[Trombone-l] Church music, tbn solos

[Robert Holland]

We're going farther afield from the discussion of trombone-related 
issues. Read on if you desire.

Chris Tune wrote:

> What you need to analyze in order to have some FACTUAL basis to work 
> with is an instance in history where something similar has happened.  
> Then you can look at the beginning, middle and end result of the 
> similar change. You should look at the history of Telegraphy, Radio 
> and Movies, and TV.

[snipped]

Interesting observations. I kept waiting for you to use the word 
"telephony." The case of folks who believed that telegraphy would never 
be replaced is instructive.

> I'm not advocating panic, here, but I'd certainly suggest that 
> businesses in these industries (persons publishing brass music, 
> strictly on paper) get to know what is going on and truly pay 
> attention to the trends and the way stuff actually is occuring.  Who 
> knows, if you keep your eyes and ears open you may spot a great 
> opportunity somewhere.

You make this recommendation as though no one, in fact, is paying 
attention. I doubt that is the case in most any industry, though there 
will be some who inevitably miss the boat. For instance, in the energy 
industry, big oil is definitely working on developing the replacement 
for fossil fuels. They know their days are numbered (though no one 
knows for sure what the number is). Family farmers also know how their 
work and livelihoods are affected by industrial farms. The rise of the 
farmers' market and the niche supplier of heirloom and organic veggies 
and free-range poultry are notable adjustments. I know for myself that 
I would adopt a different production/distribution model for print music 
if I thought it worthwhile. But as yet, the options available are aimed 
at the consumer of cheap (or free), low-quality products. They are not 
my market. Technology may change, as with telegraphy to telephony, but 
not just yet in the case of print music.

You apparently write within the context of entrepreneurship and 
business. That's fine. But to fully adopt that context is also to fully 
adopt the need to market (advertise), which you observe is a 
substantial cost of operating a business. Frankly, I don't want to be 
one of those guys screaming for attention for what I'm doing. It's 
anathema to the taste and restraint I've struggled to develop in life. 
That undoubtedly means that any success I might have is diminished. 
That's a worthy trade-off for me. YMMV

Also, I think from within the context of what's sometimes called "media 
ecology." In communication theory, there are some fairly serious 
implications for the information environment we function in. Some media 
forms I'll have nothing to do with, as I have come to recognize how 
destructive they are to the worldview I choose to have. The man on the 
street is probably more likely to allow access to everything, which 
means the infiltration of his thinking by those with various agendas, 
mostly selling something. If you want your mind colonized by 
advertisers, keep watching TV, reading the newspaper, listening to 
radio, etc. Children are especially susceptible to advertising jingles 
but don't know what to make of an art song. There are alternatives.

One final thing: the following is a quote from Neil Postman's book 
"Teaching as a Conserving Activity." The term "conservation" is this 
sense is the ecological idea of managing resources wisely, not the 
political idea of reducing behavioral options (or whatever you think 
political conservatism means).

"To oversimplify more than is probably justified, we might say that (1) 
because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, 
different media have different intellectual and emotional biases; (2) 
because of the accessibility and speed of their information, different 
media have different political biases; (3) because of the physical 
form, different media have different sensory biases; (4) because of the 
conditions in which we attend to them, different media have different 
social biases; (5) because of the technical and economic structure, 
different media have different content biases."

It's a difficult complex ideas, to be certain. It's about media 
ecology. But it also informs my thinking about why high-quality print 
publication (specifically including covers and binding) is preferred to 
low-quality personal printing from PDF or various electronic display 
forms currently being developed and advocated for.

Robert Holland, Publisher
Briar Music Press
briar at rcn.com
www.briarmusic.com