Letters

Is Virtuosity Dead?

Jon Appleton's September cover story, "The Computerization of Music," is indicative of the unfortunate attitude of many so-called "pioneers" of electronic music. What Mr. Appleton overlooks when he boasts that "music technology has made the search for virtuosity meaningless" is that music is not just a certain amount of notes on a page or a melange of interesting sounds. A great musician is not merely one who plays faster than everyone else.

Music is a form of communication, a means of expression. How can a machine impart love or anger to its audience? The sound of a huge door playing a scale is, intellectually, intriguing. But that huge door, or any computer, will never be able to tell us human beings what it feels like when a loved one dies, or the complex emotions Beethoven felt when he learned of his impending deafness. Therein lies music, Mr. Appleton.

One "live " performance on so-called "traditional" instruments is never exactly the same as the next. This is not merely because of different tempi, different acoustics of the hall, or even different sounds produced by the instruments. It is because behind those instruments are living, breathing human beings, capable of a range of emotions that no computer will ever understand .

From the standpoints of management and organization, the symphony orchestra will be required to make adjustments in the future, but anyone who has waited in line for tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, almost always sold out, realizes that music produced by human beings is not dead.

Charlottesville, VA.

Jon Appleton's story contains several jarring elements, particularly at a time when Dartmouth's new president is emphasizing the importance of a liberal arts education.

Never have I read such a gleeful account of people losing employment, pianos disappearing from the American scene, orchestras and bands disintegrating, and virtuosity rendered "meaningless." And one of Appleton's students writes, "You come out of his course wondering how 'Your Cheatin' Heart' sounds on bagpipes." What a wonderful culmination of a musical education at Dartmouth College.

Appleton starts his article with the phenomenon of a singing ocean. Some 30 years ago Alvino Rey plugged in the voice of one of the King sisters and made his guitar sing just like Appleton's ocean. One might be tempted to remark, "big deal."

Appleton concludes his article by saying that "amateur composers have unprecedented opportunities" and that "musical technology has made the search for virtuosity meaningless (who cares how fast and flawlessly you can play a keyboard instrument when a computer can do it better)?" Putting aside the unforgivable arrogance of these silly statements, one must recognize the attitude of the amateur (and that of the punk and hard rock genre): fast and loud make music better.

Are we about to stop going to concerts to hear people like Heifetz or Perlman give their interpretation of a musical work because a computer can play it faster? Three hundred years of the development of the art of music is dismissed with the statement that virtuosity is meaningless.

And Appleton laments that our colleges do not provide lessons in electric guitar, which he calls one of the "instruments of our time." It should be pointed out that the electric guitar is played just like the acoustic guitar, and if one aspires to play like Segovia electrification can't replace years of instruction and practice.

One personal aside into musical mathematics. It seems only yesterday (actually, 1938) that Glenn Miller tried to talk me into studying arranging and composition with Joseph Schillinger, who had arrived in New York announcing that he could use numbers to write better fugues than Bach. (The world has yet to hear one.) Tommy Dorsey, who was not careless with a buck, offered to pay for our lessons if Axel Stordahl and I would augment our arranging ability by studying with the man. Ax and I said no thanks, Tommy's band didn't seem to suffer, and Glenn Miller's biggest instrumental were written by musicians to whom a square root was something corny.

Appleton completely ignores the element known as talent! Buy a synthesizer and you're a success. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. Machines will never replace dedication, practice, and knowlege diligently acquired-let alone talent. Let's not let Dartmouth College be put in the embarrassing position of endorsing the view that virtuosity is dead, talent is unimportant, and a machine can make an amateur into Rachmaninoff or Jerome Kern.

Los Angeles, California

Jon Appleton Replies:

The problems of musical expression are the same for composers and performers today whether the "machines" they use are pianos or computers. The opportunities for musicians, and for that matter office workers, are significantly better today if they are familiar with digital technology. I do not agree with Mr. Weston that amateur musicians necessarily think that "fast and loud make better music." Of course, talent is important and it is discovered and developed by encouraging musical amateurs, including Dartmouth undergraduates.

Disgraceful Innuendo

In your summer issue, some readers expressed disagreement with Professor Jeffrey Hart's views. They have that right. Disturbingly, however, some readers took their disagreements too far by connecting Professor Hart through innuendo with Nazism. What a disgrace! I have known Jeff Hart for ten years and known him to be a man who firmly upholds the tenets of western civilization, especially the rule of law enacted by democratic process.

Thank goodness there are a few Jeff Harts to introduce some alternative points of view to the liberal dogma which dominates our universities. His classes are always oversubscribed, I am told, and that speaks highly of his professional abilities. His writings as a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to the National Review, of which he is an editor, are widely read and highly respected. A number of youngsters whom he took under his wing at Dartmouth have served in my Senate office, where they were among the most wholesome and dedicated young men and women on Capitol Hill.

To be sure, Professor Hart is conservative and, inevitably, not everyone will agree with his views. It is distressing to see some of your readers, who should know better, stoop to demagoguery and name-calling that are beneath the dignity of Dartmouth graduates. They only confirm the indictments of academia by Allan Bloom in his recent book, The Closing of the AmericanMind.

