No Counterculture?

I don't always agree with Ted Gioia, but he is always coming out with thought-provoking ideas. His latest: 14 Warning Signs That You Are Living in a Society Without a Counterculture

These are the key indicators that you might be living in a society without a counterculture:

• A sense of sameness pervades the creative world

• The dominant themes feel static and repetitive, not dynamic and impactful

• Imitation of the conventional is rewarded

• Movies, music, and other creative pursuits are increasingly evaluated on financial and corporate metrics, with all other considerations having little influence

• Alternative voices exist—in fact, they are everywhere—but are rarely heard, and their cultural impact is negligible

• Every year the same stories are retold, and this sameness is considered a plus

• Creative work is increasingly embedded in genres that feel rigid, not flexible

• Even avant-garde work often feels like a rehash of 50-60 years ago

• Etc. etc. etc.

Go read the whole thing. He offers a persuasive list of examples. My favorite: "All those nasty, rebellious songs that defy authorities are now owned by hedge funds." Oh yeah!

But let's take a step back. Is having a dynamic, influential counterculture normal? I grew up in the sixties so to me it was a norm. In high school there were the dorky guys going to grow up to be accountants and the other guys with long hair smoking marijuana out behind the gym. We sat at the back of the gym and booed every time there was an assembly. This extended to university. At one of the first assemblies in the music department my theory professor (who was a composer), stood at the back with me and booed the dean of the school (also a composer, but of dorky electronic music). It was pretty much common that every established institution and cultural figure was opposed by independent voices. Of course, over time these independent voices ended up AS the cultural leaders, but their experience seems to have given them the yen to suppress all voices that contradict their dictates.

But back to the question: did most historic cultures have countervailing forces? Perhaps not. There are always disputes, but the free-wheeling rebellious culture of the sixties was not, I suspect, typical in human history. Usually the ruling establishment finds it fairly easy to suppress or simply wipe out opposing cultural forces. Example: the Albigensian Crusade.

The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (1209–1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, in southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crown and promptly took on a political aspect, resulting in not only a significant reduction in the number of practising Cathars, but also a realignment of the County of Toulouse in Languedoc, bringing it into the sphere of the French crown, and diminishing both Languedoc's distinct regional culture and the influence of the counts of Barcelona.

Another example comes from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Before the war there were roughly a million members of the Communist Party in Spain. After the war there were zero members.

If we look at cultural history, perhaps the creative ferment associated with the popular and political culture of the sixties was the exception rather than the rule. We don't have much of a sense of the history of popular culture before the 20th century as it suffers from not having been written down, but we can certainly see that the level of creative discovery waxes and wanes through history. The tiny municipality of Athens in the fifth and fourth century BC was responsible for a nearly incredible amount of the cultural capital we are still living off today. From a city of perhaps 100,000 people came tragedy and comedy, the writing of history, poetics, logic, moral philosophy, metaphysics, democracy and a host of other things. Similar, though lesser, flourishings occurred in Florence in the 14th through 16th centuries, London in the 16th and 17th centuries, Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries, Vienna in the 18th and 19th centuries and so on.

But you could argue that the norm in human history is not creative ferment but dull mediocrity.

So what sets off these periods of creative brilliance? I'm not sure anyone really knows. We might keep an eye out. There are some brilliant creators around, even today. What sorts of things are they doing? And what others might come along? If we look at the history of ancient Greece, we can see that the mighty forces that emerged in the fifth and fourth century BC actually had their roots in the two previous centuries...

Your thoughts?

Friday Miscellanea

 Here is a look at Less Common Instruments:

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For those lucky enough to reside in London, Wigmore Hall announces the beginning of the fall season:

Bringing this season to life are the world’s most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians including Boris Giltburg in a Ravel piano series, a debut recital from soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Angela Hewitt in a residency commencing on 22 September, a season long focus on the works of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a residency from Pavel Haas Quartet and much more.

£5 tickets to be made available to people under 35, as well as free tickets for under 26s to selected concerts through Wigmore Hall’s partnership with the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust.

Visit the Wigmore Hall website for full concert listings.

Discover the 2022/23 Season 

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And here is an unusual concert from Europe: TEARS FLOW FROM BOWS AT THE LONG NIGHT OF THE CELLOS.

