Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Jaws and Star Wars, Before Williams




I hate discovering this stuff. It seems John William's may have lifted a little Dvorak for his ET theme as well.

I know it's not a big deal. But these discoveries take something away for me. Maybe I'm just strange. I've had brief, equally illogic arguments with Colin about photography. For instance, I generally don't like discovering that a photograph has been adjusted or cropped. Personally, a photograph that is composed and exposed beautifully right from the start is somehow more valuable than a photograph that has been tampered.

Meh. There's no accounting for tastes.


4 comments:

SuiginChou said...

I think it gets back to the human desire for genuineness. There are so many seemingly-unrelated examples of this in our society:

- people prefer real diamonds to zircon or even synthetic diamonds, even when they can't tell the difference

- people prefer real boobs to implants, even when (in some cases) they either can't tell the difference or can't get what they want unless they permit implants

- people prefer brand-name cereals and colas, even when they can't tell the difference in a blind taste test

I think that Colin's argument with you over photography would best suit the diamond comparison I made. He insists (perhaps rightly so) that you should accept a syhthetic diamond because there's no way to tell the difference anyway, it's equally as good, etc. And you argue (again, perhaps rightly so) that there is a difference between a synthetic diamond which requires no work and no staggering statistical improbabilities to obtain vs. a natural diamond whose odds of existing (particularly the larger we're talking) are astronomical.

As artists, it sounds like Colin puts genuineness beneath the intrinsic beauty of the art itself; and it sounds like you incorporate genuineness into your assessment of art's worth. I can't say one is right or one is wrong -- I understand both views and find myself tugged between them all the time. And I can't even say (nor do I think either of you should jump to the conclusion) that "genuineness" is necessarily a good or important matter. Maybe it is. And maybe it is not.

fulleju said...

these things go both ways. check out this version of Bartoks viola concerto for 4 viola's. it awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rClh_q7KbpI&feature=related

Dan said...

Jay, have you heard of this guy, Bobby Johnston? His scores are just phenomenal. No synthesized sound and he plays all his own instruments. Check out his score for this documentary (which I never saw), Extra: In the Background of a Dream.

Jay said...

I watched a video on youtube about Bobby Johnson. Really impressive!