Last Posts for The New Year

Talkin’ ‘Bout My Generation!

“..It’s imperative that any composer who still harbors such ideas shed them..” _{- says Phil Fried: December 16, 2012 at 1:29 pm}
This seems in line with my favorite philosopher Emily Peck. Who said:
Everyone parrots [the words] be yourself, be yourself. What is this precious self anyway?
I’m sure that know one doubts that there is plenty of success to be had avoiding innovation and history. I believe its called maintaining the status quo.

Material Witness

“…have devalued, if not destroyed, the role of melody…” _{- says Phil Fried: December 17, 2012 at 4:07 pm}

As a composer of serial music for over 30 years that, at least in my and my listeners estimation, features melody this is news.

Of course one could argue that I am mistaken as to the content and the style of my own work. Sigh. Music, including serial music,is a living thing that is constantly changing.

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‍My ( ) Generation

Trying to reconcile an individual composer’s experience with their generation, or with their generation of composers, experience is a life long search.
Every composers experience is unique. _{- says Phil Fried: December 12, 2012 at 3:05 pm}‍

I do like this comment MJL. Some teachers are so indirect and some artists enjoy overcoming obstacles. - _{says Phil Fried: December 14, 2012 at 4:37 pm}

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The Choices We Make

There is financial success and artistic success as well. Both can happen at once, yet, not too frequently. Its too easy to point a laser beam at a group of artists and call successful because they are conservative. That merely perpetuates the myth. The fact is there are many other successful artists outside that laser beam who are ignored. Phil Fried
_{says Phil Fried: December 4, 2012 at 6:57 am}

Material Witness

“…have devalued, if not destroyed, the role of melody…” _{Phil Fried says: December 17, 2012 at 4:07 pm}

As a composer of serial music for over 30 years that, at least in my and my listeners estimation, features melody this is news.

Of course one could argue that I am mistaken as to the content and the style of my own work. Sigh. Music, including serial music, is a living thing that is constantly changing.

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Engraving Ephemera

— your implication that these failings can be attributed in whole (or even in greater part) to computer engraving applications is fallacious. I believe you misread the comment here. I thought Mr. Fetherolf’s point was that composers who were unfamiliar with hand copy, who have worked only with computers made more engraving errors. This seems reasonable.
_{says Phil Fried : July 27, 2012 at 8:40 pm}

‍Moondrunk for a Century: A History of the Pierrot Ensemble

Its interesting to look at a vocal work from an instrumental point of view. We seem to be talking about Pierrot’s orchestration as if the singer/actor and the voice was not part of the balance equation. There are many ways for a singer to approach this work and questions of balance, naturally, hang on this. Vocal fach or type such as opera singer, choir soloist, or spoken actress, various levels of combinations of these.
I love Lucy Shelton’s approach. I’ve heard her perform it three time live. Yet Schoenberg recording with an actress, which I also love is very different. Freedom of expression for the voice, and the vocal composer, starts here and for me that is much more important than the creation of a new ensemble type that continues to this day.

Though I suppose that’s not too bad either is it?_{Phil Fried says: July 27, 2012 at 3:08 am}