Interesting article. Thanks for sharing the link, Kirk.
While I can understand the (profit-motivated) desire to make great-sounding instruments repeatably (and inexpensively) manufacturable, taking human skill and craft out of the equation is lamentable. This probably falls into the category of things we might be able to do, but shouldn't.
"This probably falls into the category of things we might be able to do, but shouldn't."
on the other hand there are plenty of kids in the world who might turn out to be brilliant violinists, but we'll never know with the current price of entry where it is.
there's a reason this generation's musical culture has moved from piano and violin lessons to turntables. it's not degeneracy, it's money.
Paul, I don't think it's just money. Playing the violin or the piano takes a lot of grind and effort to reach a stage of mere competence. These days the opportunity cost of dedicating that much of your leisure time to a single persuit is unattractive to many at any price. Then there's the general move away from making your own entertainment to simply consuming it. Given a choice between listening to my redition of "Killing me softlly" and the Fugees' I think even the most die-hard Roberta Flack fan would take the latter, even if my version strives to be closer to the original. If you can have the world's best musicians in your living room, why settle for me?
FWIW I too have a huge respect for craft. My first loves in the arts are applied and industrial, particularly ceramics and glass, and I have never understood the lofty distain with which the fine arts regard those supposedly lower down the scale. Stonemasons, potters, weavers and woodcarvers all seem to be able to elicit the same response in me that painters and sculptors do, so my own personal pantheon is a very inclusive one. But eclectic inclusiveness is not how the art world operates, and neither is it how canonical histories are compiled. I don't think I am just pushing a truism about cliquishness and fashion in the arts; I think there is a fundamental difference between a good violin and a good photograph.
One of the things I liked in the original article is how it explicitly stated that 'good' is a matter of taste, even within the constraints of violin making. You don't have to be a Hardanger Fiddle afficionado (or Viola D'Amore if you want to stay classical) to recognise that the same amount of skill can go into the construction of very different instruments. Even Strads have been physically altered during their lifetime to switch from the gut-stringed baroque to the romantic concert sound: it is fascinating that they are still regarded as 'best' even when rebuilt to make a completely different noise.
Paul - I guess what I was lamenting was the trend toward trying to simulate craft via computer for mass marketing versus encouraging human-based craft. I see that as a parallel to the difference between computer-generated/enhanced prints and traditional printing methods, perhaps with a few sprinkles from the discussion of print pricing. Sociologists looking at the instant-gratification generation might have interesting insights, as well.
Obviously, economics plays a major role. It's tough to garner interest in a young person to learn a craft if they compare income potential - especially in a world-trade environment. Thus, U.S. or European kids may be more likely to go into marketing so-called third-world products, or get a job with a mega-company trying to synthesize traditional analog quality. That effort might not be needed, though, because the music needs only to sound OK on an iPod, anyway. ;-)
On the photographic front, given sufficient computer power, a random tree-generator program might eventually rival Ansel (rocks and mountains are even easier than trees). Thus, we'd no longer need photographers and we'd no longer need to "be there", either. Then, we could close down Yosemite, and let the park rangers get jobs as Walmart greeters. ;-)
Struan - if you were to record your version of "Killing Me Softly" I'm sure it could be spruced-up digitally, so you'd sound almost like the original. ;-)
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