tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post1457297800864703521..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Friday MiscellaneaBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-5891156494018268872017-03-21T18:44:36.283-05:002017-03-21T18:44:36.283-05:00Thanks, Will. I had a post up a few years back tit...Thanks, Will. I had a post up a few years back titled "Naked Violinists" because of the inundation of extremely suggestive publicity shots. Had to take it down, though. Too much traffic.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-2242716782326368982017-03-21T18:24:20.018-05:002017-03-21T18:24:20.018-05:00I smell smoke:
http://wshu.org/post/music-respawn...I smell smoke:<br /><br />http://wshu.org/post/music-respawn-tina-guo-gets-her-game<br /><br />(just confirming your observations, Bryan, with Exhibit #3)Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-79534889524663399822017-03-18T09:46:15.262-05:002017-03-18T09:46:15.262-05:00Oh no, quite the opposite. And this is, of course,...Oh no, quite the opposite. And this is, of course, why rock stars tend to avoid this kind of statement: no sympathy! But remember that this song was written for Revolver which came out in August 1966 when the net worth of the Beatles was a tiny fraction of what it would later become. And they had spent several years struggling, making a pittance, playing unsavory clubs in Hamburg and so on. They were only three years into their recording careers and probably just starting to see some serious income. And then they find out that 95% goes to the Exchequer? Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-77990295378147658842017-03-18T09:09:33.833-05:002017-03-18T09:09:33.833-05:00George Harrison's jeremiad would be more convi...George Harrison's jeremiad would be more convincing if Google didn't inform me that Paul McCartney's net worth is estimated at $1.2 billion. Despite the taxman, I am relieved to know that the Fab Four didn't go starving...<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-85057827537147769452017-03-17T11:32:22.905-05:002017-03-17T11:32:22.905-05:00Thanks, Will, for this very thoughtful comment. Yo...Thanks, Will, for this very thoughtful comment. You pretty much called it.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-91117252420033535132017-03-17T10:58:17.424-05:002017-03-17T10:58:17.424-05:00Thanks Bryan, for your usual thoughtful commentary...Thanks Bryan, for your usual thoughtful commentary on (mostly) "classical" music in context of our times. Myself enjoying a measure of separation from our times, I'm listening to some suites for viola da gamba by Conrad Höffler, and therefore have not clicked any of your embedded music today. And none of this denies my love of the music of George Harrison and Eric Clapton.<br /><br />Regarding the relationship between the music and the wrapper, my imagination takes those images of gorgeous women in sexy dresses and combines it with my general thoughts and feelings (and remembrances) of great classical piano music...to produce what is no doubt the intended response: interest and desire. Unfortunately for the artists, I don't have the money to act, which would mean buying CDs and looking for a concert tour date I could buy tickets for. And in perhaps unrespectable honesty, I confess that just as the female nude has been an essential subject in the history of visual and sculptural arts, so too would I enjoy watching these ladies play naked. And, well, who wouldn't? But I very much get your point, that is NOT what classical music is. It is rather the gaudy commercialization of it, but at least these ladies stoke the fire with class, which means $3,000 dresses and, presumably, genuine musical talent.<br /><br />Finally, I like how you grapple with the dilemma in classical music --here and in many of your articles-- of how to sustain and grow an audience for serious music in a larger popular culture that is very superficial, anti-historical, of fragmented attention spans and spiritually void. Here I can only take cold comfort in recommending the book "Twilight of American Culture" by Morris Berman, which is generalizable to western or any other culture as it becomes vulgarized and forgotten in a rising commercialization. That tidal wave is too big for individuals and even institutions to stave, and ultimately must be suffered by our civilization. All we can do is batten down the hatches and attempt some islands of preservation of our heritage and traditions, taking a secular form of monasticism and separation from the larger trends, a deliberate and lonely counter-culture of adhering to what we know is precious and keeping it alive for those future generations that may finally be ready to have a cultural renaissance when the depths of vanity have become undeniable and some new basis for optimism can be found.Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.com