Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!EDDIE.MIT.EDU!Love-Hounds-request From: Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP Newsgroups: mod.music.gaffa Subject: responses(responses(responses)) Message-ID: <8701270854.AA23867@EDDIE.MIT.EDU> Date: Sat, 24-Jan-87 00:39:00 EST Article-I.D.: EDDIE.8701270854.AA23867 Posted: Sat Jan 24 00:39:00 1987 Date-Received: Wed, 28-Jan-87 06:38:36 EST Sender: uucp@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: Love-Hounds@EDDIE.MIT.EDU Organization: The ARPA Internet Lines: 50 Approved: love-hounds@eddie.mit.edu Really-From: Mark Katsouros > Date: Wed, 21 Jan 87 11:40:40 cst > From: hsu@uicsrd.CSRD.UIUC.EDU (William Tsun-Yuk Hsu) > > Sorry, I can't let that go without a comment. I was quite underwhelmed > :-) when I first heard Keith Emerson's Piano Concerto 8 years ago, > and I still am now. It's no more than an uninspired smorgasbord of > early 20th century classical piano cliches, notably Prokofiev. > > Emerson is a superb technician, and ELP has written some fine songs, > but that concerto is a sterling example of the faults of early '70s > artrock: clinging to old forms without revitalizing them with new > approaches, and presenting hackneyed cliches as original, "respectable" > ideas. I think industrial musicians have done a much better job > of digesting and revitalizing the techniques of experimental music > in the classical tradition. > > [][][][][][][][][][] > > Date: Thu, 22 Jan 87 20:28 PST > From: IED0DXM%UCLAMVS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU > > Well, though IED hates to disagree with Mark, who > usually turns a sympathetic ear to IED's ravings > about KT, he is inclined to agree with Bill's > assessment of Emerson's concerto. Any kind of familiarity > with the real thing will show up the awkwardness > and structural poverty of the Emerson piece. Give me a break. Please. I'm quite familiar with "the real thing", thank you both. And the title of this piece makes it obvious that Emerson is not trying to pass it off as a "new thing", but instead, a performance of the traditional. Hell, Sting literally stole a Sergei Prokofiev theme for his "Russians", but so what? It's a hell of a song. Have you really listened to Emerson's concerto? I mean really listened? That's one complex, nicely done, traditional piece of music. Hell, I wish I could sound a tenth as dramatic on the piano. Perhaps I'm judging the piece from an entirely different perspective. Perhaps I'm overwhelmed by how difficult it seems to play such a piece. Just listen to the layers in the second movement. And have you listened to Lake's "Closer To Believing"? It's got some of the prettiest, most poetic lyrics, combined with the same sort of "drama" found in Emerson's concerto. Sure, it's no Kate, but that album is one intense accomplishment as far as this listener is concerned. Mark Kat(e)souros "Lay your heart upon the table And in the shuffling of dreams Remember who on earth you are"