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Ian E

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I am a semi-retired Music Lecturer, and I still play the Organ and the Piano regularly, teach a little, compose on occasion, and try to keep physically active. No doubt, as I age, I will become more and more boring. Sorry! I am a fervent pacifist, hence my anti-USA stance in many instances. I favour liberal (NOT with a capital 'l') attitudes to social welfare. I adore Tennis, particularly as played on less predictable surfaces (lawn and clay!). Cycling is a passtime I have recently become interested in. Because, from time to time, I have composed music for cinema, I have an enduring interest in that Art. Because I write songs sometimes, I have an admiration for poetry. At one time I was a good painter in oils, and still hanker for this artistic outlet sometimes! Although I am reasonably intelligent, I am sometimes grumpy and intolerant. Sorry again! At the moment, I am divorced, and quite happy that this is so, I think. I am still quite a romantic.

  • Why is the visible host of the Australian Open Tennis Championship always a citizen of the USA?

    Has Australia nobody that is as 'good' as, e.g., T.Trabert or J. Courier?

    3 AnswersTennis7 years ago
  • Can anyone suggest some successful use of 'Irony' in music composed for cinema?

    Inspired, stimulated, and excited by a recent question by Alberich, I timidly ask this, eager to discover something I have not yet encountered. As a minor contributor to cinema, 'irony', as a potent device, has usually fascinated me.

    The 'Harry Lime Theme' ("The Third Man", about 1951?) is some of the most effective musical contribution I have ever encountered. It is a pleasant, easy-going ditty, played on a zither (of all things!), that subtly lets viewers know that the fearsome villain in in the vicinity.

    [ A 'boom, boom' musical contribution (such as Hollywood would probably use today) would be laughable, surely?]

    This, to me, is a model of the use of ironic music, music inserted to achieve the direct opposite of its apparent mood.

    I call music that reflects what happens on screen 'melodrama', but not in a 'critical' way. 'Irony' is usually music used to shock because of its incongruity.

    I was delighted to discover that Alberich was something of a film lover, and hope that there are others.

    Music, beginning as noise added to the screening of a film to cover the noise made by the projector, has developed into a major ingredient of fine cinema.

    Good cinematic music, however, is rarely noticed when viewing. When you do notice it, it is often inappropriate, often overdone, and rarely helpful to the whole. The cine composer learns to leave his/her ego at home quite quickly.

    (Being an crusty, opinionated old man, I have to say that I would rather call a symphony a 'song' than call a film a 'movie'. Feel free, however, to call it what you will. In my country, Australia, cinematic productions are usually called 'pictures' [pronounced 'pitchas' quite often] or 'films' [pronounced 'fillums' in many cases]. That being so, perhaps 'movies' isn't so bad, after all?)

    2 AnswersClassical1 decade ago
  • Whatever has happened to the reputation of Constant Lambert, or to Aaron Copeland?

    As a youngster, wondering why the USA was so sparsely represented when the nationality of great 20th Century composers was mentioned, I imagined that these two would help to redress the balance somewhat. Only recently I wondered why there is so little veneration of them, and guiltily rebuked myself for losing touch with two composers I admired as a youngster.

    2 AnswersClassical1 decade ago