Those Enigma Variations sure are nice… and varied.
I spent at least a little time studying for my math exam, which I won’t have until the 15th, so I have plenty of time… didn’t really get much more of the book read, though.
I spent some time arguing some more about modern music here. Someone said (or at least this is what I understood his words to mean) that he believed most classical music lovers would also enjoy modern ‘academic’ music, even though the style has changed, if it weren’t for their prejudice that makes them afraid to even check it out. I argued against such a view, claiming that a majority of classical music lovers probably just do not currently care for the majority of the ‘academic’ music that is being written. To quote myself:
I’m not sure how you think it would follow that lovers of classical music would love today’s new concert music just because that’s what ‘serious’ composers are composing now. Why do people love classical music? This is subjective of course but I’d say it’s the music itself they enjoy, not the fact that composers were using the idioms of their day, or the fact that they’re considered ‘serious’, or whatever historic influence they might have had. Just because the idioms have changed doesn’t mean that classical music lovers are just going to automatically follow it or accept it or love it. In fact, it would seem to me changing idioms would be even less of a reason to follow it. If someone was a fan of Mozart and Mozart said “New idiom: atonality!” and followed it up with some high pitch laughter, he’d probably lose some of his fans. Extreme example, of course, I don’t mean to imply that’s what modern music is like, but certainly a large majority of it is not like classical music was 200 years ago. It’s a different genre, a different style, not just a continuation of classical music because of its ‘artistic seriousness’. (You say yourself it’s a different idiom.)
Ah, a nice long quote! I wonder if a majority of ‘academic’ composers would necessarily agree with me?
2 Comments
Anonymous · May 8, 2007 at 7:23 AM
All music people seem to think of themselves as better than non-music people. Do you think that would be better termed as arrogance, snobs, or egotists?
Sean Hannifin · May 8, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Yes, it would be better termed as snobbish arrogance, if it were true. However, I’ve observed similar ratios of arrogance in both “music people” and “non-music people” so I don’t think that makes much of a difference. I’m not quite sure what you mean by “music people” but I haven’t observed so much arrogance that would lead me to the conclusion that they’re all snobs.
However, whether or not anybody’s a snob is irrelevant to the point I was making anyway.