[Leica] LUG Digest, Vol 46, Issue 115

[bs.pearce at cox.net (Bill Pearce)]

> I had the quote about the negative is the score and the print the
> performance on my desk a few weeks ago I have this in mine often but also
> have in the back in my mind that in classical music the definitive
> recording
> to get of most modern serious pieces of music is not the one with the
> composer of the score conducting. Its almost always someone else. And
quite
> a few composers are not well thought of as interpreters of their own work.
> This might have minimal bearing on the photography market. 

Glad to see this comment. As one who received a degree in music performance
(apparently that's one of the things that can qualify you to make a living
as a photographer), I remember well professors laughing out loud at the
performances conducted by some composers. It was a piece of general wisdom
that composers were poor conductors, but things may have changed along with
attitudes that pop and jazz musicians must play only original material, a
regretable trend that was brought home last week when I heard a live
performance by Norah Jones.

Composing and Conducting are entirely separate skills. Just as one would not
want a tooth pulled by a gynecologist, one should recognise that shooting
photographs and printing them are two entirely different skills. I suspect
that, as the teaching of jazz performance has become a large part of college
courses, with the attendant loss of quality, so it will happen now that
photographer-made prints are going to bring down the overall quality of
prints.

Bill Pearce