The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #99782   Message #1995005
Posted By: The Fooles Troupe
12-Mar-07 - 11:06 PM
Thread Name: virtuosity and traditional music
Subject: RE: virtuosity and traditional music
"You could say that Earl Scruggs represents this since he was an innovator. Nowadays, there are so many bluegrass banjo players attempting to play like him that his playing has almost become clichéd."

One could say almost exactly the same thing about Django!

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""....or a traditional flute player joined an orchestra and insisted on putting traditional slides and slurs into a classical piece."

If you're referring to wooden open-holed "simple system" flutes, those used to be the instruments used in classical music - utilising slides and slurs, and variation at the whim of the player. Classical music has changed over time as well."

This IS the whole point - if you want to 'join in' with another group doing another style from which you come, you can't just 'take over' it - if you can't accept and adapt to 'their style' then you are possibly just a selfish git, or perhaps you really are very limited in your technical musical ability (the most important of which is to LISTEN and work out what others around you are doing!) - in much the same way that many 'amateur actors' (perhaps that should be 'would be amateur actors') can give a 'brilliant performance' that is totally out of kilter with all the other surrounding performing actors - because they are trying to 'steal the stage'.

The Term for this is "Coarse Acting" - Michael Green wrote some clever books on the theme of "Coarse" Performers in many fields, sailing, cricket, football, etc. The more you know about each field, the funnier are his insights.

I suggest that he could easily do one on "Coarse Musicians" - I probably would fall into that category.... :-)