New Dark Age

Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 28, 2002 | PAUL EIDELBERG

[muawiyah]

For example, "her hand in marriage" mixed with "head on a platter" gives you "her hand on a platter". We could also have "her hand in agreement".

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I wonder though, how much this is a matter of taste. I mean, I don't listen to classical music, as much as I used to, but when I did, I much prefer Mussorgsky, Shostakovich, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Prokofiev to Beethoven and Mozart. (Bach, OTOH, is a favorite.)

The music I listen to most is traditional American and Celtic, as well as "Acid Croft" -- traditional Celtic with jazz/rock/new age arrangements. And yet, for all that I think it is the best music I have heard, there are still more tunes being written and new, incredible arrangements being performed. And, for that matter, I have made the attempt to create my own tunes and songs, despite how much I think of what I hear off CDs.

I'm not so sure it's a question as much of no great music being written, as much as there is more and more of it available to different tastes. There may be composers as good as Bach (or Shostakovich or O'Carolan, depending on taste) these days -- there may be hundreds of them. But it is much harder to appeal universally as it once was.

And that, is if it ever were possible to appeal universally. After all, many people did not have the opportunity to hear Beethoven until the invention of recorded music. For much of the population all they heard and knew is what is now called traditional music.

[orfisher]

Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll...Yeah Baby!

[Hank Kerchief]

For example, "her hand in marriage" mixed with "head on a platter" gives you "her hand on a platter". We could also have "her hand in agreement".

Well, I suspected that was your meaning. Thanks for making feel not quite so dumb.

Hank

[mrustow]

This is a great essay, especially the writer's keying on contemporary American pop culture as the greatest source of world nihilism.

However, the essay has two flaws: 1. "Cultural relativism" is not a belief in academia, but rather a tactic, which is used to undermine modern societies, and which multiculturalists shelve in cases of secular (particularly socialist) and Islamic dictatorships. 2. In The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom refers to Heidegger as the most seminal mind of the 20th century. Heidegger, however, was a nazi, whose philosophy was inseparable from his politics. The moral of the story is, that free men do not let the spirit of the late Allan Bloom lead them around by the nose.

[LiteKeeper]

read later

[hinckley buzzard]

"Great composers?" Naw, these guys are just "old dead white punks."

People with barbells in their tongues have way outgrown the old fogies.

[World-traveler]

Amen, brother..... Mozart- Bach lover.

[DBtoo]

Great article! And sadly so true.

[Salem]

A little jewel of an article!