United States Senator Washington, D.C.

Issueless Issues

I feel I must add one more voice of welcome to President Freedman and encourage all efforts to dissipate the tensions dividing the College. Of great concern to me are certain alumni who may contribute to the weakening of that reasonable sense of community that once distinguished Dartmouth as a college.

Dartmouth should be more than a political action committee, or a minority rights movement or a series of demonstrations by impassioned groups attempting to assert their will on an embarrassed community.

I therefore question the use of Ernest Martin Hopkins' name to support students who wield sledgehammers to express their point of view. Has a Dartmouth education been corrupted to a conflict between "obnoxious liberals" and "violent conservatives"? Will Dartmouth's future inevitably include ugly political contests between black and white, male and female, administration, faculty and students?

Those who never demonstrate, never protest, and pursue education rather than an assertion of ideology are unrepresented. There is no alumni foundation supporting the truly independent student's effort to think for themselves unswayed by intellectual mob action.

Nor should there be.

What Dartmouth needs is less and not more organized political activity. Encouraging independence of thought, devoid of bigotry, free of "liberal" cant and "conservative" zeal, would be welcomed by the many saddened alumni for whom the Dartmouth tradition of good will among open minds is more than just a memory.

Guilford, Connecticut

What a lot of headless egomaniacs we Dartmouth alums must seem to the casual reader of our magazine. My father, a conservative Catholic who would put Michael Novak to shame, went to Notre Dame, where they publish a magazine with articles on divorce, AIDS, and other important issues, as well as accounts of student life and so forth. Here at Dartmouth, we squabble about college symbols and the Review. How long will this magazine carry the epistles of the disgruntled and counter-disgruntled?

Never was I able to arrogate to myself in good faith the authority to say what the "REAL DARTMOUTH" is. That's the whole question. Is it an institution, an idea, the soul of Hoppy-ism? Before this ridiculous blather goes on any longer, we had better decide what this Dartmouth we're talking about might be.

But we'll never do that, because, for one thing, Jeff Hart never spent as much time in the Zeta Psi basement as I did. And I never did care that much for F. Scott Fitzgerald, or build a shack on the Green. What is clear is no alumnus has a right to prescribe its attributes, and that it doesn't matter, because we really have no power to do so.

I think we've all wasted enough breath on some of these issueless issues. Let's spend this space on something worth our while. Until the various elements of this community learn to treat one another with a little more forbearance and charity, the school doesn't deserve to have a symbol (except maybe a Chimera) or official anthem. If the Reviewites bug you, dump their fliers in the trash, stay home from their events, don't deign to answer their allegations, gently turn the subject to Wade Boggs or acid rain, and definitely floss more often if you're inclined.

I figure the quiet people at Dartmouth must be recking that famous tiller while the would-be navigators pull one another's noses. Could be they don't care as much, could be they care more. Could be I might someday feel comfortable leaving this magazine on the coffee table when Dad drops by.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

We will continue to publish nearly every letterthat expresses an opinion, however silly. In themeantime, the editors fervently share Mr. Collins' hope that pettiness and name-calling willeventually give way to reasoned (if heated) discussion of serious issues.-Ed.

Alarming Statements

We presume that The Hopkins Bulletin has been mailed to all alumni.

In this bulletin there are some alarming statements about affairs on campus, college rules, and "news" most unfavorable to the college we knew.

Is this all true?

We sincerely hope that the College will soon answer these many charges.

Falmouth, Massachusetts

See the Special Report on page 18 of this issuefor a partial answer. Because this magazine'seditorial content is independent of the Collegeadministration, however, we do not presume togive an official response to any charges. Ed.

Girls Grow Up

In the September Letters, Eddie O'Brien '43 recalls an encounter he had with several Dartmouth students, referring to them as "girls." Let me be the first to inform him, and all others of his mentality, that there are no girls at Dartmouth! Female students at the College take pride in being women!

However, Mr. O'Brien did bring up a rather interesting point. I agree with his statement that a "Dartmouth girl has no intention of seeking to change the words of 'Men of Dartmouth.' " He's right. Only a woman has the courage to oppose a song that so blatantly excludes half (okay, nearly half) of the student population at the College.

By the way, I have a riddle for Mr. O'Brien: why is it that boys grow up to be men and girls grow up to be . . . girls? (Any member of the Women's Issues League at Dartmouth will gladly provide the answer.)

Ellenwood, Georgia

Discovery Pomp

Has no one in the government any foresight? On October 12, 1992, the King of Spain will preside over the worldwide celebration of the quincentennial of Columbus's world will join in the pomp and circumstance—except, it appears, Americans.

The Administration seems to be counting on our celebrating the fifth and final year of the Constitutional bicentennial. Exactly none of the officials I have contacted have given the more stupendous occasion any thought. I'm concerned, even downright appalled, by our isolation.

Well, I've tried to get the ball rolling by writing letters to leaders all over this land, most without response. I just have no clout. Maybe the students of Dartmouth can raise the stink necessary to get the American government out of its stupor.

Eugene, Oregon