I thought Baz's attempts at solutions for the Rzewski extract unworthy of anything other than a bland response. As attempts at humour, they don't really cut the mustard, do they?
While agreeing totally with Moderator Dough's comments, I am really quite amazed to discover that the setter of the Rzewski snatch actually considered my responses as 'attempts at solutions' to it (and I feel relieved rather than surprised that at least one composer among us (HH) felt empowered to see them as humorous).
The sorry turn this thread has taken started with queries as to what constituted 'repertoire', but soon became inflamed (and went out of control) when remarks started getting personal. The problem started with the following posting...
Just because a work falls out side the limited repertoire of one or two (again the same two) members here, does not mean it falls out side the repertoire of others.
Just for the records I would like to state that I take exception to this remark.
A
The specific point of A's objection was the words 'again the same two', which suggested that A and Baz were (as they had been adjudged a few months back on another thread) viewed as some kind of 'Gang of Two'. I also had difficulty with this, and for that reason have not contributed (until now) further. The reality is very different: both A and I work
completely independently and have no idea what the other is posting. I rarely know her snatches, and she rarely mine. On occasions when either of us does know the other's, we both deliberately do NOT post responses (because we are aware of a widespread misconception that we work in collusion with each other, which we never do).
There have been some postings by others, too, that suggest the assumption that we are working together as a 'Gang of Two'. One of Bryn's postings to A (earlier in this thread) actually mentioned the instance of the Mozart K297b snatch - which was, of course, one of the snatches I posted (not A). Now we are both quite independent members - some of our views on things are similar, and some are not. As independent people we (not surprisingly) react differently to a common problem: while I tend to withdraw and think things through carefully before responding, A tends to take things a little more emotionally and react impulsively (I hope you don't mind my saying this A, but I think it is true!).
With regard to the 'repertoire' question, I would not presume to declare what
should constitute repertoire - indeed one of the really fascinating things about the Test thread has been to learn about what to me are NEW pieces, and to see how these fit into the notions that others quite legitimately have of what to them constitutes 'repertoire'. Rzewski's music is by no means foreign to me, and I in no way have a dislike for it. But the snatch offered was unrecognizable, not only to me but also to everybody else. Indeed the eventual "solver" only arrived at the answer following the setter's unambiguous identification of the actual recording and even then declared that even he had never previously heard the piece. (Anybody could have come up with the correct answer with a simple bit of googling after that!).
Anyway, if my attempts at humour fell short of requirements I must apologise (especially as no insults were intended at all - just an expression of mystified exasperation that anything of substance could be gleaned from such a snatch, taken - as it had to be - out of its surrounding context). I am sure (though I cannot and would not speak for her) that A, too, feels sorry that some of the things she wrote inflamed the situation further (is this true A?). I should advise, however, that any further careless postings that paint the two of us as joint members of a 'Gang' will not only be factually incorrect, but likely (again) to start a round of postings that go out of control.
We are NOT, and have no wish to be!I do hope that we can all now put this behind us, remain friends, enjoy each others' MB company, and (above all) continue to enjoy the wonderful thread that Mr Grew invented for all our shared delights.
I shall certainly try to do that.
Best wishes to all,
Baz
