A year ago, Philip Glass spoke at LSU, and one of his most memorable quotes on notation was to the effect ‘Don’t use overly complex notation; the performers will mess it up anyway: A poor performer will mess it, and a better performer will do what they feel like.’
George Crumb is to have said ‘electroacoustic music has had an effect on the larger tradition, and certainly in [Mario] Davidovsky’s non-electronic music the effects are clear: much attention is given to the quality of attack, sustain, and decay of the instruments, which requires special skill of the performer.’
It’s interesting to think about the acoustic compositional ramifications.
Electroacoustic music has given rise to music focusing on articulation, timbre, shaping of sound. The degree of precision is unequalled in computer music.
Is it unrealistic to expect such precision in acoustic performers?
If the answer is yes– then one can say ‘if you want music to played the way you like, then write EA music’. I don’t necessarily agree with this conclusion, just saying.
