by Shatteredtower on Thu Nov 08, 2001 11:48 am
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by K A H:
<B>Well, in the eighteen hours since my last post, 'twould seem that interest in replying to this thread (if not necessarily reading it and/or downloading one or the other of the sets of MP3s) has waned considerably and the thread has begun its inevitable journey to the back of the forum. Although if anyone has listened to the pieces but hasn't replied to this thread, by all means say something (preferably pertaining to the content of this thread <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/tongue.gif">).</B><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P> I'm only doing this because you did ask. Keep in mind that I forget everything I've learned about music - I pick it up quickly, and forget it within a week. (The bass drum in a marching band didn't need sheet music as a rule.) So my attempts to describe what I did hear are going to be expressed very poorly. <P> In fact, I'm only going to touch on two points - both relating to tastes. I haven't gotten to the second half of the music as of yet, but allow me to comment on things I did pick up in the first half.<P> First, you mix moods quite well - going from contemplative and sedate to lively in a fairly natural fashion. As you can tell, I was most taken by your Helene effort up to this point, though I did like Alison's piece quite a bit. (I can't say it sounds like Beethoven to me - his music always reminded me more of Tarrasch's incredibly dogmatic, but logical, chess style, while this reminds me more of Schlechter's methods of stilling the board down to a very simple game, often leading to draws in top play.)<P> The only trouble I had was I found you tended to repeat a series of notes too often. I don't know the technical term, but it seemed as though whenever you'd have a pattern that repeated every four to ten notes, you repeated it once or twice past the point at which I began to find it distracting. I might not notice it once or twice, but it recurs through every section I've heard thus far, a few times in each.<P> As I said, I can't describe this well. But it felt like filler to me. It also reminded me of Mike Myers' tendency to beat a joke to death, though with less intent. (Sometimes, that seems to be part of the humour in Mr. Myers' case.) And less excess, of course. <IMG SRC="http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/redface.gif"><P> Once again, these are just my feelings on the work - and I am not qualified in any way to offer proper criticism of it. (At best, I hear "what might have been" in a piece of music - but I could never construct that, or even the original that falls short to me.) I also feel like I'm telling Mozart that he used "too many notes."<P> I didn't reply before now because I really didn't feel I had anything worthwhile to add. I still suspect that's the case - it's like me telling Josh Waitzkin how to improve his game. But you did ask anyone who had listened to this for feedback - twice, in fact. <P> Thank you for your time, and the fruits of your efforts. With luck, I will hear more of your work in the future.<p>[This message has been edited by Shatteredtower (edited 11-08-2001).]