For those of you who were at our Saturday evening concert of this past week’s subscription series may recall a humerous quote that James DePreist cited about music: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. He didn’t give a source, and many of you may have thought that this was his own invention. Well, it wasn’t, but exactly who first came up with this gem is not agreed upon. Take a look at this page (truly, you can find anything on the web these days).
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6 replies on “dancing about architecture?”
actually, dancing about architecture is a closer correlate than writing about music, imo.
didn’t Varese say something about music being frozen architecture?
Messiaen developed a system for a few works that he called “communicable language.” google it up.
I’d say that architecture is frozen music, but what do I know? 🙂
humer(o)us indeed. I thought all music emanates from the ulna.
the closest music i’ve heard to somewhat resemble a frozen state is “9 Beet Stretch.” 9BS is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony slowed down to 24-hours. it remains @ pitch and is an INCREDIBLE experience. i’ve actually “only” listened to the first few hours of it.
D-Bob sez, check it out.
And there’s John Cage’s “As Slow As Possible” which is being performed on a church organ in Germany – the projected length of the complete performance is 639 years! (and it’s been going on for nine years already):
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7490776.stm
Yeah, NO ONE out-cages Cage.
I’ve heard that people are booking flights to be there for whenever a change in the score takes place – every several years.
When Cage said; “i’ve nothing to say and i’m saying it,” he wasn’t kidding.
Heeeeeerrrrrrrrrre’s Johnny . . .