tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post7102710951644381599..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Quick EvaluationBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-72753294090319470512017-06-01T06:55:53.336-05:002017-06-01T06:55:53.336-05:00Thanks for all these excellent comments!
@Marc: I...Thanks for all these excellent comments!<br /><br />@Marc: I will have to seek out that clip on YouTube, thanks for the tip.<br /><br />@Anonymous: Let me quote from Richard Strauss: “I may not be a first-rate composer, but I am a first-class second-rate composer.” Oswaldo Golijov stole this same quote to use in an interview, though the interviewer did not know the source. I am tempted to say that "I am a really good third-rate composer!"<br /><br />@Will: Yes! Much of the really important music-making is done by amateurs in a warmly human, but technically imperfect way. Also, most music in history! Thanks for reminding us.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-33625059480550701252017-06-01T00:34:56.778-05:002017-06-01T00:34:56.778-05:00Its funny Bryan, how very "classical" I ...Its funny Bryan, how very "classical" I am (broadly conceived, meaning love of early music & baroque through contemporary --so long as schooled and played on traditional acoustic instruments, composed and read/memorized rather than jammed, not vulgar, no metronomic use of percussion, sung with trained and controlled voices), yet moving away from the perfectionist standards common in the classical world and increasingly embracing the human and spontaneous and imperfect and authentic/feeling approach of popular live music. In other words, I listen to classical but with a more forgiving and experiential attitude rather than seeking technical perfection.<br /><br />Maybe its just because I'm such an amateur myself, teaching myself violin with sheet music much harder than my ability yet roughing it out and feeling good, aspiring to be the star of my front porch, to accompany my son locally in our future early music consort (but also doing some country gospel and saloon songs). Not that you're wrong in your approach, and at times I enjoy the clinical analysis of the ensembles and composers I hear. But overall, music to me is human experience more than technical perfection.Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-38106273499220322732017-05-31T14:44:01.291-05:002017-05-31T14:44:01.291-05:00>> all composers, like all cultures, are equ...>> all composers, like all cultures, are equally wonderful. <br /><br />Yes, all composers are equally wonderful. Well, all except one, who's just a tad more wonderful than all the others. His name is Bryan Townsend. :-)<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-85025794657693628572017-05-31T08:10:21.779-05:002017-05-31T08:10:21.779-05:00It is... interesting. There is a grand waltz, and ...It is... interesting. There is a grand waltz, and the melody of <i>Ubi caritas</i>, and some cabaret. Still have no idea of the plot, except that it has to do with Napoleon <i>fils</i>, <i>l'Aiglon</i>. The entire 90 minutes is at YouTube, the same Montreal production that I've been listening to at Spotify. Not <i>Don Giovanni</i>, no. Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-17300521481009762322017-05-31T02:34:32.390-05:002017-05-31T02:34:32.390-05:00I have never heard of L'Aiglon before and didn...I have never heard of L'Aiglon before and didn't even know that Honegger and Ibert had written an opera! I am going to have to read a good history of the opera as that is one area that is still a bit terra incognita for me.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-14887290589384512912017-05-30T08:14:13.793-05:002017-05-30T08:14:13.793-05:00Apples and oranges, yes, but as you wrote, it'...Apples and oranges, yes, but as you wrote, it's your 'reception' that we're reading about, interesting for itself. Am giving a first listen, on the commute to and from work today, to an opera called <i>L'Aiglon</i> by Arthur Honegger and Jacques Ibert. We shall see; upon this depends whether I'll sit down and listen at some point when I've got the time. Marc in Eugenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04331547981498637474noreply@blogger.com