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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
In three pages this paper summarizes Robert Walser’s 1993 article which appeared in The Musical Quarterly entitled ‘Out of Notes: Signification, Interpretation, and the Problem of Miles Davis.’ There are no other sources cited in the bibliography.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGmilesdav.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
that time nearly impossible - to offer some insightful criticism of trumpeter Miles Daviss unconventional approach to jazz. He pointed out how critics have historically missed the mark when
describing Daviss mistakes and note lapses and observed they "have never known how to explain the power and appeal" that made Miles Davis popular with audiences and without peer in
the musical genre (Walser 343). The author wastes no time in identifying that the problem mentioned in the articles title refers to the problems of historians and critics in
accounting for what clearly appear to be performance defects in a man consistently heralded as "indisputably one of the most important musicians in the history of jazz" (343). There
is a sense, Walser argues, that critics wish to pigeonhole Miles Davis into fitting into formulaic criteria that defines how jazz should be played and interpreted. Citing James Lincoln
Colliers criticism that Daviss playing "lacks originality, formal regularity, timbral purity and consistency, and technical facility," he questions whether or not Davis would actually have been a better trumpeter had
he hit all the right notes and his sound was unfailingly pure and never cracking (344). To make his point, Walser relied heavily upon Henry Louis Gates Jr.s text The
Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism and applied the signification theory featured within to an analysis of Daviss style of jazz. As Walser explained, black and white
are not merely color differences but also have signifying differences developed largely through culture. The article notes how Gates distinctions between white signifying and black signifyin(g) would explain why
critics found it difficult to understand Daviss sound or playing. After all, conventional signification is extremely rational and logical (345). Notes are played the same way each time
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