Agreed.
A bit further: while a lot of what's being talked about became widely
broadcast in the 60s, whenever that was, as one who predates the 60s I can
tell you that a lot of it was already in place. The folkies I knew listened
endlessly to Folkways recordings of highly skilled traditional musicians
and spent days and weeks trying to replicate what they heard. There were
then no conservatories teaching blues guitar (for instance), but none of
these guys would have considered themselves untrained, and none were
chanting their native woodnotes wild. A few of the masters, Van Ronk among
them, gave private lessons--Danny Kalb was a Van Ronk student--but beyond
the basics it was not very different from sitting on the porch learning riffs.
The same was true of poetry. There were always lots of young folk who
thought that anyone could do it just like that--my feelings, my orgasms,
are so terrific and unique all I have to do is write them down--hey, the
19th century was also crowded with similar--but very few of them persisted
long enough to learn any craft. Those who did hung with older poets or with
each other and found their chops.
I have to say that I find most of Cage and company pretty boring--I find
ideas about music less interesting than music, especially after the first
performance. But again, conceptual music and for that matter visual art
preceeds the invention of the term by a few decades. What changed was the
reception--the means of dissemination became more democratic. What also
changed was the invention of an audience without the patience to learn
anything, so that for instance minimalism (little m ore than a concept or
two), which requires little of the listener, found listeners. Phillip Glass
aint Bach or Carter, in case anyone hasn't noticed. I speak as one who sat
through the whole of Einstein on the Beach, The Photographer, and
Satyagraha. Does anyone even remember the last two? Puccini played through
jello.
Mark
At 10:11 AM 11/15/2005, you wrote:
>Although I clearly am on side with those who feel that open form can be
>poetry, I do sympathize a bit with Dave's feelings about the need for
>craft, practice, whatever in poetry as in every kind of work/play.
>
>As George Bowering once said:
>
>for years I have learned to live in the middle of a seeming contradiction.
>Socially and politically I believe that I am a romantic leftist; but when
>it comes to the composition of literature I am an elitist. I am not
>reluctant to say that I'm interested in the art of writing. I like trade
>unions and hate chambers of commerce, but I am still not going to support
>an unlearned instinct poet in her delusion that she deserves the attention
>I will give happily to The Dumbfounding.
>
>
>Yup.
>
>Doug
>
>Douglas Barbour
>11655 - 72 Avenue NW
>Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
>(780) 436 3320
>
>Each leaf a runnel the
>roofs now skiffs in green
>I've never done anything
>but begin.
> Lisa Robertson
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