From the movies

September 12, 2007 at 11:26 PM

Greetings,
Here in Japan, and presumably elsewhere, there have been some big shifts in the movie rental/owning business. It use dot be that if you wanted a video for a week you went to a shop and paid a lot of money. Then came DVDs and it way somewhat similar. But something changed and now you can buy DVDs in convenience stores for not much more than the cost of rental and certainly less than taking your family to the movie theater. At first these were old Cary Grant and John Wayne era stuff but now it seems a new movie comes out and goes on sale almost simultaneously.
It also seems that this new source is an outlet for very second rate new movies that are barely worth the energy of marketing in the usual way. I have picked up some very odd ones recently for a pittance. Once such, Scary movie number 3, is made, presumably by the team who turned out all those spoof movies with Charlie Sheen involving planes. It pokes fun at among other many of the great movies of the decade such as the Matrix. It actually does have some genuinely funny moments and since I have nothing better to do today I am musing on why they are funny. How does this team keep churning out stuff utterly lacking in depth that is at times, side splitting?
I think it is an interesting combination of interpretation out of context and enlargement of the norm. An example of the former from a same genre movie:
a) No family?
b) No it’s just me and my bike.
a) Aaaa. A loner.
b) No. I paid for it.

Or the latter: girlfriend a visits girlfriend b who is in the throes of an emotional crisis. B is spooning up ice-cream as comfort food as is standard in developed countries these days. However the tub of Haagen Darz ice cream is about 10 liters in size.
In some senses these things relate to music making for me. The first step in understanding a passage is to play it literally as it is written on the page. But there is so much more to do with context. Where it is situated in the overall structure; what is its mood in relation to the immediate context; what is the mood and character of the piece; what of the context in which the work was written or even the period?
Larger than life? I think this is a question of what people hear as opposed to what we hear. I read somewhere that there has to be something like a ten percent drop in dynamic before the ear registers that a dynamic has changed in apiece of music. Not sure how true that is but as Ms. Delay once said in relation to dynamics and character `you have to hit the audience over the head with a hammer.` The practice room is not the same as being on stage.
Cheers,
Buri

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 12:37 AM

I was just thinking about a similar problem during my lunch break today: when playing Veracini-Largo, it’s so easy for me to focus on each note and phrase to make them sound important and nice, but it’s really hard to decide on the mood for the whole piece and arrange the importance of different parts accordingly. Trying to imagine it as a vocal piece does help to some extent, but I’m just not sure. What the whole piece should sound as one hears as opposed to as one plays is so hard for the player to grasp.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 1:13 AM

Greetings,
you take lunch breaks?!!!
I think what really helps is to play over an dover again with the piano (an leanr the piano part of course). Once the harmony gets into your system a sense of re;lative significance begins to emerge.
Cheers,
Buri

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 1:52 AM

Buri, I’m Chinese – live to eat. An hour-long lunch break is imperative for a functioning soul.

Practice with piano, oh what a good advice! Without the piano part, I’m really not doing the whole piece. Unfortunately I don’t have any piano accompanist to practice with. I don’t know how useful is to study the piano score.

This is the only piece so far that my teacher thought I got it right musically at my first try, but I feel there must be more to it. Right now, it sounds to me like a very stubborn little person, against all the disabilities and defects, announces to the universe that he matters and he has something to say. Silly me, I know.

From Albert Justice
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 1:46 AM

I think people's depth in emotional maturity shows in this reality--they don't really like to think a lot for entertainment generally. This is neither good or bad, just reality.

Shakespeare was quite street smart. And though we've added a lot of drama to our love for the Bard, often I can't help to feel he was just being silly.

I was listening to Andre Rieu on PBS a few minutes ago. The performers and performance was quite animated. And the audience loved it, including myself.

Sartre would've done well to consider this. The reverse is true as well though. Social Novelists wrapped scathing critiques of society and government in the most absurd imagery.

This innuendo grande, excites a child's imagination. But, when taken in the seriousness with which it was meant, it becomes something very different. Lower that stick citizenry! Your standards shall, and have followed.

So this context thing Mr. Buri, is far reaching beyond a phrase.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 2:09 AM

yes.
The Bard was exceptionally silly. I agree we try to attreibute too much profoundity to a lot of his stuff.
Cheers,
Buri

From Anne Horvath
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 2:25 AM

Haagen -Dazs is overrated. Ben & Jerry's is a much, much better. But the best is Graeter's ice cream. Mmm, yummy.

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 2:30 AM

I don’t get it when things are just silly silly. I wonder if it’s just a girl thing? I’m a big Charlie Chaplin and Monty Python fan. They are both silly and profound, no?

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 3:06 AM

Monty Python is only profound. Hope no parrots were listening.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 4:32 AM

Greetings,
Yixi, that`s the F # minor Largo yes. Was jsut browsing Arkivmusic.com and found a recording by David Nadien whihc is probably awesome.

Release Date: 09/24/2002
Label: Cembal D'amour Catalog #: 117 Spars Code: n/a
Composer: Pablo de Sarasate, Max Bruch, Giuseppe Tartini, Francesco Maria Veracini, Fritz Kreisler,
Niccolò Paganini, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms
Performer: Boris Barere, David Nadien, Samuel Sanders, David Hancock
Orchestra/Ensemble: Hungarian State Opera Orchestra

Cheers,
Buri

From Yixi Zhang
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 2:36 PM

Yes, it's the F minor. I will get that CD. Thanks for info.

From Alison Smith
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 3:33 PM

You can find profundity anywhere you look (if you are yourself profound). Kermit the Muppets cousin, Robin, did a really deep song Half Way Up the Stairs based on a poem by A A Milne.

From Stephen Brivati
Posted on September 13, 2007 at 10:31 PM

now that`s -real- deep

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