Wow...ubertuber, I really feel what you're saying. It's tough for me, because as a composition student in college, I'm basically getting encouraged to write with less melody, less consonance, and it's like...what if I'm not inspired to write really harsh pieces...the thing is, I'm not being coached to work within some boundaries of new music, I'm just supposed to make my music make LESS SENSE! Again, I'd like to stress that the part of art for art's sake that annoys me is that someone feels that they, above all people, have discovered the true meaning of art, and so they can take the liberties they want with the form, when I really believe that we're all still trying to just figure out (!) what Bach had going on in his mind...I mean, it's great that people are pushing limits and overstepping boundaries, but I mean, really...as a performer and composer, and to borrow from previous posts, the battle used to be between composer and performer, didn't it? Bach's Chaconne for violin was a question: How far can a violinist go? How high can he aspire? And now, it seems to me (I'm drawing on a piece called "In C" which is basically a half hour of people playing anything they want in C major) that the question is: How many audience members can I fool into thinking this is art and for exactly how long?
Sorry to keep beating a dead horse!
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