If by merely quoting - as I did - examples of what others have cited as "difficult pieces" I make it impossible for you to do other than extrapolate from such statements that I have no actual experience in such works and can only "mimic", then so be it; please understand, however, that this is your conclusion and not mine.
Uh oh! You're slipping up sweetheart! Your world of immaculate syntax and circular phrasing is falling apart! Oh noes!! Unfortunately for your argument (which you just repeat over and over) it WAS your conclusion. Let's take a look ^^
"My comment here is based upon the experience of at least two performers who worked with Xenakis."
"my intention was to point out what others have claimed."
"I have personally made no claims about what may or may not qualify as a contender in this "most difficult" business - merely replicated the thought of others"
"If by merely quoting - as I did - examples of what others have cited as "difficult pieces"
Now tell me, did you either not actually say those things and someone hacked your account, are you a compulsive liar, or in your old age did you forget that you said those things? Or are you just full of it? Maybe a bit of all of them? Maybe a lot?
You "might" - and, one may suppose, you "have", here - but that does not confer upon me any obligation to answer your enquiry, whose relevance to anything that might actually matter is not exactly enhanced by your false assumption that I have quoted Jonathan Powell as a source of such views - something that I plainly did not do.
Another quote from you:
"The only people who might have genuine insights into this question are pianists such as Jonathan Powell"
Well if you're not quoting Powell, the only person who is a source on this according to you (or pianists LIKE him such as Pace, which makes what I say correct by your logic, so thanks in a way for making my argument), then all you're doing is wasting our time. Quit it Hinty! Now I can go ask other pianists
like him such as Madge, Knoop, the Takahashis, Ogdon or Hodges... oh wait they all say the same thing. So is everyone besides Mr. Powell wrong? Oh wait no you didn't ask Powell, and since just about all of the other pianists
like him agree with Mr. Pace and myself, this once again proves me right and you... not so right. Actually, since you haven't asked Powell and all those people think you're wrong, who is giving you such bullshit information? I highly advise that you stop quoting whoever it is, for your own sake.
For someone who, by his/her own admission, hasn't read all that I wrote, you are certainly very forthright in your dogmatic interpretations of what you have and have not read.
Oh I've read all of the rest of it. And due to the idiotic, pedantic, ostentatious way you speak it DOES unfortunately require the interpretive skills necessary to read through Finnegan's Wake or Ulysses. If we're misunderstanding what you say, maybe you should dumb it down for us. We're not all as smart as you =( Also, I highly doubt that my "dogmatic" (and by dogmatic you mean 'contrary to what you might have possibly meant to have had your writing understood as') views are different from what 99.999% of the people reading here have understood you to be saying. Now you seem to believe that I'm twisting your words, but please refer to the two items above, where it's plainly noted that you are the one who is having trouble with your words here; you know, trying vainly to cover up large holes in your logic or what could possibly just be outright lies. It's very hard to know what you mean what in two posts you say contrary things.
You may. It is not so. I did not even say that the performers to whom I refer were pianists in any case, although the fact that they are not - as is the case - does not weaken the case as to what they state that Xenakis said to them at rehearsals; only their being outright liars could do that (and, as you have already observed, I dodn't - in your personal view - do "outright").
Oh, while you do nothing outright, they may do something outright. Now, please give at least one of the names of these phantom performers so that we know you're not just making things up to once again cover huge, gaping holes in your argument. It's very hard to believe that Xenakis would ever give the instruction to half-ass one of his pieces; everything he has ever written in his life (I have read the complete essays and books by Xenakis) would go completely against this. I also happen to know several people who had the chance to meet Xenakis, and every single one of them said that Xenakis was completely rigid when it came to this sort of thing. So, whose sources are liars? Since mine have names and can prove their actual existence, I think that gives your little musicians a slight disadvantage here.
Have you heard me actually "speak"? Even if you had done so, would that alone qualify you to be able to say, unequivocally and beyond all doubt, that no one else does so as I do? How do you arrive at the word "half" in the context of what I "say"? Should I be flattered that, by implication at least, you think that somebody, everybody or any number of people in between therefore understands the other "half"? How privileged a position you must occupy! - in the sense that it apparently enables you to know absolutely "everybody" and thereby to be able to quote their views on their dislikes of anything and anyone!
Again, more pedantic bullshit. When I say "speak", someone who usually acts as intelligent as you try to should easily be able to infer that I am referring to what you type. Also, how can you be so sure that I have not heard you speak in person? This alone unequivically and beyond all doubt destroys your puny, little, diversionary argument. Should you be flattered that only half of the things you say are intelligible? This depends on how low your standards are. Apparently they are extremely low. Maybe this is why you like Sorabji so much- low standards and he wills you his estate? Why else would you like him? And when I say "everybody", I mean every single person I have ever asked with the exception of your loyal forum lapdog, John Carey, who is actually a pretty cool guy so I have no idea how you managed to get him to give a *** about you. Nearly every single person on this forum detests you and your huge ego and your excruciatingly boring posts. And you talk about me quoting people- would you like direct quotes? Because I can produce them very easily.
In a word - no (I hope that this is not too difficult a concept for you or "everybody" else to grasp, for its sheer simplicity is such that even Mr Barrett has felt disposed to use it as the title of one of his works, as of course you already know). You cite three statements here. In the first, I wrote that I am not arguing for or against Mr Pace's view on the difficulties of certain pieces. In the second, I argued that the perceived difficulty or otherwise of any given work should not be accorded undue importance - I should perhaps have clarified my reasoning by adding "except in cases where the composer's principal intent was to create difficulty for its own sake" (although doubtless you would then have found it "convenient" to assume - albeit quite wrongly - that I seek to attribute such an intent to some of the composers mentioned - which I do not). In the third, I noted that there is a difference between writing something that is not intended to be taken too seriously and writing intended sarcasm. I see no incompatibility between these statements, but then I would appear not to have your level of perception. By the way, the long word you use here has no "t" and its "f" should be "ph" in customary English English.
You mentioned Dillon. Dillon is a New Complexity composer. For the love of God, if we're not talking about Sorabji look up what you're saying PLEASE!!! Do you even know the definition of "New Complexity"?? Or did you once again forget something? Now, please show me what this word is that I have apparently misspelled. Would you like me to point out all of the misspellings you have made, because believe it or not, there are quite a few, and they're not even particularly difficult words. "Dodn't" is not a word, big boi, and this is just a single example. You wouldn't happen to be referring to where I spelled "Schizophrenia", would you? Because i'm looking at it and it's spelled correctly.
floccinaucinihilipilification =P
Who is this "we" of whom you write? I didn't take your statement about Mr Sorabji or your question about Mr Powell seriously enough to assume that it warranted - or that you even sought - answers, so I didn't even bother to duck the latter as there seemed to be little or nothing to duck. I might ask you if you hug a pillow at night and pretend that it's Mr Xenakis or Mr Pace, but that would of course be another rhetorical question not to be taken any more seriously than I took yours - to say nothing of the fact that answering either of these puerile questions seriously - or indeed even at all - would be grossly insulting to Messrs Sorabji, Powell, Xenakis and Pace.
Actually I have Ian Pace chained up in the basement and I snuggle with him when I'm feeling lonely. Do you have an OUNCE of humor in your entire body? Do you even remember what this argument was started over? Are you really this pathetically insecure?
Oh, you asked me how you fail at life; THIS is how you fail at life.
ENOUGH!
Best,
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Topic: The sweetest piano piece