tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post132948408535685408..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Culture and AnalysisBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-82970556478260219042017-03-11T07:26:52.946-06:002017-03-11T07:26:52.946-06:00Will, thanks to you for reminding me that amateur ...Will, thanks to you for reminding me that amateur musicians most certainly deserve our respect! And more power to you.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-49229095331969805752017-03-10T23:19:20.943-06:002017-03-10T23:19:20.943-06:00Please go easy on us "incompetent" and &...Please go easy on us "incompetent" and "sloppy amateurs." Having just picked up the violin less than 2 years ago and being a professional solar electrician by day, and being self-taught due to inability to afford a teacher, I already struggle with the fact that I'll "never be classical." But I still buy baroque sheet music and eek out pleasure hacking away at it.Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-72961063867205161242017-02-14T07:36:14.872-06:002017-02-14T07:36:14.872-06:00Marc Puckett--spot on (not sure Nietzsche gets a f...Marc Puckett--spot on (not sure Nietzsche gets a fair hearing here but am not going to trouble myself to fish there just now.)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10621708410942657446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-69080052904457807712017-02-12T18:10:30.648-06:002017-02-12T18:10:30.648-06:00Yes, I recall that as well--but your comment provi...Yes, I recall that as well--but your comment provides me with a much fuller understanding of it.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-68624765278550329392017-02-12T11:10:53.790-06:002017-02-12T11:10:53.790-06:00I can reach back in memory to my long-past youth (...I can reach back in memory to my long-past youth (a half century ago! and before I knew what theology and philosophy are) and identify with some precision when this philosophical insight hit me: in reading Tolkien's 'Fellowship of the Ring', when Gandalf explains his conversation with Saruman; Saruman, fallen from grace, as it were, has replaced his white robes with iridescent ones because 'white' (as the symbol of the Good) can be marred and over-drawn, can be 'surpassed', in other words, in some Nietzchean way... in which case, as Gandalf points out, it is no longer white. Analysis works when the analyst respects the truths involved and has enough humility to accept their limitations. But the philosophers these days tell us that there's nothing objectively true and that we all make it all up as we go along, generally speaking because we want to keep our hegemonic rights inviolable &c &c. Tsk. Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.com