“Cellists are sociable and love to get together” says Jan Vogler, director of the Dresden Music Festival and cellist. So why not make something of it? Vogler has given his address book a workout and invited as many cello A-listers as possible to Dresden for Cellomania: a “festival within the festival”, climaxing with the unnervingly (but accurately) named Long Night of the Cellos, a 4.5 hour marathon concert starring 17 of the finest cellists on the planet.

I put this up partly because it is an interesting concert and partly because I will be in Dresden towards the end of July and this was held at the Dresden Kulturpalast.

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As readers know, I am as much a fan of traditionalism as I am of progressivism so this caught my attention: Aristotle goes to Hollywood

If you wanted to write a screenplay for a blockbuster film, Aristotle is the last person you might ask for advice... But some of the best contemporary writers of stage and screen, such as Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet, think that this ancient Greek philosopher knew exactly how to tell a gripping story for any age. ‘The rulebook is the Poetics of Aristotle,’ Sorkin says. ‘All the rules are there.’

Worth having a look at the whole essay.

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It is hard to avoid the feeling these days that the institutional leaders of our time (I refuse to call them a "cultural elite" because I think they are nothing of the kind) have become hopelessly corrupt. One example: Former Louvre Director Jean-Luc Martinez Has Been Charged With Money Laundering Over Ties to Alleged Antiquities Trafficking Ring.

The charges against Jean-Luc Martinez, who stepped down last year, concern five antiquities allegedly taken illegally from Egypt and sold to the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

How did it happen that people who a generation or so ago would have been sober, moral adults have transformed into crooks and liars?

* * *

Now here is a shockingly good piece of news: Bravo! Music at reopened Kyiv opera replaces noise of Russian artillery

Kyiv’s opera house has seen a lot over the years, on and off the stage. Opened in 1901 after a fire destroyed the previous building, a decade later it was the scene of a dramatic assassination.

Prime minister Pyotr Stolypin, attending a Rimsky-Korsakov opera with Tsar Nicholas II, was shot dead during the interval while standing in the front row of the stalls.

The pause in performances during the Russian invasion is only the third lengthy gap in activity over the past century, said the theatre’s archivist Larisa Tarasenko.

The first was between the end of the Nazi occupation and the return of the evacuated Soviet troupe. The second was due to Covid. Otherwise, performances continued even as regimes, empires and ideological slants changed.

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Here is a touchy subject: Is the Middle Class Musician Disappearing?

The most taboo subject in the arts is how people pay the bills.

Students embarking on careers in creative fields deserve better information and more honest feedback on this subject. But artists are more likely to reveal tawdry details of their bedroom antics than a cash flow statement.

Often newbies are told that baldfaced lie: “Do what you love and the money will follow.” Which sounds great—but also like blind faith in the irrational.

Does the money really follow if you pursue your dream?

I guess we all know the answer to that question.

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Let's kick off our envois with a recent Wigmore Hall concert. This is the Gringolts Quartet playing Stravinsky and Schoenberg:

 And here is the Berlin Philharmonic cello section playing the first of Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasleiras pieces:

And finally the overture to Rossini's Barber of Seville, the first opera performed in the newly-open Kyiv opera house.

In defiance of the current ban on all things Russian, I choose a performance by the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Yuri Temirkanov, conductor. I just can't see how the musicians of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic are in any way responsible for the imperialist militarism of Vladimir Putin.

Friday Miscellanea

Let's start with this: Why Success in Canada Means Moving to America. I despair of finding a good summary quote. The subhead is as close as we get:

Canada’s modest institutions have lowered the ceiling on creative professionals. Is leaving the answer?

I am probably too close to this to comment, but my feeling is that Canada prefers its creative talents to move away as they make us uncomfortable. Leonard Cohen is the exception that proves the rule.

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 Alex Ross has a new piece up at The New Yorker: How the South Dakota Symphony Became One of America’s Boldest Orchestras.

