How much do you sing? Publicly? In a choir, or solo? Only at home amongst friends? Only in the car or the shower?
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
A Random Wednesday Conversation Starter
So here’s an intriguing case study in how musical works are affected by the nature of their creation. There is a composer from Japan named Mamoru Samurgoch, whose work has been highly regarded for a number of years. He’s done a lot of very high-profile concert works, as well as provided scores to some highly popular videogames. The quality of his music seems all the more impressive because, like Beethoven, he has been deaf for a number of years.
Here’s is his Symphony No. 1, titled “Hiroshima”:
Last week, though…it turned out that the whole thing is a fraud. Samuragoch revealed that he has been using a ghost composer for years, and that ghost composer has speculated that Samuragoch may not be deaf at all. The whole thing is a mess.
But here’s the question: Do you think this has any effect on the works themselves? This seems to me a different kind of case than, say, my decision to never read Orson Scott Card again because of that author’s odious beliefs. Here, the works themselves are inexorably tied in with the very controversy about them. So what should our reaction be? Forget the works and move on? Scratch Samuragoch’s name off them, relabel them as the work of Takashi Niigaki, and keep on listening?
To me it’s kind of like the old Milli Vanilli controversy. Sure, those two guys were fakes — but somebody had to record that music that a lot of people liked, so should the works themselves just disappear down the scandal memory hole?
What say you?