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| Roger Sessions (seated right) in 1959, with Douglas Moore (seated left) and (standing left to right) Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Wallingford Riegger, William Schuman, Walter Piston |
That's what history is: the story of everything that needn't have been like that.
CLIVE JAMES, Cultural Amnesia.
If Grandma had a dick, she would have been Grandpa.
A sober response to metaphysical speculations about counterfactuals and possible worlds.
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This is as sentimental as Clive James ever allowed himself to feel on the printed page: A memorable turn of phrase infused with longing for a world where human decisions and subsequent actions - which is what history is ultimately about - are not subject to the tyranny of causal determinism. Alas, so far causal determinism is the only coherent perspective on how the world works, and it tells us that everything happens exactly as it has to, if often not as we wish it had. The latter may give rise to feelings of regret, but to elevate such feelings to the status of 'ontological detectors' of how things might have been is sentimental daydreaming at best.
Still, it is good to know that even a tough Aussie like Clive James can get sentimental about history. For those of us with less armor-plated psyches, this knowledge can be an excuse to whine about the unfairness of history - such as the sad fate of Roger Sessions' symphonies - without having to think of ourselves as hopeless wimps. But since I have done enough of that already, here I only add to the blog another live recording of a Sessions symphony, his Second, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under Andre Previn in December of 1982.
5 comments:
Of course, if everything that happens had to, then "sentimental daydreaming" has to happen too, so there's no point in talking about wimps etc - except, naturally, you either have to mention them or you don't. Then there's actually no "point" in anything one does - we just do it, as psychological features cannot be excepted from the iron law of determinism. And so forth. I am preconditioned to think that I am free to choose, free to change my consciousness in certain respects by reflection, meditation, what you will, just as another is preconditioned to disbelieve this. One might even think of Calvinist predestination here - if one were so fore-doomed.
thank you. when i finally got around to it, i enjoyed the sessions symphony no3 played by the chicago symphony & martinon you posted earlier, and the dissertation. i had not heard a piece by sessions before so you gave me instruction as well as enjoyment and i'm looking forward to this one too. -cheers, a.v.
Your crusade on behalf of Roger Sessions is much appreciated. I still remember a NY Philharmonic broadcast in the late 1950s featuring Tossy Spivakovsky playing Mr. Sessions' violin concerto. That's an earlier, more transitional piece that might prove beneficial in helping people realize the greatness of this composer. Maybe, just maybe, you can dig up that broadcast performance. One other thing: for the life of me, I can't understand why the Black Maskers Suite hasn't entered the general repertoire. Except for Howard Hanson's recording, I know of no other performance. Is there any that you know of?
David,
Sessions' "Black Maskers Suite" was also recorded by the Juilliard Orchestra under Paul Zukofsky by the NEW WORLD RECORDS:
https://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_1080/MI0001/108/MI0001108425.jpg?partner=allrovi.com
I shall look forward not that far -- when free to develop gratitude for the Roger Sessions, which I don't have the quiet time for just now (later today, though!).
As for determinism I sincerely hope that your response to seeing a vehicle moving toward you would be of getting out of the way -- determined or voluntary? Look after your physical health, valuable blogmusician, and our peace of mind will be well served. Lots of silly people have presumed that freedom of choice is refuted by (a) the fact that people can perform various actions in far less time than it would take to deliver a running commentary on them, and then (b) by denying that "recollecting" a course of action must always and dogmatically be dismissed as delusion. How can crediting the delusions (a) and (b) be consistent with listening to and supposing one can hear some of the more subtle and intricate expressive passages in a performance of complex music?
There are people whose grandma had a dick --
had a dick watching grandpa being naughty with another woman --
ask the child of a child of a marriage broken by adultery
ttfn
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