The S.D.S.O. celebrated its centennial this season, in ambitious style. The roster of composers included not only Beethoven, Grieg, and Tchaikovsky but also Stephen Yarbrough, David M. Gordon, Jessie Montgomery, Anna Clyne, George Walker, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, and Malek Jandali. One concert was given over to Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; another featured works by student composers from Lakota and Dakota tribes. (The orchestra has a series called the Lakota Music Project.) The season ended with a program that consisted of Strauss’s “Also Sprach Zarathustra”; “The Great Gate of Kiev,” from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”; and “An Atlas of Deep Time,” a sprawling new score by John Luther Adams. I flew in for the occasion, having long admired the group from afar.

Wow, an impressive list. It kind of makes you wonder what is standing in the way of other smaller orchestras being equally creative.

* * *

The great Prokofiev specialist Alexander Toradze has passed away. I have long enjoyed his recording of the Prokofiev piano concertos with Valery Gergiev. Here is the Piano Concerto No. 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B509lPaV6J4&t=602s

 * * *

Slipped Disc: VIENNA RENAMES CONSERVATOIRE AFTER WACKY PIANIST

The International Academy of Music and Performing Arts Vienna is to be renamed the Friedrich Gulda School of Music Vienna from the next academic year.

Gulda (1930-2000), possibly the most original and eccentric pianist ever to emerge from Vienna was shunned in his lifetime by the establishment. He took up jazz, wore funny headgear and sometimes gave recitals naked with a girlfriend. He was a ray of light in a tenebrous society.

I believe he also faked his own death. But my experience of him was through his absolutely extraordinary performances of the Beethoven piano concertos with the Vienna Philharmonic which I owned in a boxed set of vinyl, and the piano sonatas which are sitting on my shelf right now. Not at all wacky.

* * *

Simon Woods offers an essay on Questioning the Canon

As orchestras strive for greater inclusion, it’s time to finally let go of the notion of a classical music “canon”

I must have read dozens of opinion pieces critiquing the canon, with or without scare quotes, so isn't this rather stale news?

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines canon as “a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works.” But sanctioned by whom? And who accepts it? Language matters, and the concept of canon unhelpfully perpetuates ideas that we are already moving on from.

Again, haven't I read something very like this many times? And if we have already moved on, why are we still talking about it? In order for this to be of any interest, I think the writer should show an understanding of the notion of a canon or repertory that extends a little further than Merriam-Webster.

* * *

More interesting is a New York Times piece on a new opera: With Her First Opera, Rhiannon Giddens Returns to Her Roots

While composing, Giddens recorded tracks, singing and accompanying herself, that she sent to Abels. “She has a wonderful gift for melody, but what people may not know is how great she is at creating character with her voice,” he said. “She would sing Omar or Julie or the auctioneer, and the personality was clear in the music.”

Abels then took those themes and orchestrated them, sometimes making the harmonic language more complex and applying the sense of pacing he’s developed writing for film. The result was a blend of their voices, and, Giddens said, “the genius of Michael is figuring out where the lines blur.”

* * * 

Here is Friedrich Gulda in his non-wacky phase, playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 with George Szell and Vienna Philharmonic in 1966:

One of the most important influences on the young Mozart was Johann Christian Bach, the youngest of J. S. Bach's composing sons. Mozart met him in London in 1764 and studied composition with him for five months--he was eight at the time. Mozart later turned this piano sonata in D major by J. C. Bach into the Concerto for Keyboard K. 107. J. C. Bach was one of the creators of the classical style in composition.

Friday Miscellanea

The news of the week is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in music, Navajo composer Raven Chacon: The Pulitzer Prize Winner That Emerged Out of a Time of Quietness

Inspired by the silence of days spent in lockdown, he began writing “Voiceless Mass,” a 16-minute work for ensemble and pipe organ. Chacon, 44, a member of the Navajo Nation who lives in Albuquerque, set out to use the sounds of the organ, accompanied by winds, strings and percussion, to explore themes of power and oppression.

“During the pandemic, we were able to focus on some of the cries of people who were feeling injustices around them,” he said in an interview. “Lockdown was this time of quietness where there was an opportunity for those sounds and cries to emerge.”

We don't seem to have a clip of the piece on YouTube, but there is one for an earlier work, The Journey of the Horizontal People for string quartet:

 

* * *

And over at substack Ted Gioia tells us about The Guitar as the Instrument of Seducers:

The guitar—as well as its predecessor, the lute—is the instrument of seducers. This isn’t a romantic projection, but based on practical considerations and validated by music history.

