The CRITIC and the Phony Artist: A Lesson for us all? (page 2)

Quentin

Hehehe...yeah, but at my age who cares...

I agree with Terry's comments, and many others on this board. A week or so ago, I went and saw the San Diego Symphony's soundtrack to the silent classic, "Ben Hur." The night was enjoyable due to many factors, one being that the symphony plays in a restored theatre. To say that the architecture was beautiful really didn't do it justice. I was enthralled with every nuance and detail put into the impressive decorations. Nothing pleased me more at that moment than to simply drink in the sumptous detail which was so lovingly restored. I felt like I could've spent all day in that theatre.

Futhermore, the musical accompaniment was excellent. Even though the film was before my time, hearing a live orchestra play made the film come alive, as the cliché goes...

And of course, the film had premium actors like Ramon Navarro and Francis X. Bushman.

So that night I had the trifecta: a theatre made by real artistry, a film starring quality actors, and superb music to accompany it all.

I really don't understand why some friends of mine go for ready-made singers (American Idol), prefer fast food, and listen to predictable, overproduced music. The real stuff is worth the price...

compound complex

LOVERS OF THE FINE ARTS:

I am on sensory overload even as I attempt to deal with only a modest number of your meaningful comments. Architecture. Art. Music. Dance. Literature. [a few items added for good measure] They combine in a saturating force, descending upon us individually in whatever manner our senses can absorb and thereafter utilize them.
Mom acquired all of the following: a thrift store phonograph, used vinyl - Mario Lanza, Longines Symphonette, Readers' Digest Classics - dozens upon dozens of old books, an upright piano, canvases, paints, ad infinitum. All this "raw material" was combined with the skills of the most far-sighted and capable teachers imaginable. They taught me so much more than the "subject" of their particular class.
And here we are today - writing about our perceptions of the Fine Arts, all that they encompass, and how they have molded us into what we have become. When I mentioned sensory overload, I cannot deal with websites or even catalogues for, let's say, art. Too much - I will blow a fuse. I can absorb myself in one paragraph of a fascinating story, or one passage of a musical composition, or closely examine one masterful work of art.
Fast food? Fast art? For immediate and meaningless consumption? It will all soon be forgotten.
For a while longer your observations I could ponder..........[Yoda?]

Coco

Terry

Mom acquired all of the following: a thrift store phonograph, used vinyl - Mario Lanza, Longines Symphonette, Readers' Digest Classics - dozens upon dozens of old books, an upright piano, canvases, paints, ad infinitum. All this "raw material" was combined with the skills of the most far-sighted and capable teachers imaginable. They taught me so much more than the "subject" of their particular class.

You raise an important point here.

Those of us lucky enough to be exposed early in our life to a wide variety of excellence (in anything) are given an opportunity to determine the range of choice inherent in personal taste.

I know a great many people who have only had the narrowest of personal experience with anything beyond JUST ONE TYPE of music, art, style.

Worse than being narrowly confined to just one genre is being around people who make it a crime to have any taste OUTSIDE of a narrow spectrum. Ideally, we should be able to see that in EVERY genre there is excellence! Determining what is good, better and best demands we take the time sampling what is out there.

I regularly force myself to read books about subjects I have no interest in. I listen to radio programs about things I find boring. I tune in to radio stations that play music I don't like.

Why?

So my opinion can be informed.

Hortensia

some interesting points made on this subject. I find it interesting to watch American Idol with my husband who is a trained tenor. I like to hear what he says about the singing, which is much more informed than my opinions, and then I compare it to what I hear and how I react to the songs and singers. I am learning a lot just because of hearing his educated opinion about the art of singing. Quite often we agree, but I can't define, the way he can, why it is I like or dislike the performance. So I'm in favor of exposing kids to excellent art and artistic performances as a part of their early education. I'd rather we spent money on concerts for kids than Iraq, for instance.

Hortensia

read over the posts again, saw the mention of San Diego. When I lived there, you could go to the public library in downtown San Diego on Tuesday evenings and hear wonderful performances. I remember a wonderful string quartet, a soprano singing ballads, even a wonderful pianist playing Scott Jopling for an hour. It was free, and always lovely. I wonder if they still do that? This was more than 20 years ago.

Hortensia

Joplin, not Jopling - sometimes I proof read after I hit "submit."

SirNose586

read over the posts again, saw the mention of San Diego. When I lived there, you could go to the public library in downtown San Diego on Tuesday evenings and hear wonderful performances. I remember a wonderful string quartet, a soprano singing ballads, even a wonderful pianist playing Scott Jopling for an hour. It was free, and always lovely. I wonder if they still do that? This was more than 20 years ago.

Not in the least. The current downtown library--and I'm pretty sure there is only one to speak of--probably looks the same as it did when you used to frequent the place; that is to say, the depository looks stale and in dire need of remodeling. True, I've been in the downtown library only once. But having a feel for how San Diego gets things done, I'm sure it still looks the same, and if there were performances inside, I would've heard about them by now.

Terry

Joplin, not Jopling - sometimes I proof read after I hit "submit."

You can right click "edit" and go back for a "do-over". This leaves the post perfect and doesn't require new posts.

tijkmo

i think there is a balance to be sought between between what is technically 'good' and what is likable

i remember a painting astounding critics a few years back...it was a stark watercolour picture of trees in winter..turns out it had been 'painted' by a 5 or 6 year old girl who had just splashed three blobs of paint on the paper and gone away to do something else and the paint had run..this was not a 'masterpiece' and it is unlikely the girl will ever be asked to repaint the cistene chapel..and yet is was likable..i dont have much interest in art..and have no time for unmade beds and piles of bricks etc..but i liked this...it was a fluke..but there was no attempt to decieve..and it was original..and i would prefer it in my living room rather than rubins fat nudes any day of the week and twice on sunday.

in many ways music is the same...the last david gilmour album was technically 'good'..it was well played by some of the worlds best musicians..(well, best rock musicians..even here some might dispute whether rock is a 'good' musical form in comparison to classical) it was well produced, well sung. there wasnt a noticable mistake anywhere..and many people loved it...i didnt..hes one of my favourite artists and i didnt like it.

i am studying sound production at the moment and one of the things that is constantly emphasized is that the difference in the quality of a recording is in the smallest of degrees..adding a few milliseconds ot delay..taking away the smallest amount of reverb etc etc..i cant do it i dont 'hear' any difference which is frustrating...but not so frustrating as the thought that ultimately the masses of people are going to buy some mediocre artists processed voice and edited performance because that is what everyone else has told them is good..

The CRITIC and the Phony Artist: A Lesson for us all?

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