Drama to be eradicated from Radio 3

[Ein Heldenleben]

I moved from pop to classical at the age of thirteen, and ever afterwards couldn't separate pop (or 'rock' as it later came to dignify itself) from immaturity . The sight of middle aged men avidly listening to it and describing it in the language I associated with Bach and Wagner's masterpieces seemed absurd to me.

Absurd or not it attracted considerable musical intellects like Hans Keller and Prof Wilfrid Mellers. There’s very Little harmonically in the Beatles that isn’t in Wagner - even in Beethoven. Elton Johns music has a very heavy African American spiritual influence. Rap is now studied as a section of the Oxford music degree and rightly so as it is probably the most successful musical genre there has ever been.
And then there’s the vast sphere of ethno-musicology studying music of the various peoples of the world. It’s often struck me how very “unstuck up” musicologists are about their work. In English literature there’s a real hierarchy of interest - or used to be - about what’s worth studying. All this of course academic theorising would have been par for the course on R3 in the ‘80’s . Now any such programme would have to be so dumbed down as barely worth listening to.

Now , according to the endless trails , we have Radio Four series on great thinkers like Malcom X. A very significant figure no doubt but a great thinker?

[Master Jacques]

And then there’s the vast sphere of ethno-musicology studying music of the various peoples of the world. It’s often struck me how very “unstuck up” musicologists are about their work.

You must know a different cross-section from many of the ethno-musicologists I've encountered, who tend to be very imperious about the qualitative superiority of "their" areas of study to (a completely fictitious) elitist, white-male and monolithic Western tradition.

[french frank]

Absurd or not it attracted considerable musical intellects like Hans Keller and Prof Wilfrid Mellers.

Their attention was attracted to certain pop music composers and works. What stood out, as far as they were concerned, was of particular interest, not the genre per se but what it might produce.

Now , according to the endless trails , we have Radio Four series on great thinkers like Malcom X. A very significant figure no doubt but a great thinker?

Like Paul McCartney, significant in his time and in the context in which he worked/lived. It's lesser intellects and those with a narrower education, who evaluate the known and are uncuriously ignorant of the unknown who get more attention than they deserve..

[Serial_Apologist]

Their attention was attracted to certain pop music composers and works. What stood out, as far as they were concerned, was of particular interest, not the genre per se but what it might produce.



Like Paul McCartney, significant in his time and in the context in which he worked/lived. It's lesser intellects and those with a narrower education, who evaluate the known and are uncuriously ignorant of the unknown who get more attention than they deserve..

Wouldn't one say evaluating the "known" is due part and parcel of the open scientific principle?

[Ein Heldenleben]

You must know a different cross-section from many of the ethno-musicologists I've encountered, who tend to be very imperious about the qualitative superiority of "their" areas of study to (a completely fictitious) elitist, white-male and monolithic Western tradition.

I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly met one. I do know that “classical “musicologists and ethnos tend to sneer at each other .

[french frank]

Wouldn't one say evaluating the "known" is due part and parcel of the open scientific principle?

Some people's 'evaluations' might be more searching and discerning than those of others, depending on their background I have neither the personal knowledge nor the interest to evaluate how 'Soft Machine' (who they?) or Pet Shops Boys or Florence and the Machine rate musically so as to have attracted the attention of better musical minds than mine!

[LMcD]

I don’t think I’ve ever knowingly met one. I do know that “classical “musicologists and ethnos tend to sneer at each other .

I'm all in favour of that if it stops them from sneering at the likes of yours truly.

[Ein Heldenleben]

Some people's 'evaluations' might be more searching and discerning than those of others, depending on their background I have neither the personal knowledge nor the interest to evaluate how 'Soft Machine' (who they?) or Pet Shops Boys or Florence and the Machine rate musically so as to have attracted the attention of better musical minds than mine!

Well that’s saved you decades reading pretentious “reviews” in the NME and Melody Maker . I’m coming round to the Hans Keller view that 99 per cent of words about music are a waste of time ..,

[Master Jacques]

I’m coming round to the Hans Keller view that 99 per cent of words about music are a waste of time ..,

Possibly. But we still have to put the reading work in, to find that elusive 1% - if on average we read for 2 hours per day, that's a far from negligible 7 hours plus per year which might change our perspective on music, and possibly life. Not so bad, after all.

[Bella Kemp]

It is encouraging that the numbers are steadily increasing on this poll. Gatsby in Harlem was incredibly good, but if you google Drama on 3 you will find so many similar treasures. In a world where the liberal foundations are under such huge pressure, it is so important that these anchors - however frail - are kept in place. Everything helps.

[french frank]

I’m coming round to the Hans Keller view that 99 per cent of words about music are a waste of time ..,

Well, he wrote a fair number of them himself.

[smittims]

I think he meant the one per cent to be his book '1975, 1984 minus nine' (Dobson publications), which I still turn to occasionaly with pleasure . It includes, surprisingly for me, a lengthy chapter on Association Football, and some lovely inky drawings byhis wife,the artist Milein Cosman.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think he meant the one per cent to be his book '1975, 1984 minus nine' (Dobson publications), which I still turn to occasionally with pleasure . It includes, surprisingly for me, a lengthy chapter on Association Football, and some lovely inky drawings by his wife,the artist Milein Cosman.

Well there's no accounting for some people's tastes!