Name Your Favored Composer

[sound67]

Those other subjects are not film studies so you'll have to try again.

So studies in film history are different from studies in the history of sculpting, and studies in film technique different from studies in literary technique? Like how?

I didn't say "film school", probably you missed that (along with almost everything else).

Thomas

[sound67]

... for deeper insights into this topic.

That's funny coming from you. 

Thomas

[DavidRoss]

My vote for North was pure impudence, David. That said, I can only handle Strauss in small doses. I find him terribly overblown at times. But then, if I'm in a romantic/heroic mode ...

I'm sure you're not the only one, Mark.  I often enjoy playing the wiseacre, too--usually in an attempt to provoke some into seeing things from a different point of view, but most people just get pissed off if they think you're flippant towards their sacred cows. 

I, too, find Strauss terribly overblown much of the time, especially in most of those tone poems that secured his early reputation.  That said, I feel fairly certain that the Four Last Songs are in heavy rotation wherever the gods dwell.

[sound67]

... but most people just get pissed off if they think you're flippant towards their sacred cows.

Quite true.   0:)

[Don]

The voting has closed, and R. Strauss wins easily.  Of course, this was expected since the board is primarily for lovers of classical music and Strauss is, by far, the best composer of the three.

Thanks for your participation; think I'll start another poll now.

[ezodisy]

So studies in film history are different from studies in the history of sculpting, and studies in film technique different from studies in literary technique? Like how?

Give it a rest and instead try to focus on your area of expertise (whatever that may be). To me there's a difference. If there isn't for you, that's fine, and it doesn't bother me at all.

I didn't say "film school", probably you missed that (along with almost everything else).

Thomas

You know, Thomas, the one thing that I really missed was your expert analysis of ways that music is integrated into films. Perhaps I missed it as it got mixed into that deluge of ad hominem attacks which you unleashed from your mountain top position. If you ever wish to actually analyse this important topic, please let us all know.

[Mark]

That said, I feel fairly certain that the Four Last Songs are in heavy rotation wherever the gods dwell.

Amen to that. 0:)

[M forever]

I've done film studies at college.

Aha! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Theaterwissenschaften, right? And Probably Publizistik, too. The standard academic package for pseudo-intellectuals at German universities.

No, I'm not a musician. Never claimed to be. So?

Well, what follows from your claim that only you understand how music in films is properly used because you attended some film study classes, is that you also admit that you don't understand music and musical performance enough to make qualified statements about these subjects. That's the logical conclusion.

I've done film studies at college. Have M forever, or Karl? So?

Dunno about Karl, but I haven't. I "only" studied music and sound engineering, none of that really intellectual stuff 

I see. So studies in painting, sculpting, literature, theatre etc. are valid only if you're a working in the respective business??? What a weird way of looking at college education.

Not weird at all. Theory in the classroom is one thing, actually working in a particular field is a drastically different thing. One can always immediately tell if someone is speaking from his own experience and insights, or something he has read somewhere or heard in a lecture.

You do a very good job of hiding it. Perhaps next you can study music, that way you will stop your silly little criticisms of Bernstein and Strauss, among others, I'm sure.

The only problem here is that in Germany, it's not that easy to study music. You can't just go and enroll. In musicology and music history courses or "theater sciences", yes, and that's what a lot of people do since in Germany, university education is more or less free (or used to be, until a few years ago, I think there are some fees now but nothing comparable to the enormous tuition fees you have to pay in some countries). If you have the so-called Abitur which is the final exams you take after 13 years in school, kind of between a high school diploma and junior college in level, you can enroll in almost anything (although some courses have waiting lists and restricted access depending on the level of your grades, like medicine, for instance) and study around wildly. Which is why we have so many really smart and broadly educated people in Germany, but also so many half-educated pseudo-intellectuals who did a lot of this and that, but never amounted to anything much in any area. Two sides of a coin, I guess.

Music, on the other hand, on a higher level and especially when it comes to studying anything that has to do with performing or composing, is one of those subjects where you can't just go and enroll. You have to take audtions and tests which weed out most of the applicants. Only about 10% or so of the people who apply actually get into the music academies. So that option is probably not open for sound67, sadly...

[sound67]

Music, on the other hand, on a higher level and especially when it comes to studying anything that has to do with performing or composing, is one of those subjects where you can't just go and enroll. You have to take audtions and tests which weed out most of the applicants.

I don't think so. All the arts are related, and academic studies in one (or two, film and literature) heighten the sensibility for the rest of them. Works of music, literature, film, they are all connected and inter-connected, as are the textures of music and literary pieces, etc.

I had the good fortune to major in a subject that in and of itself was interdisciplinary (American Studies, then newly established in Germany), and which could involve something like "Techniques of propaganda in Oliver Stone's JFK" - including the use of music, and "Pension Systems in Canada" in the course of the same term. It increases your curiosity about the many facets of arts, politics, business - you want to get to know a lot of things about a lot of things.

One should also make a distinction between studying compostion and "studying" music performance. All the musicians I asked about it regretted that their education involved mostly Aufstrich und Abstrich - they are not really academic at all. They didn't study music, they studied playing the violin etc.etc. Of course there are exceptions, but I am always surprised - and disturbed, how little orchestral musicians care about the actual music they're playing. Many a virtuoso musician knows barely anything about music history, or the craft of composition.

Thomas