🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <13926@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> roger@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Roger Lustig) writes:
>Seems to me that a knowledge-acquisition (or education) model requires
>two pretty much unattainable things: a good picture of the initial
>condition, i.e., before the acquisition begins; and a model for how a
>particular state determines the knowledge that can be
>acquired/assimilated/incorporated/whatever at a given moment.
>
One observable example comes to mind, and that's George Gershwin's
music before and after beginning study with Joseph Schillinger.
I think there are significant differences in the features,
particularly harmonic.  Now, whether that was due to study with
Schillinger and/or other factors is a different story.  Usually
"Porgy and Bess" is cited for study in these realms, but why not
put things on more even ground and compare a later song, such as
"Our Love is Here to Stay" with one of the earlier pre-Schillinger
songs.  A factor in this is not only when, but *how long* it took
those changes in style to take place.
  Anther possible composer for study would be Scriabin (change
between the 5th and 6th Piano Sonatas).
  More interesting, I think, than the shaping of a musican's style
by formal education is sudden changes of style (or radical changes
over a reasonably short time-span) and what sets of experiences
may have influenced those changes, and whether or not the more
formal the musical training the less likely (or the slower) those
changes might occur.
  I would also be interested in opinions of how much easier/more
difficult it is in our own time for a composer to be "successful"
(define that yourself!) than in the time of, say, Schoenberg or
even Cage's early development, without the 'university' or
'conservatory' style formal training.

Cheers,

--Mark

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Mark Gresham  ARTSNET  Norcross, GA, USA
E-mail:       ...gatech!artsnet!mgresham
or:          artsnet!mgresham@gatech.edu
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