No Thanks
Dear Amazon.com Customer,
We've noticed that customers who have purchased or rated Study of Orchestration, Third Edition by Samuel Adler have also purchased Music Composition For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) by Scott Jarrett. For this reason, you might like to know that Music Composition For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) will be released on February 5, 2008. You can pre-order yours at a savings of $7.04 by following the link below.
So now I’m even being condescended to by automated emails! Besides that, I ordered the Adler book like three years ago. What gives?
I should email back with an offer for Demographics for Dummies.
posted by the warrior bard at 11:45 AM
9 Comments:
Or perhaps they are suggesting that Samuel Adler's book on orchestration is for dummies?
I've met the guy. Hell, I had lunch with just him and one other person. He had some good points, some bad points, and some unfounded points. And a few comments that kind of discredited his opinions on, say, John Williams. I guess I still have yet to meet someone whose advice is all roses. Everybody's human. That is to say, everybody is full of shit to some extent.
All I know is that Sam Adler left a sour taste in my soul, but he also had some encouraging words.
Friday, January 25, 2008 12:36:00 PM
I got the same e-mail today.
I wish I had something more clever to say but that's it.
I don't know Sam Adler the music or the man so I'll leave it at that.
Friday, January 25, 2008 4:42:00 PM
He gets away with some of the things he writes simmply because he is who he is. I absolutely hate that professional catch 22. He has some good stuff, though. His orchestration book is supposedly filled with blatant errors, depending on who you ask. He was actually pretty controversial at BG, now that I think about it. A lot of performers hated him and thought he was a hack who should never have been allowed to write a book on orchestration. A lot of people think he's fantastic and a master of colors.
[Aside: Regardless of whether he pisses you off, he's a hell of a nice guy. And that goes a long way in my book, because I'm tired of dicks like Morton Feldman who curse and humiliate their performers (that is when they're not an hour late because they were out drinking with prostitutes, which actually did happen). I respect those who are deserving of respect--those who act like a guest composer should act.]
Sam Adler's advice to all composers could be distilled into this:
Just compose for your local community, and don't worry about getting published or being famous. Just write for your friends.
I buy into that to a very limited extent. I don't particularly have strong feelings about the man or the music one way or the other. So I guess we're done here.
Friday, January 25, 2008 8:33:00 PM
Well, if you got the email too, maybe it's a sign. We should each buy a copy of the book.
...just in case we run out of toilet paper during the zombie apocalypse.
Friday, January 25, 2008 8:34:00 PM
Good point about the zombies.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:34:00 PM
I seem to recall we played a piece by Adler in the band at BGSU, and the tuba parts were really hard and kind of terrible to play. That annoyed me on principle and also because of the famous book, but eventually I worked it out, and the writing was actually really good for a BBb tuba - I just happened to be trying to make it work on a CC. Which introduces another whole layer he could have worked out - would people who played music at this level really play a BBb tuba? (By my gross generalized estimates, college kids tend to play CC tubas, but if I were in a pro band, I'd probably opt for BBb because, well, that's what band music tends to be written for, so I guess he made the logical call there.) So that gave me something to think about. I was grudgingly glad in the end that he decided my instrument could handle some of the complicated and difficult stuff. And also I'm glad to hear that he's nice.
I've got some really bizarre correlation-type emails from amazon too. Sometimes it seems like half my email comes from them. And the other half comes from Babies R Us.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008 3:47:00 PM
Samuel Adler was the most disarmingly affable guest composer ever. Somehow humble, too.
BUT. Yeah. Performers seem to have their reservations about his credibility. Nate Oshaben was most vocal about his... um... disenfranchisement.
Allah help anyone who publishes a book on orchestration.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:48:00 AM
I don't bother with books on orchestration. Come to think of it, I don't actually own one. Nope. I take that back. I have a really old (and therefore varying degrees of usefulness) copy of Kent Kennan's orchestration book. But I never use it. My library of scores is a far better orchestration manual because you get to see how it gets played out in the real world.
Additionally, having the score means you can learn other things, like solving compositional problems such as structure and form.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 10:08:00 AM
Yeah, my orchestration books were a waste of money, and I almost never even open them.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 12:30:00 PM
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