NOT A SOCIAL DUTY

posted by James Reel

Several people have been e-mailing and even calling me to comment, mostly positively, on my column about deserting the Tucson Symphony. Here are some pertinent remarks from a former professor at one of America's major music schools, quoted anonymously because without permission:

I read your critique of the TSO with great personal interest. I agree that programming could be more creative and inventive. But I wonder whether the innuendos your article contains regarding Conductor Hanson's culpability are only inferred by me, or whether you really believe that to be the case. Perhaps your analyses and critiques should be directed at the Board of Directors (many of whom may be affluent but hardly musical programming experts) and management. How about exploring that avenue? For a number of years are seats at the TSO concerts were next to those of a former president of the symphony board and his wife.If their reactions to programming of symphonic works different from the standard historical repertory are symptomatic of Symphony Board members, it is easy to reach theconcluion why the conductor is unnecessarily hampered by external forces that have nothing to do with the music being performed.. There are many of us who prefer to hear music live. The accoutrements of elaborate headsets and in-the-home sound equipment attempting to emulate the concert hall are undesirable to satisfy our internal and external musical experience. And that is not because of Social Duty. but because music is intended to be heard live, and not to be listened to as a patchwork of "takes" by the latest technological devices to reflect some sound engineer's concept of perfection!