Originally posted by Chanak
@fable & CE: Have either of you heard of the Classical guitarist David Tanenbaum? I heard a sample of his work years ago, and I was taken by his technical brilliance and subtle mastery of tone and harmonics. The sample in question was a transcription of one of Scarlatti's works for the harpsichord, which sounded quite dynamic and lively on the guitar. I am curious if he is still around...and if he is, are there any recordings of his work available?
I agree: he's an excellent guitarist, though I don't often encounter his performances. Sadly, few guitarists are represented by major record labels. Tanenbaum also focuses a lot of his recording efforts on modern experimental composers, rather than on the more traditionally appreciated Rennaissance and Hispanic music associated with the guitar. He has his own webpage, which you can access
here.
I developed an interest in classical music during my youth, after picking up the trumpet in elementary school band. Since I wasn't inundated in an environment rich in the tones of the orchestra and the works of the great composers, I of course never delved too deeply since I lacked any formal instruction beyond what is taught in the public schools. In retrospect, I would like to see this change. I think music as a whole would benefit from a more solid foundation in the discipline and structure that is the earmark of classical music and performance. Many of the most skilled and brilliant pop musicians, for example, received classical training at some point in their lives (such as the late Randy Rhoads).
And Frank Zappa, who (rightly, IMO) looked down on many rock musicians as untrained musical amateurs that got by on pretty-boy features and electronics. Zappa was not merely a thoroughly trained classical musician, but a fine experimental composer and theorist. He realized that music was music, and paid little attention to labels.
As to classical training in schools: ain't gonna happen, but I completely agree with you.
Public schools for the most part in the US are viewed as a place to dump your kids for a number of years so they can finally get jobs, while you and your spouse live your lives. Teachers are usually paid a pittance and in turn taught poorly. The entire process deadens creativity, rather than stimulates it.
A model of what can be done with a music sub-curriculum in public schools is the Kodaly Method, which I've mentioned before. Evolved by the great Hungarian composer and educator Zoltan Kodaly, it has been used successfully in Hungarian schools since the early 1950s, and in select areas of Europe outside Hungary since the 1960s--after Kodaly-trained children's choirs started winning all the awards at international competitions. In essence, Kodaly believed that children should be taught music in a systemized manner from very early in life, much like a second language. This follows upon some of the studies that CE has discussed in SYM, about the enormous, usually wasted potential for learning in young children.
It's not surprising that Hungary today has a remarkable variety of classical, jazz and folk musicians, all of whom were given a solid grounding in classical techniques thanks to the Kodaly Method. Over the years I've picked up a number of choral albums by groups located in the Hungarian equivalent of small towns. Without exception, they were as well trained and musical as the Cambridge Choir.
And folk groups like Muzsikas or Taltos and rock/world groups such as Ghymes show a broad knowledge of musical culture that, just like Zappa, breaks down the boundaries between "high" and "low" culture.
