tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post5532968089521248765..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Vive la différence!Bryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-22835644726759085112019-01-15T08:58:37.765-06:002019-01-15T08:58:37.765-06:00Oh yes, quite true. You could make a defence of th...Oh yes, quite true. You could make a defence of their efforts in terms of the inherent elitist nature of high art. A lot of the trends in the 19th century were towards art forms, like opera, that were designed for large audiences including members of the middle class, and away from genres like chamber music that were more specifically for an aristocratic minority.<br /><br />The extension of the Mickey Mouse copyright to 125 years is a prime example of the privatizing of what would in the past have been public or folk art.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-51167533583209925262019-01-14T21:33:04.224-06:002019-01-14T21:33:04.224-06:00My take on the article about Rose is a little bit ...My take on the article about Rose is a little bit different. While some of the 20th century modernists may have been highly elitist in "Masscult and Midcult" Dwight Macdonald claimed that many of the modernist/avant garde authors of the early 20th and late 19th century didn't see THEMSELVES as avant grade so much as they saw themselves trying to purge 19th century literature of its cliches and what Adorno would call kitsch. <br /><br />But the bigger take-away I got from the article was the boom in literacy in the 19th century was able to happen because of how much of what we know think of as a literary canon was public domain. <br /><br />When the "Blurred Lines" verdict came down a few years ago I recall some people being aghast at the ruling but for those of us who draw inspiration from mainly public domain music the ruling is somewhat irrelevant; but it IS interesting to observe that for people who are steeped mainly in popular musical culture from the last fifty years they do run into some challenges with so much of the recorded music of the period being so firmly within copyright. Wenatchee the Hatchethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13208892745502555715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-21502375023528967572019-01-14T15:25:27.955-06:002019-01-14T15:25:27.955-06:00Thanks, Gavin, for a different perspective. I susp...Thanks, Gavin, for a different perspective. I suspect that Rose might be thinking of more recent writers, who avoid genre popularity in favor of a more "literary" style. Michael Ondaatje? But you are right, there are lots of fine writers who do not give you a sense that they have contempt for the common reader.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-40395687140965736112019-01-14T15:10:31.747-06:002019-01-14T15:10:31.747-06:00I think that's a bit of a slur on literary mod...I think that's a bit of a slur on literary modernism. For example, Hemingway is often considered a modernist, and his writing is clear and lucid. The same with Joseph Conrad.<br /><br />I'd argue that modernism is about trying to find a way to clear off the excrescences of the Romantic period and find a way to do something new. That's as true of Stravinsky as it is of Hemingway. I personally love <i>Ulysses</i>, but it's always felt more like the odd one out with its willful obscurities. Even <i>Mrs. Dalloway</i> by the elitist Woolf is easy to read on a surface level.Gavinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17128934036234470413noreply@blogger.com