[Leica] Thanks to BD and John Szarkowski

[masonster at gmail.com (David Mason)]

I can't deny your argument here though I would have to think about it
some more. Certainly someone like Mozart didn't need to study and
learn rules to make him who he was (if we are to believe the stories)
but we do start treading into the whole argument of classical being
some higher artform instead of just another way of expressing music...
and we certainly don't need to do that, I can tell you understand this
by your clever use of quotes :)

As an aside, I remember my freshman music theory teacher talking about
how he could tell that John Lennon and Paul McCartney understood
theory even though they chose not to use "high brow tricks". To a
young rock and roller sitting in a formal music school that was the
direct path to my heart. But again, with the music analogy we start
getting into other debates and my theory teacher had better stories
anyway - especially the one about the cello player who was told by a
conductor to quit "scratching that thing between her legs".


Cheers,

Dave

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 12:09:03 -0500, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@earthlink.net> 
wrote:
> I think they only thing we differ on is that I believe that even if one
> has the 'gift,' the 'rules' are necessary to produce music in a serious,
> meaningful way - particularly if we are talking about 'classical' music;
> I don't believe that a studied mastery, or even knowledge of the 'rules'
> is necessary if one has that 'gift' when it comes to photography, or
> most other visual arts. It may well be, however, that having the gift
> involves producing work that in some ways looks as though the person
> knows the rules. After all, the 'rules' were developed by critics,
> scholars if you will, who 'knew good art when they saw it.' :-)
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org 
> [mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org ] On Behalf Of
> David Mason
> Sent: Monday, February 21, 2005 11:13 AM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Thanks to BD and John Szarkowski
> 
> It absolutely makes sense. In many ways I think we are saying some of
> the same things. If he will allow me, I will pick on Ted for a moment. I
> think there is no doubt in anyone's mind that Ted has "the gift" so much
> so that no explanation is required to further that point. I was lucky
> enough to get a copy of a detailed sheet Ted wrote up about his "Women
> in Medicine" book which described the process, technical and otherwise.
> As much as Ted "just shoots" (which I in no way doubt) this sheet is
> full of wonderful "rules" like shooting from the shadow side. Ted also
> took the time to point out some of the photos in which certain rules
> were used.
> 
> Now I'm not trying to call Ted a liar for his earlier email which pushed
> rules to the background because I am sure that his talent is enough that
> if he thinks about shooting from the shadow side one day while in the
> shower he will naturally start doing so the next time he is shooting -
> consciously or not.
> 
> And here is where my experience with music comes in. I have (maybe
> had) "the gift" but I cannot tell you the amazing amount of rules I
> learned. Were those rules as important as my own ear when performing?
> Absolutely not! However, those rules were there to fall back on when
> sitting in a tiny practice room trying to figure out what the composer
> meant, how to compose one of my own pieces, or how to simply get past a
> hard part. The rules help, and I think its important to learn them but
> no, they cannot replace the "gift".
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Dave
> 
> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 10:14:50 -0500, B. D. Colen <bdcolen@earthlink.net >
> wrote:
> 
> > Does any of that makes sense? :-)
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