Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: a provocative question

From:J Y S Czhang <czhang23@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 1, 2003, 10:27
en mem0 2003 KE/4208 sijn0 : 03: 31 12:32:03 PM/g0g0, Jonathan
(j_knibb@HOTMAIL.COM)  graeffii:

>A provocative question that occurred to me just now: > >If Zamenhof was the J. S. Bach of conlangers ... >(founding father of modern conlanging, created for use as well as >beauty, high value on logical structure)
Oh don't be sexist... St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) is the Bach in this kind of conlang metaphor IMHO... & I definitely count her as a "modern." She was waaay ahead of her time - like Di Vinci. Zamenhof was more the Rachminov ;)
>...and Tolkien was the Mozart of conlangers... >(appeal to technical and lay audiences, elevated common features to >high art)
No no... Latino Sine Flexione's Giuseppe Peano is the Mozart. Tolkien is the adventurous pastoralist Percy Granger (I was gonna say Britten... but that just doesn't sound right). Volapuk's Schleyer is conlanging's Beethoven (both were deaf ;). Klingon's Okrand is the Wagner. Novial's Jesperson is Debussy. James Joyce is Satie. Dada's Hugo Ball is Hugo Ball. Gestuno's USC/WFD (Unification of Signs Commission of the World Federation of the Deaf) is the Marcel Duchamp [Duchamp composed _some_ music before chess became his overwhelming obsession] Basic English's Ogden is the neo-classicist Hindemith. Interlingua's IALA (International Auxilary Language Ass'n) is the elitist Milton Babbitt. Interglossa's Lancelot Hogben & Herman Miller tie for the mystical, nature-loving Messiaen. Glosa's Wendy Ashby and Ron Clark is the idealistic and dogmatic Karlheinz Stockhausen. gloneo's rusel jaque is the "poet of chance operations" John Cage. Zengo's Richard Harrison is the "master of musical cultural blending" Lou Harrison (Dirk!, thanx for comparing me to Harrison - er, Lou Harrison. BTW I am not quite that fond of Esperanto as Lou Harrison was) Vorlin's Richard Harrison & Tepa's Dirk E. tie for the microtonalist Harry Partch. Whoever came up with Eurolengo is the all-too-visible minimalist Philip Glass. " " " " NeoSanskrit is the all-too-invisible minimalist Terry Riley. " did GeaVakKrit is the understated, masterful minimalist La Monte Young. Maggel's Christophe Grandsire is both the stochastically scientific Xenakis and the wildly schizo-musical John Zorn. Teonaht's Sally Caves is the semi-reclusive, aesthetically elegant infrasound composer MaryAnne Amacher.
>...with which composer would you identify yourself?
g0miileg0's Hanuman Zhang is both the musical culture-mutator Tan Dun and the "hyper, UberDada of Dutch free jazz improvisation" Han Bennick ;) --- Hanuman Zhang €º°`°º€ø,¸¸,ø€º°`°º€ø,~-> "In the beginning was noise - raw sound, the seed sound, the One, _Nada Brahma_, the Big Bang. And noise begat rhythm. And rhythm begat everything else. And thus the Dance began. Rhythm and noise. There is ter- ror in noise, and in that terror there is also power." - adapted from writings by Mickey Hart "I have the feeling that the English word 'noise' has more negative connotations than our German word 'Gerausch'. We would describe the sound of wind blowing as Gerausch, to imply that it's a beautiful and natural sound. It's so stupid when people say that instead of making beautiful sounds, I make noise...I like these sounds and this has nothing to do with 'anti-beauty'" - Helmut Lachenmann = diff3rrenzii ent3ra kak0 aen mjuuzika semii-tem paen en juu kaepii. = (Difference between noise and music semi-time all in you head) Sometimes the difference between noise and music is all in your head NADA BRAHMA - Sanskrit, "sound [is the] Godhead" LILA - Sanskrit, "divine play/sport/whimsy" - "the universe is what happens when God wants to play" - "joyous exercise of spontaneity involved in the art of creation" "If you're going to explore uncharted territory, it's okay to carry a compass, but not a map." - Derek Bailey "...improvisation is about change, about flux rather than stasis. ... you have to be aware of the fact that improvisation is about a constant change." - Steve Beresford "I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones." - John Cage "Ride music beam back to base." - William S. Burroughs improvvisazione liquida, sospesa temporalmente e profondamente "aliena"

Replies

Wesley Parish <wes.parish@...>
Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>