As a pianist, I’d like to imagine the keyboard as the most erotically-charged instrument. But that simply isn’t the case. First and foremost, the piano can’t be carried to the place of seduction—a secluded rendezvous, below the balcony of the beloved, the back of the van, the bed chamber, and those other usual spots of lust-ridden assignation.

Yes, portability is one of the chief strengths of the guitar and lute. They are instruments of harmony and accompaniment you can carry anywhere. Have a look at the essay which has lots of illustrations of seductive lutenists.

Ted is really hitting them out of the park this week. Here is another piece on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's acquisition of a record label in the Netherlands: A New Model for a Music Conservatory

* * *

The Spectator has a bit of aesthetic dissidence: Why I booed Birtwistle.

With the passing of Sir Harrison Birtwistle last month we are witness to a changing of the guard in new classical music. For 70-odd years contemporary music in the West was dominated by a highly exclusive atonal mode of thought that produced works that were hostile to the wider music-loving public and written for a small but highly subsidised cultural circle.

If it was spontaneous when it began, the atonal idiom – meaning a highly dissonant style – quickly ossified into a kind of luxury backwater of music, so obscure it couldn’t even be questioned, yet endlessly backed by public subsidy which the public could nevertheless never challenge. It became an immovable impediment to other musical idioms that might better serve the public and retain an audience in the broader sense.

* * *

 And here is a different kind of aesthetic: A Violin From Hollywood’s Golden Age Aims at an Auction Record.

Music directors and composers sought out Seidel’s warm, rich tone. He was the concertmaster for the Paramount Studio Orchestra and played the violin solos for MGM’s “The Wizard of Oz” and David Selznick’s “Intermezzo,” in which a famed violinist (played by Leslie Howard) falls in love with his accompanist (Ingrid Bergman).

“That we largely associate love scenes or depictions of the less fortunate in films — or any scene evoking tears or strong emotions — with the sound of the violin is largely due to Seidel,” Adam Baer, a violinist and journalist, in a 2017 article for The American Scholar. (Baer’s violin teacher studied with Seidel and insisted that his pupils listen to recordings of Seidel performances.)

* * *

 And for those of you curious about the Claude Vivier festival I mentioned last week, here is a follow-up: Claude Vivier weekend review – unruly and utterly distinctive

If those pieces never really transcend their models, then around 1980 all those elements in Vivier’s music fused into an utterly distinctive style. The two pieces that Ilan Volkov conducted in the Sinfonietta’s programme, Zipangu, for 14 strings, and Lonely Child for soprano and orchestra, explore a world of complex harmonies and glowing instrumental colours that clothe the rhythmic unisons of the string piece and support the vocal lines of Lonely Child in a way that is both ritualistic and consoling. Claire Booth was the wonderfully warm soloist in Lonely Child; it’s quite unlike anything else, and Vivier’s best known work for good reason.

* * *

I have to confess that I don't know the work of Harrison Birtwhistle at all! Here is Silbury Air, a piece for chamber orchestra from 1977:

And here is Toscha Seidel playing Chausson's Poème in a live 1945 concert:

And finally Lonely Child by Claude Vivier:

Friday Miscellanea

For those who are especially obsessed with The Beatles or the electric bass, here is just the bass track from Abbey Road:

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Way back when I was a graduate student in musicology I went to a conference in Rochester and one of the most interesting papers given was on the remarkable, actually unique, success of the Symphony No. 3 by Henryk Górecki on the pop charts in Europe. Now The Guardian has a feature on this: ‘The planets aligned!’ How Górecki’s Third Symphony stormed the 90s pop charts.

A profoundly mournful classical work, written by one of Poland’s leading avant-garde composers, vied with REM and Paul McCartney to become a huge bestseller in 1992. Those involved recall a truly surprising hit 

Unsurprisingly, the recording did not start life intending to keep the company of Madonna and Prince – but in late 1992 the symphony was soaring high. For 11 weeks it was among the 40 bestselling albums in the UK, peaking at No 6 in early February 1993, in between Paul McCartney’s Off the Ground and REM’s Automatic for the People. It topped the classical charts on both sides of the Atlantic, and total sales today have surpassed 1m – an unthinkable and still unique figure in contemporary classical music. Thirty years on from its April 1992 release, the album’s ascent is the stuff of legend.

