BBC 4 announces classical music season

[jean]

An interesting use of the singular there.

But isn't its modern sense rather hypocrisy that what we've been talking about here?

[french frank]

I only meant that while jargon is very much in use, cant has completely disappeared!

In that case, I would agree with you (rather than Bryn).

Back to 'gig', I would suggest: it was a musicians' term for a professional engagement (1920s) which has now (from the 1980s? onwards) passed into more general use to mean a single musical event.

I doubt very much that it is the common term used in preference to 'concert' by the over sixties to refer to a classical concert; and given that the average age of the Radio 3 listener is 59, use of the phrase by Radio 3 presenters could be taken by the sensitive (at least) as being yet one more way that the station is speaking to the 'younger audience' (in an attempt to make them feel at home), rather than to them.

I'm not at all sure why I received a from The Boss for suggesting that words are just words: it is individuals who imbue them with emotional impact

[vinteuil]

I only meant that while jargon is very much in use, cant has completely disappeared!

... and yet it's such a good and useful word. Hazlitt, as so often, is excellent here :

"Thus, though I think there is very little downright hypocrisy in the world, I do think there is a great deal of cant -- "cant religious, cant political, cant literary," etc., as Lord Byron said. Though few people have the face to set up for the very thing they in their hearts despise, we almost all want to be thought better than we are, and affect a greater admiration or abhorrence for certain things than we really feel. Indeed, some degree of affectation is as necessary to the mind as dress is to the body; we must overact our part in some measure in order to procure any effect at all. There was formerly the two hours' sermon, the longwinded grace, the nasal drawl, the uplifted hands and eyes; all which, though accompanied with some corresponding emotion expressed more than was really felt, and were in fact intended to make up for the conscious deficiency. As our interest in anything wears out with time and habit we exaggerate the outward symptoms of zeal as mechanical helps to devotion, dwell the longer on our words as they are less felt, and hence the very origin of the term, cant. The cant of sentimentality has succeeded to that of religion. There is a cant of humanity, of patriotism and loyalty -- not that people do not feel these motions but they make too great a fuss about them, and draw out the expression of them till they tire themselves and others. There is a cant about Shakespear. There is a cant about Political Economy just now. In short, there is and must be a cant about everything that excites a considerable degree of attention and interest, and that people would be thought to know and care rather more about them than they actually do. Cant is the voluntary overcharging or prolongation of a real sentiment; hypocrisy is the setting up a pretension to a feeling you never had and have no wish for. There are people who are made up of cant, that is of mawkish affectation and sensibility; but who have not sincerity enough to be hypocrites, that is, have not hearty dislike or contempt enough for anything, to give the lie to their puling professions of admiration and esteem for it."



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[vinteuil]

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... and of course Johnson hits the nail : "“My dear friend, clear your mind of cant. You may talk as other people do. You may say to a man, ‘Sir, I am your most humble servant.’ You are not his most humble servant. You may say, ‘These are sad times; it is a melancholy thing to be reserved to such times.’ You don’t mind the times. You tell a man, ‘I am sorry you had such bad weather the last day of your journey, and were so much wet.’ You don’t care six-pence whether he was wet or dry. You may talk in this manner; it is a mode of talking in Society: but don’t think foolishly.” "



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[french frank]

Hazlitt, as so often, is excellent here :

Is Hazlitt different from haslet? I think it's excellent.

[vinteuil]

Is Hazlitt different from haslet? I think it's excellent.

... as you well know, haslet is derived from old french entrails. Hazlitt derives from hazel trees. And shd be pronounced haze-litt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hazlitt

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[Serial_Apologist]

I only meant that while jargon is very much in use, cant has completely disappeared!

For reason in revolt now thunders,
And at once ends the age of cant.

It certainly seems so, yes...

[jean]

Hmmm...but what does it mean there?

It doesn't seem to translate this very well:

La raison tonne en son cratère,
C’est l’éruption de la fin.

[Serial_Apologist]

Hmmm...but what does it mean there?

It doesn't seem to translate this very well:

La raison tonne en son cratère,
C’est l’éruption de la fin.

I'd always read "cant" to mean a whole set of concepts, including dishonesty, misinformation, disingenuousness, appeal to base emotions and hypocrisy. Maybe the loose translator was thinking along such lines; but I see what you mean, jean, never myself having read the original French.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

A regular classical music slot on BBC4 would seem to be a better use of the licence fee than raking up TOTP programmes from 30 or more years ago.

[Alison]

A regular classical music slot on BBC4 would seem to be a better use of the licence fee than raking up TOTP programmes from 30 or more years ago.

Perhaps my powers of english comprehension are diminishing .... or was the original press release a difficult read?

In any event I'm still not sure what this new season amounts to?

The 100 greatest moments type of idea seems very Channel 5 to me!

Maybe the next 100 messages can clarify.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I'm not sure whether English comprehension troubles the BBC.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A regular classical music slot on BBC4 would seem to be a better use of the licence fee than raking up TOTP programmes from 30 or more years ago.

- and episodes of the Good Old Days from the same vintage!!!

[french frank]

- and episodes of the Good Old Days from the same vintage!!!

I can't see how, say, a weekly (hour-long?) programme of chamber music featuring BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists would be hugely expensive, and it would be good promotion for the performers, moreso than just getting broadcasts on Radio 3.

If allowed 90 minutes, I'd have a non-presented rehearsal of a string quartet, say, young people who are friends, discussing how they will play a piece. And finish up with a performance straight through. Casual clothes for the rehearsal, but can't quite decide whether they should dress up for the final performance? Or would that negate the informality at the beginning, I wonder?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I can't see how, say, a weekly (hour-long?) programme of chamber music featuring BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists would be hugely expensive, and it would be good promotion for the performers, moreso than just getting broadcasts on Radio 3.

If allowed 90 minutes, I'd have a non-presented rehearsal of a string quartet, say, young people who are friends, discussing how they will play a piece. And finish up with a performance straight through. Casual clothes for the rehearsal, but can't quite decide whether they should dress up for the final performance? Or would that negate the informality at the beginning, I wonder?

Sounds wonderful! The dress question would depend on whether the rehearsals or to a public performance or not - continue in "casuals" if not; pretty frocks if a genuine gi ... err ... concert performance.