Posted by Aubrey Foard on May 08, 2001 at 00:36:20:
In Reply to: Contra-Octave in band playing posted by Austin H. on May 03, 2001 at 17:31:29:
A conductor once told me that there are three kinds of people involved in making music: the composer, the conductor, and the musicians. He asked us who mattered the most? A week later, he answered the question: the composer, because his or her music has survived mostly unaltered for perhaps hundreds of years and people keep flooding concert halls to hear it time and time again. Why? I probably couldn't explain it in any amount of technical detail. I like to think that music is magical that way. Sure, we can argue and squabble all we want about how it SHOULD be done, but in the long run, we will probably have little or no effect and the original writings will likely persevere long after we're all dead.