Even more disapointing is that ,for the most part,the people they were comparing them to sucked as well. |
50 years ago americans were every bit as ignorant as today,
but in more idividualistic manners,dummies today largely cooky-cutter types. |
How true Rok2id, how true!
And fools moaning the loss of such as Morrison,Winehouse,et al which well they may in human terms-register zero on the artistic one compared to a true tragedy like Schubert dead at 31. |
Silly,classical music is the highest acheivement of the wetern world,there are a hundred great composers with a high level of popularity among those with the taste and refinement to listen to same.Even allmighty Bach has no real populsr popularity.
I suspect(strongely) there were be NO current acts even known a hundred much less three hundred years from now.
Popular music is utter garbage plain and simple. |
Why is it better? It clears the mind and washes the spirit in beauty,enobling the human spirit to embrace truth, compassion and love,in the religious meaning of that,in a
manner and to a degree nothing else can.
Gods greatest gift to man,music is the thing itself,not just representational as are the other arts.
As to "what floats your boat" ,that nautical journey can often be a one-way passage to the netherworld.
The good really is the enemy of the best,we all need the very best whether thats what we desire or not. |
Of course not,it is a powerful factor leading towards the light,one can always choose darkness or as was the case in Germany be channeled into it.
Not the place to go into it but Facism in Germany could have been prevented by others,including the United States.
We are all guilty,both of comission and omission.
BTW Haydn,Mozart,Schubert and Mahler were Austrian,not that it matters really. |
It does nor demean any other form,time, society ,nation,race or culture to state the obivious and that is the music of Bach,Mozart,Beethoven,Schubert et al is the greatest artistic acheivment of the human race.
Nor does that imply,in any way,shape or form, that the culture in which they lived and laboured is superior to any other.
If the ONLY music that existed was that of Bach alone, music would remain Gods greatest gift to man. |
Indian Classical Music?
It is quite nice,probaly why it sells out venues ALL over Asia whilst poor Mozart scarcely draws at all. |
Well ,this is a forum where sweeping generalizations are about as much energy an old man like me can expand.
Wealthly people are on Symphony boards etc, but the slim
support for classical music in the US is centered in middle income groups like teachers etc.
Wealthly money is spent in self-promotion.
If anyone cares to make an arguement that the West is now,always has been and always will be bacically a POS they wouldn't
provoke one from me.
One the premise that even a broken clock is right twice a day however,I have no doubt that Euro-centerd Classical Music is the worlds greatest art form which ipso-facto makes it very much an aquired taste. |
Some places in Europe maybe.when I first lived in Berlin in the early 60's I would guess that Classical had perhaps 20% of the market,it still is the best place in the world
for the classical lover but if classical has 10% of the market I'd be surprised. Sex,drugs and rock and roll uber alles!
The best classical audiences in the world currently(excepting Japan) are in some of the former Soviet countries notably Hungary.Poland,Latvia and Estonia.
I was at a performance of Tosca at the Budapest Operahouse
3 yrs ago( SRO) where probaly over half of the crowd seemed to be under 30,which astonished me.
As any serious student of American History knows, the most powerful currents that run throughout it are racism and anti-intellectualism.which gives us the disdain for "egghead" pursuits that is largely missing in Europe wherever ones taste resides.
I once heard an American in France make the quintessical
american unaswerable putdown "if you are so smart why aren't you rich"(in perfect French),the half dozen French students at the table has no idea what that meant.
To them it was a totally meaningless concept. |
Rok2id, to call France ridiculous displays profound ignorance. |
Mapman,tell Sis to hit Berlin,4 Opera companies,reasonable prices, no waiting. |
