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oliver sudden
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« Reply #45 on: 12:07:24, 07-04-2008 » |
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But I soooo wanted to meet Norman Lebrecht.
"...I thought of approaching him when I thought I saw him at the back of the hall once, but when I asked who that was someone told me his name was Wayne Kerr. When I discovered the mistake it was too late." |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #46 on: 12:15:29, 07-04-2008 » |
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(Should we perhaps have a Say Something Nice thread for Norman? Or would that be tempting fate?)
I'm no particular fan of Lebrecht's articles, but don't think they are any worse than the cloying, sycophantic, sanctimonious, pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle that is spouted from the pens and computers of most other music journalists writing in English. Nor think that the arrogance is worse than that of numerous others, even if slightly less hidden. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #47 on: 12:24:45, 07-04-2008 » |
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Chacun à son goût. 
We note that we may here have committed an alarming if widespread error. It is possible so we now read but should have divined for ourselves that the strictly acceptable variants of this phrase in its native tongue might include "chacun a son goût" (each one has his (own) taste) "à chacun son goût" (to each one his (own) taste) and the elliptical forms "chacun son goût" or "chacun ses goûts" without actually including "chacun à son goût" (which we suppose would mean each one to his own taste, a formulation we find potentially troubling now that our attention has been drawn to it). Happily my côterie includes some native speakers whose expert advice I now have another excuse to seek. |
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« Last Edit: 15:04:03, 07-04-2008 by oliver sudden »
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martle
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« Reply #48 on: 12:30:12, 07-04-2008 » |
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Say Something Nice thread for Norman? I'm no particular fan of Lebrecht's articles, but don't think they are any worse than the cloying, sycophantic, sanctimonious, pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle that is spouted from the pens and computers of most other music journalists writing in English. Nor think that the arrogance is worse than that of numerous others, even if slightly less hidden. Well, it's a start. |
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Green. Always green.
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Reiner Torheit
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« Reply #50 on: 12:59:17, 07-04-2008 » |
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(cont p94)
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"I was, for several months, mutely in love with a coloratura soprano, who seemed to me to have wafted straight from Paradise to the stage of the Odessa Opera-House"
- Leon Trotsky, "My Life"
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Stevo
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« Reply #51 on: 14:33:50, 07-04-2008 » |
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I'm no particular fan of Lebrecht's articles, but don't think they are any worse than the cloying, sycophantic, sanctimonious, pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle that is spouted from the pens and computers of most other music journalists writing in English. Nor think that the arrogance is worse than that of numerous others, even if slightly less hidden.
... except that in many cases once you wade through all the twaddle you do find nuggets of interest. Wade through Lebrecht's twaddle and all you find is more twaddle, almost invariably along the lines of "the end of the musical world is nigh". Perhaps he's right, except that it is just his musical world that is drawing to a close: you know the one I mean, the world where internationally renowned conductors are queueing up to "see" him, only to be categorically rebuffed.  |
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #52 on: 14:39:04, 07-04-2008 » |
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pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle
I find the music criticism in The Sun and The Daily Mirror so refreshing. |
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #53 on: 15:00:46, 07-04-2008 » |
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I'm no particular fan of Lebrecht's articles, but don't think they are any worse than the cloying, sycophantic, sanctimonious, pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle that is spouted from the pens and computers of most other music journalists writing in English. Nor think that the arrogance is worse than that of numerous others, even if slightly less hidden.
... except that in many cases once you wade through all the twaddle you do find nuggets of interest. Wade through Lebrecht's twaddle and all you find is more twaddle, almost invariably along the lines of "the end of the musical world is nigh". Actually, I'd say that you occasionally find some nuggets in Lebrecht, who at least isn't so starry-eyed about or seduced by the glamour of the world he writes about (one of the most reactionary of all artistic or social fields) than some others. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #54 on: 15:05:41, 07-04-2008 » |
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Come off it, the glamour of said world is surely the only reason he writes about it. He only spits on it to admire himself in its polished reflection.
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #55 on: 15:06:30, 07-04-2008 » |
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Come off it, the reflected glamour of said world is surely the only reason he writes about it.
Perhaps in the same way as some write about the decline of royalty, yes. But give me them over those who idolise royalty any day. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #56 on: 15:08:04, 07-04-2008 » |
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pseudo-arty haute-bourgeois twaddle
I find the music criticism in The Sun and The Daily Mirror so refreshing. Which type of music? I don't read either paper, so don't know what their rock/pop criticism is like. |
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #57 on: 15:13:12, 07-04-2008 » |
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Come off it, the reflected glamour of said world is surely the only reason he writes about it.
Perhaps in the same way as some write about the decline of royalty, yes. But give me them over those who idolise royalty any day. I don't see a reason to prefer a parasite to an epiphyte. At least the latter is open about where its nourishment is coming from instead of pretending to be superior to it. The alternative might be to write about something which doesn't have the attention it deserves. An aspect in which Griffiths for example surely stands head, shoulders, torso, legs and feet above Lebrecht. |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #58 on: 15:27:22, 07-04-2008 » |
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Come off it, the reflected glamour of said world is surely the only reason he writes about it.
Perhaps in the same way as some write about the decline of royalty, yes. But give me them over those who idolise royalty any day. I don't see a reason to prefer a parasite to an epiphyte. At least the latter is open about where its nourishment is coming from instead of pretending to be superior to it. How would you fit Walter Benjamin into the picture, then, clearly fascinated and bewitched by the world of conspicuous commodities, but at the same time writing as a trenchant Marxist critic of the whole phenomenon? More to the point, do the motivations of the writer, or their personality, really matter all that much? I know lots of people from the classical music world would prefer the type of genteel, fawning, writing that's the norm, and that which doesn't deal with the economics, politics, class issues, and so on of the whole thing, sticking to the realm of the 'purely musical' or other forms of mystification. I'm not saying Lebrecht succeeds in illuminating the social or economic aspects by any means (there are others who do that much better, though they don't tend to write for the newspapers), but there are places in his writings where he does at least touch upon some real issues, especially as far as the industry is concerned. Most other critics choose to totally ignore those or treat them as if they didn't exist. |
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« Last Edit: 15:33:45, 07-04-2008 by Ian Pace »
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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George Garnett
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« Reply #59 on: 15:53:44, 07-04-2008 » |
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How would you fit Walter Benjamin into the picture, then, clearly fascinated and bewitched by the world of conspicuous commodities, but at the same time writing as a trenchant Marxist critic of the whole phenomenon?
Putative saprophyte? |
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