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I'm often surprised at how frequently the Wall Street Journal has an interesting piece on music: ‘Real Life Rock’ Review: Finding Treasure in Music’s Basement

Court cases, books and movies aside, Mr. Marcus returns always to music, especially the songs of rock ’n’ roll’s golden age as well as their offspring. His goal here is not only to remind us how good that music is but also how completely it permeates our culture. Much of what he notices seems intended to bring a wry smile to the reader’s face, as when he reports that a flyer for Skylark Dry Cleaning in St. Paul, Minn., uses for its headline “The bird is the word,” which is the refrain from the Trashmen’s 1963 song “Surfin’ Bird,” or that San Francisco’s Gimme Shelter Realtors, whom you’d think would want to convey an atmosphere of safety and comfort, cheerfully took for themselves the title of one of the Rolling Stones’ more apocalyptic numbers. Even better (or worse), the ad Mr. Marcus saw listed for sale a property located at 616 Page Street which had been occupied in 1967 by the Manson Family. Who else but Greil Marcus would recall that?

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I have been known to jokingly ask "name three great Canadian composers" (there is a also a Swiss version) followed by "ok, name just one." The answer to the latter question might well be Claude Vivier who died tragically young at age thirty-four. This weekend the Southbank Centre in London is presenting three concerts devoted to his music--oh to be in London! There is also a lengthy introduction to the composer and his work at the site: Who is Claude Vivier?

Vivier’s music was greatly influenced by the places he visited; with a stay in Bali in 1976 making a particular impression on the composer. Several of his subsequent works drew on the atmosphere and soundscape of the Indonesian island and its people. Among them Pulau Dewata (Island of Gods) a piece of nine melodies, specifically dedicated to the people of Bali. Describing the work Vivier said ‘I wanted to write a piece imbued with the spirit of Bali: its dances, its rhythms and, above all, an explosion of life, simple and candid’.

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3 Quarks Daily, which seems to focus on "Science Arts Politics Philosophy Literature" offers to instruct us in Writing About Music.

I’m not sure anyone has ever figured out how to write about music. This is a dangerous statement to make, and I’m sure readers will be quick to point out writers who have been able to capture something as intangible as sound via the written word. This would be a happy result of this article, and I welcome any and all suggestions. I should also say that I don’t mean there are no good music writers; there are, and I have certain writers I follow and read. But the question of how to write about music remains a tricky one.

I think that the subtext here is "without making use of any musical examples or technical terms from music theory." Because that is the problem of writing about music for the general public and one that I cheerfully ignore on this blog. Which is why it is not worthwhile monetizing it! Mind you, the article does say some interesting things about bass lines.

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An article on efforts to preserve some out of the way Canadian music: History on record: How the CBC Northern Service built a unique trove of Canadian music

The North has always been home to a vibrant culture, but sharing it with the rest of the country has been a challenge.

In the early 1970s CBC North, then called the CBC Northern Service, decided starting a record label was the way to do it.

CBC producer Les McLaughlin first pitched the idea in 1968 when he was working in Montreal.

"The head of the Montreal service was a fellow named Sheldon O'Connell," the late McLaughlin said in a documentary on the Northern Service. "He thought one of the ways we could promote northern broadcasting and help northern people gain a certain amount of recognition was to produce recordings in their language."

CBC producers started searching the region for musicians. Initially, the recordings were made only for local radio play, but once it became obvious there was some real talent in the North, McLaughlin decided to transfer the music to vinyl records that were distributed across the country.

Somewhere in a CBC archive are recordings of me playing the Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez and the Villa-Lobos Guitar Concerto, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to be released.

 * * *

I haven't said anything critical of scientific research into music for months now, we're overdue! Musical preferences linked to personality summarizes some recent research.

The American Psychological Association has published a paper that seems to suggest that there are universal patterns in musical preferences.

The study of preferential reactions to Western music used data from more than 350,000 people in 53 countries spanning six continents and found links between musical preferences and personality which are similar worldwide. This suggests that music could play a greater role in joining people and surmounting social division, as well as offering currently untapped therapeutic benefits.

