[Dixielandjazz] One person and art

[Dan Augustine]

Fellow artificers--
     What do you think about the following statement: only one person 
can create art.
     The genesis of this idea crept into my wine-enhanced (or, more 
probably, -befuddled) consciousness when someone on a history-channel 
show was talking about the history of science-fiction in books and in 
movies.  It seemed that in each case (admittedly anecdotal), anyone 
who was able to carry through with his original idea to its eventual 
end had a chance to have created something artistic.  The group 
projects were invariably messed with and lacked direction (cf. Robert 
Heinlein's experience-based observation that editors don't like the 
flavor of a work until they've pissed in it).
     How does this relate to dixieland, you have a right to ask?
     Well, in many ways, i respond.  When one person--ONE person, mind 
you--is able to carry through on his (or her) vision for a creative 
act, it has a chance to be art.  Otherwise, it is a camel ("a horse 
designed by a committee" as i think Mark Twain said).
     Not even considering jazz solos, which can be self-evident works 
of art, the original songs as one composer wrote them might be so, 
and canny arrangements of them might infuse life into more dimensions 
of a song than the composer originally envisioned.  Moreover, on a 
more granular (as the computer-wonks are unfortunately fond of 
saying) level, what notes and what feeling YOU play on a particular 
song might make the difference in how someone in the audience 
responds to a song.  Without your individualistic notes, phrasing, 
and feeling, it would be just another "Muskrat Ramble" ho-hum.  But 
with some unexpected flatted notes, perhaps a quotation (usually 
anathema, i know) from Orlando di Lassus, or a 
where-the-hell-did-that-come-from burst of phrase in harmony (and you 
honestly DON'T know where it came from), you and only you make the 
difference in that song.  All progress is made by one person.  And 
tonight, it's you (even if you don't know what you did or where it 
came from).
     That (in part) is live music and jazz.  Pity that it dies as it 
lives, mortality less than a firefly, existing only in the present 
(like mathematics).

     Dan
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas    ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu   **
**    "Thought is a thread of melody running through the succession   **
**     of our sensations." -- Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914)           **
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