Someone posted this on facebook: http://www.fastcompany.com/1718250/keith-jarrett-save-your-soul-turn-off-your-gadget
The only justification I can see for asking people not to take pictures (besides that some artists are apparently so temperamental that it deeply disturbs them) is that taking pictures interferes with the experience process ... which I think in some ways is a good point...
On the other hand, what I really don't understand:
1. Why is information technology always The Enemy (I mean look at all of us learning languages, and using them as practice tools, and making videos & creating new things constantly with them)
2. Why are classical musicians so bent on controlling audience experience and behavior (aside from acoustic considerations)
Is there an argument for specialization over generalization - hell yes! Does this need to villify information technology? no!
I think it's great to question & challenge IT, I just really wish it would be done in a more balanced & mature way
I don't think that people having their own limits/structure on use of IT is a bad thing (quite the opposite), but everytime I heard about something like this from classical musicians, I just feel like they're being big babies, and it just adds to the list of reasons I don't consider myself a classical musician (even though I sometimes play classical music professionally)
(Isn't it ironic that the author's point is being further made through a blog?)
Hopefully in the near future I'll write about cello and teaching & performing & stuff ... I've been super busy performing & getting away from performing over the last few months ... it's a good thing :)
1 comment:
I feel the same way about the control-freak aspects of it. I think it's related to that BS article too about Joshua Bell playing violin in the subway. It bugs me how classical musicians (and like you, I play it; unlike you, I still consider myself one) expect the whole world to come to a crashing halt just because they're there being fabulous. It's egotistical, to expect people to just set their entire lives aside simply because God Almighty is up there playing an instrument. Sure, it's wonderful, transporting, transcendent, magnificent ... but hello, the audience's lives don't vanish out of their brains just because Keith Jarrett or Joshua Bell is obviously far more important. It really is ego. And it's offensive to the audience; why should someone pay money to get the very real impression that the dude on stage thinks he or she is an amoeba? They need to get over themselves.
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