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BOOK REVIEW
Robert E. Sweet
Music Universe, Music Mind
(Arborville)
by Scott Hreha
September 2000
Music Universe, Music Mind presents an extensive look into
another previously obscured piece of the 1970s creative music puzzle,
Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY. Between the
years of 1971 and 1984, some of the world's top creative musicians
held residencies at CMS, sharing their talents with music students
of all levels who were ambitious enough to immerse themselves in the
Studio's communally oriented intensive programs. One such student
is the author of this history, Bob Sweet—a drummer who studied
at CMS on three separate occasions—a fact that propels this
study to a point beyond the average objectified research project,
resulting in a highly personalized tale that closely analyzes the
factors behind the Studio's success and eventual demise.
While a personalized approach such as this can often fall into mythification
and too much reliance on opinion over fact, Sweet does an admirable
job of retaining objectivity. Whether discussing the communal philosophies
behind Karl and Ingrid Berger's social and educational organization
of CMS, the blurring of distinctions between teacher and student that
often occurred in the programs, or the parallels between CMS and North
Carolina's Black Mountain College, Sweet keeps his distance—allowing
the participants to speak for themselves (the fruits of several hours
of interviews) and amplifying their comments appropriately. In the
chronological framework he employs, Sweet emphasizes getting the story
told, though not without making some astute conclusions along the
way.
One of the most striking and inspiring aspects of the CMS story is
the continuous struggle to keep the enterprise financially afloat.
Sweet explains in great detail the succession of triumphs and disappointments
experienced by those who waged the battle to keep CMS funded. At its
most prosperous the Studio received ample grants from the State of
New York to fund both educational and community oriented programming;
at the lowest points CMS survived on the fragile limits of Berger's
credit cards. In this context, Sweet's connection between the advent
of the Reagan administration and the ultimate shutting down of CMS
is particularly relevant—even in the times of a more liberal
governmental attitude toward the arts funding was difficult to come
by; with the shift to Reagan's Voodoo Economics what was once difficult
became virtually impossible.
In all, Music Universe, Music Mind offers a cornucopia of straightforwardly
written information for anyone interested in the social and political
climates surrounding creative music in the 1970s and early 1980s,
without sacrificing attention to the music and musicians. By blending
a wealth of interviews and personal anecdotes (of which Sweet's story
of picking up Joseph Jarman and Don Moye at the airport is a standout)
with insightful commentary, Sweet's work is a welcome addition to
any creative music bibliography.
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