Classical music's twentieth-century tragedy

Timesonline.co.uk ^ | April 30, 2008 | Ian Bostridge

[Antoninus]

Now the Internet has blown that wide open.

Agreed. I discovered tons of things I never heard on our local Classical station, which insisted on playing nothing but the 20th century "elite" mediocrity with a few of the old standards scattered in to keep people from tuning out. Now, I can listen to nothing but Baroque and Renaissance all day if I want.

[SuziQ]

Our youngest son would LOVE to attend a concert at which the orchestra plays music from his video games. There is a Japanese composer he particularly likes, but I can’t think of his name right now. Isn’t is interesting that some of those games are responsible for introducing our kids to something other than rap or grinding hard rock!

[Antoninus]

This certainly wasn’t the case with Hitler and Stalin who banned all ‘unpleasant’ music and wanted bland uplift. Stalin especially had this sort of taste.

They didn't use that tactic on their own people. They used it on their enemies. Stalin admitted as much. Click the following Google search:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&q=%22art+as+a+weapon%22+stalin&btnG=Search

The idea also shows up in the "Current Communist Goals" from 1963--a couple times, in fact:

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

[SuziQ]

I just sent that link of the group doing the “Halo” theme to our youngest son. Knowing him, though, he’s probably already seen it.

[Borges]

Well I was just referring to music. The Soviet Commissars openly referred to anything ‘modern’ as ‘degenerate’ and ‘capitalist decadence’. Their composers were not allowed to write anything but easy on the ears fluff. Regardless of where it was played.

[SuziQ]

One of the cutest things about the movie Mr. Holland's Opus was the way he showed the kids in his music class how some of the popular music of the day was taken from classical tunes.

[Antoninus]

Their composers were not allowed to write anything but easy on the ears fluff. Regardless of where it was played.

Indeed. It was meant to boost the morale of the proletariat--in their country. What they wanted to promote in their enemies' countries was music that broke down societal standards.

[SuziQ]

I bought a CD recently, of Yo Yo Ma playing some of Ennio Morricone's movie music. Morricone actually wrote special parts for Ma! It is just gorgeous, especially "Gabriel's Oboe" from The Mission.

[Borges]

When a cultural delegation from the U.S.S.R. came here in 1949 Shostakovich was among them. The speeches he gave, which were written for him, did nothing but bash Western music which they regarded as decadent (Stravinsky in particular). I don’t know about other artforms but the Soviets held no formal truck with music in the West.

Or are you saying they had double agent composers here writing intentionally bad music?

[Mariebl]

No, sorry. Sturgeon’s Law, on its face value, applies to *everything*. The person to invoke it tacitly agrees that this is so, else they would not have invoked it.

So, 90 percent of the time Sturgeon's Law is crap, right?

[Antoninus]

Or are you saying they had double agent composers here writing intentionally bad music?

No, that wasn't their style. They worked from the inside, attempting to promote those who wrote either demoralizing or bad music/books/screenplays, etc. and attempting to suppress those who wrote patriotic or uplifting works.

Dalton Trumbo, one of the Hollywood 10 and a member of the Communist Party USA (which, it was recently revealed, received funding from Stalin), admitted as much himself.

[Borges]

Again I’m just talking about music and know of no examples of this in action in the post war period. Even New Deal style populists like Aaron Copland were accused of writing communist propaganda with like ‘The Tender Land’ and A Lincoln Portrait being suspect. This is all dealt with in the book this article is about.

[Spktyr]

Absolutely!

Which is why the first person to bring it into a discussion to put down something or someone else... is, well, crap.

[Antoninus]

Again I’m just talking about music and know of no examples of this in action in the post war period. Even New Deal style populists like Aaron Copland were accused of writing communist propaganda with like ‘The Tender Land’ and A Lincoln Portrait being suspect. This is all dealt with in the book this article is about.

Have you listened to much of Leonard Bernstein's music? Oy!

[snarkpup]

I wouldn’t say classical performers are irrelevant. Look at all the superstar pianists and violinists there have been over the years. Not to mention singers. A great piece of music can sound completely different under two given performers.

On the rare occasions when a classical performer does become relevant, they have effectively become a "pop" star (e.g., Luciano Pavarotti) and, as with pop music, their CDs will be filed in special superstar bins labeled accordingly.

In the case of non-vocal music, I would assert that in most cases where the same piece of "classical" music sounds completely different under two given performers, this is usually because of the instruments rather than the performer (e.g., a given piece by Bach played on an authentically-tuned harpsichord vs. an equal-tempered piano). And the way a piece by Monteverdi sounds depends less on the conductor and more on whether it's being played by an early music consort vs. massed strings.

[aruanan]

In the case of non-vocal music, I would assert that in most cases where the same piece of "classical" music sounds completely different under two given performers, this is usually because of the instruments rather than the performer (e.g., a given piece by Bach played on an authentically-tuned harpsichord vs. an equal-tempered piano).

Nope. Listen to Glenn Gould play Bach versus anyone else. Listen to E. Power Biggs play Bach on the organ versus, gag, Anthony Newman; or to Colegium Aureum play the Brandenburg Concertos versus, gag, Anthony Newman and his group.

[Peacekeeper357]

I have known a large number of musicians and have asked each one. If he was trapped on an island and could have only one type of music to listen to,what would it be.

Each one stated Classical music. Not Most or Some but ALL.

[snarkpup]

Nope. Listen to Glenn Gould play Bach versus anyone else. Listen to E. Power Biggs play Bach on the organ versus, gag, Anthony Newman; or to Colegium Aureum play the Brandenburg Concertos versus, gag, Anthony Newman and his group.

Recall that in my original post, I was speaking only of classical performers who play the material "correctly". I think most people would not classify Anthony Newman as "correct". (I have a shelf of E. Power Biggs LPs and a couple of Anthony Newman's "novelty" albums; so I understand your point.)

A better comparison would be between E. Power Biggs and Gustav Leonhardt. The former playing the Flentrop organ at Harvard will sound wildly different from the latter playing the same piece on the Schitger organ at Norden; but this is because the instruments (and acoustics) are wildly different.

An even better comparison would be the same performer playing the same piece on different instruments. Organists do this routinely; in fact, E. Power Biggs once made an LP demonstrating how different Bach's Toccata in D minor sounds when played on about a dozen different organs. And listen to anyone playing the aforementioned organ at Norden before and after the Ahrend re-restoration. It's a whole different deal now that it's in a plausibly authentic temperament.

[aruanan]

Have you listened to the Biggs recordings of the Bach Six Trio Sonatas on the pedal harpsichord? These have been re-released on Sony Essential Classics. They’re very good.

[snarkpup]

Have you listened to the Biggs recordings of the Bach Six Trio Sonatas on the pedal harpsichord?

I have the vinyl LP version somewhere. I think the instrument was built by John Challis and I vaguely recall something about it having a metal sounding board. It did sound pretty good, though.