Classical Music, Philosophy, and Zombies - The man named Guy M. Duker is a jack ass...

Classical Music, Philosophy, and Zombies My name is David. You may not believe this, but despite popular belief I was born as a baby. It took me approximately 9 months to develop fully enough for my lungs, heart, and brain to operate independently within my mothers womb. At this point I decided enough was enough, it's time to start my life. As I emerged from my mothers vagina I remember thinking, "What is this place?" "Who are all these people wearing brightly colored loose clothing?" They wrapped me up in a towel and immediately began to wash off the afterbirth that I had become very close too in the previous nine months. I was sad to see it go, but I knew it was for the best, it was time to move on. I quickly became infatuated with the music of Beethoven, the philosophical ideas of Frederick Nietzsche, and was overcome by the worries and stress of knowing the future devastation caused by the worlds main enemy... the Zombie.

21 years later, I've developed this blog dedicated to my own personal holy trinity, Classical Music, Philosophy, and Zombies.

Aug17

The man named Guy M. Duker is a jack ass…

2 years ago

You probably have no idea who Guy M. Duker is, but trust me, he’s a jack ass.

He is the man who transcribed Paul Hindemith’s Mathis Der Maler for Wind Band. I’ll admit, that it’s a pretty good transcription and follows the original very well. But my problem with it is, it never should have been done!

I am a bit of a music purist, some may think that’s a bad thing, but I don’t care. There are just some things that should not be done. Things like playing the Tchik Violin Concerto on Trumpet, or playing a Bach Cello Suite on banjo. Mathis Der Maler is one of them!

Now, I’m not against all band transcriptions, there are many that are quite alright. Bands can play anything by Bach, Brahms, Mozart, lots of people, hell, even Beethoven is ok. I say that because all of that older stuff was written before the wind band existed, therefor maybe possibly Beethoven wanted to write the Eroica symphony for something like a wind band, but he didn’t have that choice so he choose an orchestra. But Hindemith did have that choice! He’s even written for band before he wrote Mathis Der Maler, most notably Symphony for Band in Bb. He knows what the band sound is, and if he wanted that band sound in Mathis Der Maler, HE WOULD HAVE WRITTEN IT FOR BAND!!!! But he didn’t… So… You shouldn’t play it in a band…

So, to Mr. Duker. If you ever happen to see this blog, FUCK YOU! You’re a jack ass! Mathis Der Maler is an amazing orchestral piece, and you’ve ruined it.