Uh-huh. The model of music used here is called MUSIC standing for these five key musical styles:

Mellow (featuring romantic, slow, and quiet attributes as heard in soft rock, R&B, and adult contemporary genres),

Unpretentious (uncomplicated, relaxing, and unaggressive attributes as heard in country genres),

Sophisticated (inspiring, complex, and dynamic features as heard in classical, operatic, avant-garde, and traditional jazz genres),

Intense (distorted, loud, and aggressive attributes as heard in classic rock, punk, heavy metal, and power pop genres), and

Contemporary (rhythmic, upbeat, and electronic attributes as heard in the rap, electronica, Latin, and Euro-pop genres).

Why five and not four or six or twenty? And why these? One searches for any reason other than it makes for a nice acronym. Here's a quote from a researcher:

We thought that neuroticism would have likely gone one of two ways, either preferring sad music to express their loneliness or preferring upbeat music to shift their mood. Actually, on average, they seem to prefer more intense musical styles, which perhaps reflects inner angst and frustration.

Nothing there but speculation and unfounded assumptions that I can see. This is one of those numerous psychological studies whose results will undoubtedly defy reproduction.

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Moving on to the musical part of the miscellanea we have to start with Górecki of course:

And because I was just reading about this music, here is an Ayre by William Lawes for consort of viols and chamber organ:

And finally, some Claude Vivier. This is Pulau Dewata from 1977:

How Classical Music Saved My Life

I'm slowly working my way through the Oxford History of Western Music by Richard Taruskin and just read a passage in which he discusses, in connection with 17th century England, the connections between music and politics. In so doing he walks a fine line between doing justice to the music itself and taking notice of recent political issues and discussions. He says:

 "Classical music," like all "high art," has always been, and remains, primarily a possession of social and cultural elites... This is so even in a society like ours, where social mobility is greater than in most societies, and where entry into elites can come about for reasons (like education, for example) that may be unrelated to birth or wealth. To maintain that "classical music" is by nature (or by definition) apolitical is therefore a complacent position to assume, and a rather parlous one. [op. cit. Volume 2, p 112]

Well, we try not to assume complacently here and if we do, commentators are quick to offer correction. But in saying this, Taruskin is, in order not to be too out of touch with current opinion, perhaps underrating some potential values of the music. In this passage, at least! Because elsewhere the virtues of the music, when present, are fully acknowledged.

So in that context, I want to relate how classical music made a difference in my life. I come from a lower middle class (barely!) family who were prairie farmers for many generations in Canada. My mother was a talented old-time fiddler, but I didn't follow her path. In fact, until I stumbled across classical music in my late teens, I was pretty much going nowhere. After high school, when I wasn't working at menial labour jobs, I just lay around the house sleeping in until noon. No plans, no future. I had taken up the guitar and played in a few bands, but there seemed no future there. As I said, I stumbled across classical music and started listening to a lot of it. Then I started reading books on it from the local library. I had written a few songs so I got the idea of using orchestral accompaniment so I taught myself how to write music. Yes, I didn't read music, so I first learned how to write it down. One thing led to another and a year or so later I found myself enrolling in first year university in the music education department--quickly moving over to the music department proper. And for the first time in my life I really felt that I was in the right place.

What I want to underline here is that even though I was from a lower social strata, no-one in the classical music world ever treated me poorly as a result. I was treated as an individual with real musical potential. The overall result was that I became a concert soloist with about as successful a career as one could have in Canada at the time. The only actual bias or prejudice I encountered was not against myself, but against my instrument. I was unable to obtain a tenure-track university appointment simply because I played the wrong instrument, classical guitar. But that is a whole other issue.

The simple truth is that classical music was what inspired me to work hard and educate myself and move into a whole other social strata: from tree-planter to sessional lecturer at university. This was an enormous change. Ultimately I moved on to something else, but the simple fact of my social mobility was enabled by my pursuit of classical music. Yes, if I had had no talent and no ability to work and learn it would not have happened but there is nothing so common as wasted ability. What I learned from the classical music world was a framework of discipline and aesthetic values to which over time were added intellectual values such as the ability to analyze music and research the history.