Classical Listening

[stlukesguild]

it's important to remember that China has a form of government that will, when it suits them, eradicate it because mass produced decadence, no matter how profitable in the short term, runs contrary to their long term objectives.

Now that's something positive to look forward to: censorship. How did that work out back during the Cultural Revolution when it was not only rock music and Hollywood films but also Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart that were eradicated as signs of Western decadence contrary to their objectives?

You are also assuming that those in charge... and their children... have not themselves become enamored of Western decadence. But you can always dream, can't you?

[Emil Miller]

Now that's something positive to look forward to: censorship. How did that work out back during the Cultural Revolution when it was not only rock music and Hollywood films but also Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart that were eradicated as signs of Western decadence contrary to their objectives?

You are also assuming that those in charge... and their children... have not themselves become enamored of Western decadence. But you can always dream, can't you?

I recently checked out David Cameron's choice of Desert Island Discs and there were a smattering of pop groups included. Now of course, he might just be pandering to the masses on whose votes he relies but the Chinese leadership doesn't have to and I can't somehow imagine Hu Jintao hip hopping with other members of the Central Committee.
I also don't see many Chinese pop performers on the world stage whereas there are an increasing number of world class classical performers playing everything from Bach to Bartok it would not be to China's advantage to ban such an important cultural advertisement.

In 1957 the Japanese film director Akira Kurosawa made a Japanese version of MacBeth which received international acclaim. T.S.Eliot considered it one of the finest films ever made.
Meanwhile back at the ranch...

http://youtu.be/9ru028GnTHU

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Why is the world before WWII so much better than the world after, exactly?

[stlukesguild]

The past always looks far more rosy when viewed through rose-colored glasses.

[stlukesguild]

I've been exploring the "Classical Era" in a bit more depth. This is the period dominated... at least in the present... by Mozart, Haydn, and young Beethoven... but like every musical era, there were many other composers who achieved marvelous things... in spite of the fact that they have been reduced to little more than a footnote today.

Luigi Boccherini is known mostly for his quintets... often for guitar and strings, his works for cello... and especially for his minuet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42sTUQKdvcs

... a work almost as overplayed as Vivaldi's Four Seasons... which says absolutely nothing about the merits of either.

Beyond this quite gallant Rococo bit of ear-candy, Boccherini composed some other marvelous music. Jordi Savall performs several of Boccherini's quintets to great effect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmWAve3Pvk&feature=fvsr

Perhaps even more interesting... at least to me with my penchant for vocal music... is Boccherini's Stabat Mater. Where the Stabat Mater is commonly scored for full orchestra and choir, Boccherini offers instead a rather intimate version for soloist and string quintet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTxlqiy_7Zs

[Emil Miller]

Why is the world before WWII so much better than the world after, exactly?

I imagine that for some people it was and for others it wasn't. I wouldn't know because I wasn't there. I don't see the relevance of your question within the context of this thread.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

As opposed to the relevance of this post?

As I recall it, Chicken Lilttle thought the world was collapsing because an acorn fell on her head. It's interesting to note that Western administrations, of whatever complexion, consider the economic meltdown in the US and Europe and China's enormous economic strength to be somewhat larger than an acorn.
On those occasions when I have been in China, I have noticed Western meretriciousness but on nothing like the scale that Europe has absorbed since WWII and it's important to remember that China has a form of government that will, when it suits them, eradicate it because mass produced decadence, no matter how profitable in the short term, runs contrary to their long term objectives.
Moreover, as China's economic and military power increases, other countries in the region will inevitably come under its sway and it's likely that Western excess will decline as traditional values begin to reassert themselves.
In short, they will keep what's best of Western civilisation and ditch the rest.

[Charles Darnay]

When it comes to non-Mozartian Classical period music, my favourite is probably G.B Viotti - who I discovered fairly recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJpgs7RhCHs

He reminds me of Hayden if Hayden has a bit more vitality in him - I find Hayden excellent background music, and very pleasant, but I can rarely sit and listen to a Hayden symphony.

Luigi Cherubini's Requiem in c is also a great work from the Classical period.

[Emil Miller]

As opposed to the relevance of this post?

The post was in reply to one submitted by stlukes but I'll make it easier for you as you appear to have missed the point.

I don't see the relevance of your question within the context of this discussion.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

I accept your apology, Emil.

[Emil Miller]

I accept your apology, Emil.

There's a good boy but you still haven't answered the question:

What is the relevance of your question within the context of this discussion?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

There's no reason for me to answer that. You screwed up with your first question. No do overs. Since the discussion had no relevance to the thread, I hardly see why I need to justify the relevance of a comment made pertaining to an already irrelevant topic.

[stlukesguild]

OK... returning again from our digressions to the subject at hand:

Flash Mobs and Classical music are quite fun:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrEk06XXaAw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotat...w9_S4PNV0#t=2s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAXAs...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRKKmY5yCv0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaHPND2QJg

These surely do much to undermine the notion that "classical music" is not for everybody.

[stlukesguild]

Currently I've been listening to some of the most outrageously daring baroque music... composers who were far ahead of Schoenberg when it came to employing dissonance for expressive purposes:

Jean-Féry Rebel (1666~1747):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnlaCenlNHk

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber (1644~1704):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9DJpaxT7wg

Wait until you get to the second movement... absolutely mind-blowing for the time!

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Those flash mobs are pretty cool. I think the dancing ones, while kind of neat, are pretty dumb and nothing more than a novelty act. I wouldn't stop and watch them, that's for sure. I think it can be easily argued that the people doing these classical music flash mobs are really doing a public service, exposing those to a bit of high sculpture and music they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. Who knows, maybe someone sees one of those and the seeds for a love of classical music are planted. I know I'd be pretty stoked to see one of those. Symphony ticket prices are outrageous, after all.