have been popped, without even a full awareness of its antecedents. Faceless, artless and interminable even at a few minutes.
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Does that mean you don't like John Cage?
ReplyDeleteJust asking.
Well, I googled Mr. Zarf. Could not find his music, but did find his poetry. I can't find any remotely diplomatic terms to describe that work. If Mr. Zarf is still in middle school, then he may have a brighter future as a writer than is immediately apparent. But then again, George W. Bush, who has NO clothes, is indeed Emperor. So anything is possible, is it nto?
ReplyDelete*not?
ReplyDeleteCage had his say, and there are things about that period of art that I believe were important and interesting. The spareness, the removal of grand arching narratives, the open light of works. Laying down the burden of everyone having to be German and everything turned into physics.
ReplyDeleteBut that was then, there needs our not our needs.
Great claims were made for this music, which means that high standards need to be set. I am normally in favor of content, any content, over emptiness.
But when people say more than "this is what I do," they invite more scrutiny.