Serialism

[Florestan]

I know you didn't aim that dart at me, but I won't lie: that stung.

I might be wrong but I don't think there are many contemporary composers who live exclusively, or even mostly, off their music --- and this, in itself, is not a problem at all. The problem with Dr. Downie is that he looks down contemptuously on those people, composers and performers alike, who engage with the audience(s) in a pragmatic and positive manner (which imo is your own approach, so my dart can't sting you even obliquely), going so far as to suggest they're being exploited/exploitative, although it's not clear by/of whom or by/of what. The bitterest irony is that, after stating that composing music is an intellectual game with sounds, the more complex the rules the more interesting the game (for him, at least), which has no relationship whatsoever with anything else outside the rules and the product of their application, he goes on claiming that he has no interest in art as escape. That's rich. Who is the true escapist, I wonder: the average listener who, after a hard day's work, glass in hand and reclining in an armchair, enjoys a few hours of physical and nervous relaxation to the music of their favorite composers --- or Dr. Downie himself, with his sonic intellectual games whose relevance and import to anyone else than himself are highly questionable?

To summarize: Dr. Downie pontificates about what music should be and do (something which you never did, and herein lies another big difference between you and him) in the full knowledge of the fact that he'll never have to test his theories by getting his music performed in front of a paying audience, because his livelihood is secured by other means (incidentally, one of those means being precisely the capitalist division of labor which he so harshly condemns). He strongly reminds me of Nicolas Gomez Davila's dictum that a Communist is someone who wants the State to ensure them a bourgeois life.

[Florestan]

Die Religion ist ... das Opium des Volks.

Communism is the opium of the intellectuals. 

[Karl Henning]

so my dart can't sting you even obliquely ...

Well, I suppose what stung was the occasion to reflect on the fact that my ASCAP royalties for the last two years totaled less than $10. My earnings as a composer are on the "don't spend it all in one place" scale. When I was freshly graduated from High School, I did entertain hopes that I might actually earn money as a composer. Now, I understand that there are composers today who make real money, but that ain't me. Sorry to have derailed the thread for little more than an entirely personal complaint.

[Florestan]

When I was freshly graduated from High School, I did entertain hopes that I might actually earn money as a composer.

Well, I believe Dr. Downie never entertained such hopes, as he apparently regards making money off music as an artistic sell-out to capitalism --- as if the proletarians to whom he pretends to offer enlightened leadership would, if only given the opportunity, flock to a festival of his music.