Hope for the future!

[Peter]

Encouraging article :
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/dive...ns_choir.shtml

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'Man know thyself'

[Frohlich]

Yes indeed Peter, a very interesting article. It is a great thing that young people are being introduced to and evincing an appreciation for the classics.
Even if they fall away from the classics in adulthood and take up modern music culture which would be unlikely having being exposed to the best. Who wants the worst?
At least they will have a comparison and perhaps have an influence on the quality of their lives.
It poses the question of how many young people in England are growing up with the classics.

Amalie.


[This message has been edited by Frohlich (edited October 25, 2003).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Just wanted to make one point about "modern music" and the classics, partly in response to Frohlich's note above and also in general. 2 of the great pianists in modern music, Elton John and Billy Joel both got their start in classical music. One of my very first classical books had an introduction by Joel (!) in which he went on at length about the value of having learned classical music as a foundation for his own work, and that he still listens to it all the time. Not all modern music sucks, just most of it. There are actually a few real musicians out there, though they are thin on the ground as we say in Texas. But to be good even at that, you must know something, and in order to accomplish that, the classics are the only way.


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Regards,
Gurn
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That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
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[spaceray]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Just wanted to make one point about "modern music" and the classics, partly in response to Frohlich's note above and also in general. 2 of the great pianists in modern music, Elton John and Billy Joel both got their start in classical music. One of my very first classical books had an introduction by Joel (!) in which he went on at length about the value of having learned classical music as a foundation for his own work, and that he still listens to it all the time. Not all modern music sucks, just most of it. There are actually a few real musicians out there, though they are thin on the ground as we say in Texas. But to be good even at that, you must know something, and in order to accomplish that, the classics are the only way.

Billy Joel published a new book of his piano studies last year.I've heard from other students these are very pretty and fun to play , I will try them myself when I get a bit better at reading.

[Chris]

Are you talking about his classical release, Fantasies & Delusions?

[spaceray]

It's got a yellow cover ,looks like Schirmer?
Classical music etudes for students. I think they were for grade five and up.I do not own a copy myself.Yet.

[spaceray]

I just looked this up and yes it is Fantasies and Delusions I didn't know it was also a CD.I sampled some of it and it sounds much much too difficult for me(I'm only in grade two) .I don't know who this music is aimed at but it is very popular with the students I see at piano class.Do you know this music? What do you think of it?

[mrfixit]

Someone took me to a rock concert the other day , but it was a mixture of techno and Rock. It was played far to loud i am sure it did long term damage to my hearing. The rock parts where aright nothing speical, but the techno was awfull. I can understand why people need drugs to listen to that crap. It was so repetitive. Well it was a learning experience, and i try to keep a open mind, but i am not going to anything like that again.

[Joy]

I used to go to rock concerts but now I only attend classical concerts. I can't even imagine going to a rock conert again after getting hooked on classical symphony perfomances in person. The above article was very encouraging about young people enjoying this type of music, thank goodness!! My young nephew is hooked on it. He listens to it first thing in the morning and while he's doing his homework or reading and he has some pretty rockin' CD's but he prefers this. I guess he did learn something good culturally from his Aunt!

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'Truth and beauty joined'

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by mrfixit:
Someone took me to a rock concert the other day , but it was a mixture of techno and Rock. It was played far to loud i am sure it did long term damage to my hearing. The rock parts where aright nothing speical, but the techno was awfull. I can understand why people need drugs to listen to that crap. It was so repetitive. Well it was a learning experience, and i try to keep a open mind, but i am not going to anything like that again.

Well, I am the last person in the world who would be inclined to defend rock music, but I will say this, there is a tremendous range of musical styles that get put under that heading (kept simple, I think, for LCD purposes) and at one end is the crap that you are talking about, while at the other is an actually tuneful, melodic, listenable bit of stuff. It is sort of like comparing Glass to Beethoven, it seems easiest for people to call them both "classical music" but that "Symphony for Jackhammer and Taxicab Horn" or whatever the hell it is, is scarcely "fate, knocking at the door", is it?

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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[spaceray]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
...comparing Glass to Beethoven, it seems easiest for people to call them both "classical music" but that "Symphony for Jackhammer and Taxicab Horn" or whatever the hell it is, is scarcely "fate, knocking at the door", is it?

Yes ,you're right,what is classical music anyway.Can we really call modern compositions classical? I like one of the phrases you use ,serious music. I find that people make mistakes about what is classical and what is not . My mother in law (bless her heart) thinks that any thing sung in another language by Josh Groban or Andre Bocelli etc. is classical music and she does not believe me when I tell her it is euro pop.

[spaceray]

Originally posted by spaceray:
I like one of the phrases you use ,serious music.

Whoops sorry I've misquoted you again I meant to say academic music.

[Ahmad]

Talking about good and bad music, Where can you put Jazz music in the range extended between great classical masterpieces and this crap you've been talking about ..
I know that many modern classical compsers such as Ravel have been impressed by the jazz coming from the u.s in the early 20'th century ,and they used some jazz melodies and harmonies in their music..
How can you evaluate Jazz ?

[This message has been edited by Ahmad (edited October 26, 2003).]

[Gurn Blanston]

Originally posted by Ahmad:
Talking about good and bad music, Where can you put Jazz music in the range extended between great classical masterpieces and this crap you've been talking about ..
I know that many modern classical compsers such as Ravel have been impressed by the jazz coming from the u.s in the early 20'th century ,and they used some jazz melodies and harmonies in their music..
How can you evaluate Jazz ?

[This message has been edited by Ahmad (edited October 26, 2003).]

Ahmad,
Don't know if you are asking ME, but I must say that I have a healthy respect for jazz, and even like a lot of it. Of course, spectrum-wise, it must be somewhere in between. It certainly cannot be liek "classical" for the simple reason that it is the antithesis of classical, i.e. - it is much more free-form, and the whole point of it is to appear to be improvisation (I think it mainly is, but I may be wrong). The closest that "real classical" comes to that is probably the fantasia, which even then is only meant to SOUND like an improvisation, not to actually be one. But to get to the point of what we were talking about before, it takes a tremendous amount of musical talent and ability to appear to be spontaneous, so the least I would say is that it is extremely musical, and I respect it for that.


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Regards,
Gurn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's my opinion, I may be wrong.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Chaszz]

Originally posted by Gurn Blanston:
Well, I am the last person in the world who would be inclined to defend rock music, but I will say this, there is a tremendous range of musical styles that get put under that heading (kept simple, I think, for LCD purposes) and at one end is the crap that you are talking about, while at the other is an actually tuneful, melodic, listenable bit of stuff. It is sort of like comparing Glass to Beethoven, it seems easiest for people to call them both "classical music" but that "Symphony for Jackhammer and Taxicab Horn" or whatever the hell it is, is scarcely "fate, knocking at the door", is it?

Philip Glass did the score for the movie "The Hours", which I mentioned here some time ago, and which I think is a great movie. When I mentioned the movie, it was in the context of a discussion where everyone was asking "Where is the great art of our time, why is there no great art today?", and I said, well, I think here it is. I think the score is also very good.

Chaszz