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Posted: |
Jan 12, 2022 - 5:55 PM
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By: |
Howard L
(Member)
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"My second piece for The Times, which ran in September 1988, was a well-received interview with Vladimir Horowitz. From then on, I kept writing profiles and interviews after joining The Times. And I learned that you can tell people’s stories by describing the music they create."
That's chief classical music critic Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times who is retiring after 21 years on the beat. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/insider/my-first-times-byline-anthony-tommasini.html
I suppose a lot of celebrities, including film composers, don't care about spilling their personal lives in favor of letting their work do all the talking. In that sense, it's easy to hear, "see" and say why the music of gruff Bernard Herrmann, for instance, reveals a heart at fire's center.
"I’ve always believed that people who love music, even if they lack any training, are more perceptive of the nuances and complexities of a piece than they realize. I direct my Times criticism to these instinctive perceptions. If a review I write is successful, a reader may feel, 'Yes! That’s what I heard.'”
Oh it feels like he wrote that for me. I mean my training was of the schoolboy kind and not much more. And for over 21 years at this place I've had a field day striving to express nuances and complexities of beloved passages and cues. You know, sharing music you love and all.
And to where does it lead? You end up loving the people who make the music even if you don't really know the people who make the music. You just know their music reaches you and what went on in their lives before, during, and after writing it doesn't matter a hill o' beans. The music's the thing.
Still, that doesn't stop imagining the best about them through their music. And maybe that's because they were at their best while writing music. Only they can say for sure. If they want to. Either way, they will always be remembered best for the music.
Yeah, that's how they want it to be; let the music tell their story.
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Posted: |
Jan 13, 2022 - 4:12 PM
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By: |
joan hue
(Member)
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Perhaps the way composers interact with average non-fanboy Joes (and joans) like us tells us a little something of their story too
Howard, sorry to say I've never met a composer. I envy you. It is nice to know most were nice people.
I know I've told this story before, and I'll tell it again. I have an undying love for Elmer Bernstein. I never thought he read the FSM board. One day, a lady who was his assistant, emailed me when my e mail was in my profile. I had written many topics about his music, and she said he noticed them and wanted to mail me an autographed picture. So now next to my computer, I have this lovely picture of Elmer Bernstein that says, "For Joan, Elmer Bernstein."
When I look at it and consider his "noticing," I hear Tree Treasures from To Kill A Mockingbird.
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