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Re: Composition & Improvisation- the fatal moment of playback



On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 9:28 AM, andy butler<akbutler@tiscali.co.uk> wrote:
> hmm..
> I think it may be that the performer is the least
> able person to judge the quality of a performance that they
> just completed. Especially if there's improvised content.
>

I don't figure I'm usually qualified to judge my own work, improvised
or not, until I haven't listened to a piece for a year. Well, that's
not exactly true. I can recognize crap and really boring parts
immediately (some of you may dispute that based on the evidence of my
work). But there's a lot of music that I make that is just on that
line where I'm not sure. It sounds nice, it flows, but is it
distinctive? Why *shouldn't* I just throw it away? Those can be hard
questions to answer without distance.

>
> Then again. a performance isn't just the sound that gets recorded.
> (and often, there's sounds that weren't going through the pa that
>  don't get onto the recording).
> A live performance is perhaps enough of a social ritual that the
> music itself is only part of what makes it work.
> Sometimes what works well as a live performance needs a bit of
> editing to make a listenable recording...sometimes the whole
> thing works better as a memory.
>

Hard to argue with any of that - I think it's an excellent perspective
to remember.

-- 
Warren
Destroyer of Keyboards
http://www.warrensirota.com