Here, we wouldn’t dare say “music is the universal language of mankind,” without rightly extending Wordsworth's sentiments to include women.
But, then again, in some corners of the world we could, just not classical music.
Judging by the reactions of some Saudis to Mozart, I worry that by finally introducing "romantic climaxes," Beethoven might be revolutionary once again, but for vastly different reasons, i.e., if it’s not too boring.
Because we all know it is!
5/3/08
Holy Shit.
Posted by Empiricus at 2:05 PM
Labels: Associated Press, Classical Music is Boring, Donna Abu-Nasr, Mat Snow, Misogynism, Saudi Arabia
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16 comments:
Sad. I mean, I guess it's cool that they are doing this and all, but (and here I'm going to wear my Western Hegemony Hat) the fact that a mixed gender concert is a big deal is just sad. Wake up and smell the secular humanism already (that goes for Kansas, too).
The other thing is just dumb. The Poulenc Sextet would suck even more amplified.
My "oh shit" moment was when one of the dudes interviewed said that Mozart was boring. I mean, I'm not surprised by the whole concert thing, but wow, even in the Middle East classical music is a drop dead, give-me-a-no-doze event.
The other guy is simply a (bad word(s) inserted here).
I thought it was sort of interesting that the guy who was the hard-rock fan kind of dug the concert, but the pop-music fan was bored stiff.
It maybe mattered that the hard-rock dude was only 11. The moral of the story: take your kids to see live music before they think they know it all. And don't live in Saudi Arabia, but that kind of goes without saying.
The 'Classical Music Is Boring' piece was 1) just awful in its conception and 2) self-contradictory. I'll address #2, because that's the one that's more than mere opinion.
The author first bemoans the giant auditorium/undersized orchestra mismatch (that's fair), but notes that the 9th "pinned back every ear" when it was first performed in a smaller space with the largest orchestra yet assembled.
Then he says that Beethoven had "underestimated the forces needed" for the performance.
Huh?
Pick an argument, Mr Snow. You can't have both.
I'm with HegemonyHead on this one. I'm not sure how to say this nicely, but it's a joke that we should think it a success that men and women were allowed in the same public place. How low our expectations have fallen? Pardon my expletive, but Fuck them and their repressive society.
And amplification?!? Fuck that too.
Not that I really care anymore. So few people actually like music that its a losing battle to argue gimmicks like that. Let me put on my elistism hegemony hat and say that it is not the job of classical music to attract listeners, it is the job of the listeners to deal with it, learn about it, and figure it out themselves -- or more bluntly, if they're too stupid, jaded by popular tripe, or ignorant, then I don't care if they listen (and I can think of at least one composer who agrees with me). That's right, I'm arguing for elitism.
Whatever, I do what I want.
I didn't know we could do that.
And now I've learned something new today!
Hey cuties, word verification for comments is now...on.
Yeah!!!
I don't have time to read the classical music is boring article more carefully, so I skimmed it, but based on my very quick read, I can't tell if he's joking when he says "amplify the bassoons". . .. I think he must be joking. Noone is that idiotic. But I'm amazed that someone who is knowledgeable enough about classical music to rattle off the names of composers as he did would be find classical music so "dull" or not amped enough.
On the other end of the spectrum are pieces now being banned in the EU from the classical music performance repertoire because the orchestration is too loud--and without the aid of amplification.
Oh. Were those two deleted comments spam? I was wondering.
My word: zfluofjv (Swedish bassoonist, 1838-1959)
Oh my, and owner moderation, too! Heavens. You gentlemen have certainly arrived if you're getting comments to inspire this drastic change.
Cghiko (Slovak violist, 1947-1973 ironically died of hypothermia when he sought safety from a factory fire by hiding in a freezer.)
Wow, what happened?
I have nothing useful to add except to note that your comment threads almost always end in multiples of 4. This disturbs me for secret and no doubt pointless reasons. Thus I am moving this thread to 9. If this ends up at 12, I might have to commit myself.
Sorry-we accidentally had comments moderated there for a while. We're back to normal now...but still with word verify. Because, you know.
Content soon.
Now there are 16 comments. Put that in you pipe and smoke it, Dr Loomis!
Verification Word: Ctmrh, presumably a lesser Elder God.
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