Brutal music critique

rooprect,

Thanks for your contributions to the discussion, and for raising the topic in the first place.

It's an interesting idea that you and barryriley-1 have, that Preisner's music in Blue was intentionally bad to achieve some sort of ironic effect. However, the facts don't support that view.

Kieslowski and those closest to him did not speak about the music in Blue as being intentionally bad, and did not treat the music that way. Here’s the evidence:

1. Kieslowski's words, part one. As I noted in another message in this thread, Kieslowski referred to the final playing of the "Song for the Unification of Europe" as "solemn and grand." No hint of irony here. (Barryriley-1 points out that we should not necessarily take Kieslowski's words at face value. Okay, but we shouldn't completely discount his words either. If he had said that the music in Blue was intentionally bad, would we ignore his words then?)

2. Kieslowski's words, part two. When Kieslowski was straight out asked in an interview whether the unification song was to be taken as a masterpiece or ironically, he noted the irony in terms of a work written for a unification that did not occur, but stated that the irony did not detract from the work’s value.

3. Preisner's words. Preisner, in the interview I quoted in an earlier message, wrote about the simplicity of the music in Blue, but does not mention any intended irony or intentional attempt to write substandard music. This is an interview in a book about film music, the very place where one would expect Preisner to discuss the ironic effect he was trying to achieve (if that had been his goal). In fact in the very next paragraph of the interview he discusses irony in music, but with regard to White: "In Three Colours: White the music score is completely ironic."

4. Preisner's actions. Preisner included the unification song on his concert CD "Preisner's Music," a project for which he selected the works. Why would he select the piece if he had deliberately written it as inferior music?

5. Jacques Witta and the Blue script. This is a small point, but worth mentioning nonetheless. The script for Blue refers to the unification song as "magnificent and beautiful." Jacques Witta, the editor of Blue, says on the Region 1 DVD that the music in Blue follows the directions in the script. If what was finally intended was "childishly simple" music instead of "magnificent and beautiful" music, one would not expect Witta to make that remark.

6. Annette Insdorf's view. Insdorf collaborated with Kieslowski, and apparently had a personal friendship with him. As such she might have been aware of any ironic intent in the score for Blue. Yet she states in her book on Kieslowski's films that the music in the final scene of Blue is "rightly called 'solemn and grand'" by Kieslowski.

Against all this evidence, all I see are some opinions expressed here that the music was so bad or simple or childish or boring, that it must have been intentionally inferior. But even these opinions seem to be a minority view – this music won awards, and I could easily cite ten reviewers/commentators praising the music in Blue. (And, to be fair, I could cite one or two critical comments as well.) None of this is definitive regarding the quality of the music, but you wouldn't expect deliberately bad music to garner so much praise.

In sum, if Kieslowski and Preisner were intentionally trying to introduce boring music into Blue, neither they nor their close collaborators have said so, in words or actions. And any such attempt must have been an abject failure, at least in view of the opinions of the majority of reviewers/commentators (among those that expressed an opinion) praising the music in Blue.

- TopFrog