Thread: Beck's upcoming album to be released only as SHEET MUSIC. What is your reaction?

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/pages/song-reader

"In the wake of Modern Guilt and The Information, Beck’s latest album comes in an almost-forgotten form—twenty songs existing only as individual pieces of sheet music, never before released or recorded. Complete with full-color, heyday-of-home-play-inspired art for each song and a lavishly produced hardcover carrying case (and, when necessary, ukelele notation), Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012—an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together. The songs here are as unfailingly exciting as you’d expect from their author, but if you want to hear “Do We? We Do,” or “Don’t Act Like Your Heart Isn’t Hard,” bringing them to life depends on you." -www.beck.com

To be released Dec. 2012,

Should this, or could this change art-pop and our future relationship with it as musicians? You think it will catch on?

Beck is one of those artists where it's impossible to tell if he's being sincere or if it's just a stunt. It could be a similar case as with Radiohead's In Rainbows, where the gimmick was that the customer paid whatever they wanted to pay for the album, but it was soon switched to a fixed price. I don't mean to be cynical, but it's likely that Beck has recorded the album in full and it will be released if and when the sheet music performs poorly financially. That's not a criticism of Beck, I don't have any reason to disrespect him as an artist, but industry ******** has been here for a long time and it's not going anywhere any time soon.

It's hard to believe it's only sheet music. How many of his fans can even read music? But it looks like what he's doing is, he's releasing a songbook, then asking his fans to upload their version of his songs. That's an unusual concept; it's making music interactive again.

However, if you're going to just issue songbooks, maybe you should follow Erik Satie's lead in Sports et Divertissements. He had a descriptive picture on the left side of the page with a song on the right with an underlying handwritten commentary. Now that's interesting.

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I like Beck's music, but this is just unbelievably stupid. I'm all for taking the perspective of some composers and having other people play your music, but there's no way that sheet music will ever be a valid substitute for a recording.

Cool idea... not sure if it'll actually turn out as a good album, but it'd be really cool to see a bunch of versions of it pop up on youtube. Who knows? It could incite some real creative interpretations.

I dunno why they're calling it an album then. o3o Its a musical score.

^ Because most of their fans don't know what a musical score is.

Here's my thoughts in binary:

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Originally Posted by regressivetransphobe

Here's my thoughts in binary:

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I don't really see how composing a piece and publishing it as sheet music to be performed by others only is a gimmick. o3o Thats ... a way longer tradition than publishing the recording as the primary form the music takes.

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

I don't really see how composing a piece and publishing it as sheet music to be performed by others only is a gimmick. o3o Thats ... a way longer tradition than publishing the recording as the primary form the music takes.

Thank you and agreed! I posted this forum to hopefully find out that people are excited on the prospect of a new (contemporary) avenue for composition and expression to expose its self in an artistic way. Its not supposed to be a rebirth, rather something else or something reminding. Something fresh ultimately. Its easy to hate on a - sure - re-hatched concept from a foreign father but we build tall buildings all the time and don’t compare them to the pyramids at first reaction. (if my analogy sucks don’t take it out on my argument.)

I actually am very much interested in this (I wish there were more scores by certain pop musicians available to study). I really love the music of Beck Hansen. He's an imaginative polystylist, and very much an American composer.

This is what composers have been doing for ever.

Sounds like a crock of sheet to me.

Originally Posted by BurningDesire

I don't really see how composing a piece and publishing it as sheet music to be performed by others only is a gimmick. o3o Thats ... a way longer tradition than publishing the recording as the primary form the music takes.

the problem that i have with this is not that beck is doing it, but the fact that they're marketing it like it's some revolutionary discovery. this all seems like something that pitchfork would rave about in order to seem like they're "more intelligent" because they've dabbled in classical music (which sheet music isn't exclusive to). also, the whole story about beck wanting to bring back the art of sheet music is so contrived and pointless. I understand what he is trying to do, but I can't stand how he is presenting himself.

that being said, I did hear Stephin Merritt's interpretation of one of the songs on the album and it's quite lovely

I give Beck credit for having a go and even trying a Harry Partch tribute.

He prob doesn't need the cash - maybe he is trying to get cred as composer ??

Does anyone know what it sounds like - maybe we could do a thread of cover versions of his score.......