OTOH this genius was revered at this venue:
And all fell silent in reverence--RIP Mstislav
Posted on 05/02/2007 10:52:54 AM PDT by rhema
The Washington Post recently carried out an unusual experiment. It hired Joshua Bell, one of the world's most famous classical musicians, to dress like a common street busker and play his Stradivarius in a D.C. metro station during rush hour. The anonymous Mr. Bell played Bach, he played Schubert, he played some of the most beautiful music ever to emerge from the minds of mortals.
And virtually nobody stopped to notice.
The point was not that most people are uncultured clods. The point, rather, is that we are so caught up in the routine of our lives that we fail to see extraordinary beauty right in front of us. Something's wrong with us.
As Post reporter Gene Weingarten wrote, "If we can't take the time out of our lives to stay a moment and listen to one of the best musicians on Earth play some of the best music ever written; if the surge of modern life so overpowers us that we are deaf and blind to something like that — then what else are we missing?"
If we don't see the beauty that we should, we don't see the ugliness either. For much of my career I was a film critic, and saw just about every movie that came out. Every now and then, I'd take my wife to screenings with me, and I'd observe her flinching at intensely violent or explicitly erotic images onscreen. Though I shared her conservative moral sense, or so I thought, I pitied her oversensitivity.
And then I changed jobs. I went from seeing 30 or so movies a month to seeing maybe three. It was as if I'd been a heavy smoker who'd gone cold turkey and was shocked to experience my sense of taste returning. Without meaning to, I began to watch
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Lol, I didn’t know there was more than one Jimmy Rogers!
Neat about the Ukelele.
After I was ‘grown’ I learned that my Father could play a banjo when he was yound. Got a kick out of that.
I love banjo music!
That is one instrument that can make
the saddest song sound so happy!
It’s neat that your dad played it.
LOL, looks like I messed up on my “young’ word!
I never got to hear him, it was ‘before my time’, lolol!
I got a ukelele for Christmas in my early teens
Never could play it
My older brother did - and even made a wire frame up so he could play his chromatic Hohner harmonia while playing the ukekele
“Ruby”, etc
Well, that’s a dang shame.
I’m sorry you didn’t get to hear him.
Hate to run, but I have to go.
Have a great night!
Ya, you told me about that. He sounds like a one man band!
I had a baritone ukelele, though wasn’t disciplined enough with it.
Your brother must have been something else!
My sister played the harmonica, and she was GOOD.
But, better with the piano.
She had perfect pitch.
NOW...I’m off.
Take care!
I did get fairly good on the harmonica to carry on in competitions
But I never used a chromatic
The trick was to sound like 3 harmonicas at once
Somehow I learned to do that
Fox Chase and Ebb Tide usually were the ones to play in competition as nobody could perform those
You told me about that, sounds like you were pretty good. I knew a man who had a ‘itty-bitt’ harmonica he could keep in his mouth and play!! Think I told you about it.
OTOH this genius was revered at this venue:
I think I recall that
I used a Hohner Marine Band #365 (I still have one here) in competitions and appearances and the smaller ones I’d carry in my pocket to practice with
I learned a lot watching the “Harmonicats” playing on TV shows and I listened to the ocean surf and to trains and other sounds and learned to add those sounds to the songs
Both sides had them during the Civil War and often late at night they would play together
The violin sat up in the attic for years except for the occasional time we as children would go up and fiddle around with it.
My Mom was watching the Roadshow Auction on PBS and felt curious as to what this old fiddle might be worth. She brought it down from the attic opened up the case and peered into the F-holes.
Sure enough there was the name “Stradivarius”. She called me the next day to tell me of her find. I knew the instrument was at least a hundred years old, but I was none the less incredulous. I don’t pretend to know a lot about classical music or instruments, but I has heard that all of the Strats had been given names. O asked my Mom to check for a name and she told me there wasn’t one.
Well I decided to go to the font of all knowledge “Yahoo” and searched for Stradivarius copies. It turns out that there was a fair cottage industry in the late 1800’s making replicas and that they would go as far as putting the Stradivarius name on them (unlike the Yamaha copies of Fender Stratocasters). So we had a fake.
The happy ending is that in spite of it’s not being the real thing these copies can (and in our case) still be worth thousands.
[Both sides had them during the Civil War and often late at night they would play together]
Very interesting and sad thought, isn’t it? The mournful music on the night air and then back to killing each other at dawn...
I know you were good at playing the harmonica.
The point is, a vast majority of people aren't interested in classical music. That symphonies would die if not for public subsidies and donations by large companies for public relations purposess.
I wonder if you would have had the same result, had that been Carlos Santana or Eric Clapton.
I’ll see if I can locate a good harmonica tune in .wav format
Noooooooo, lol, if you find a good harmonica site you will go wild!!! Heh.
Ya, do it for yourself. I probably wouldn’t hear the ‘high’ notes.
The perception of beauty is a moral test. (Thoreau, 1951)
The perception of beauty is a moral test. (Thoreau, 1851)
Nowdays, people have raised “art” to a demigodlike status of virtue. They fail to understand that a “work of art” can be as corrupt with dementia and/or evil as any other medium of expression.
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