The Eternal Breakfast Debate in a New Place

[antongould]

Suggestions for music to blow the top of your head off .........methinks this will be a winner hereabouts??

[cloughie]

Suggestions for music to blow the top of your head off .........methinks this will be a winner hereabouts??

1 Build up to and beginning of battle scene in Heldenleben
2 End of SS3
3 Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

[Sir Velo]

Happened to turn in briefly (and as it turned out, momentarily) ths morning, when the CD I was playing came to its end and the radio cut in to the strains of "Jupiter". Such originality. When are these guys going to realise that it is irrelevant to the Classic FM set what they play as whatever it is washes over their uncritical faculties as background music, while the discerning listener immediately switches for the off button.

[antongould]

1 Build up to and beginning of battle scene in Heldenleben
2 End of SS3
3 Isaac Hayes - Theme from Shaft

You need to tell Clemmers not me Cloughie

[french frank]

Happened to turn in briefly (and as it turned out, momentarily) ths morning, when the CD I was playing came to its end and the radio cut in to the strains of "Jupiter". Such originality. When are these guys going to realise that it is irrelevant to the Classic FM set what they play as whatever it is washes over their uncritical faculties as background music, while the discerning listener immediately switches for the off button.

I switched on to the sound of The Tune from Mozart's Horn Concerto ("I once had a whim and I had to obey it"). Then soon after there was Jupiter bringing a bit of jollity, then a very obscure little Bach piano piece, after that the Saint-Saëns Allegro Appashonato, a nice slow Adagio Cantabile from Beethoven's Pathétique ...

This is surely where the argument falls down that 'They may be familiar to YOU, but a lot of other people are hearing them for the first time' . Every morning there may be people who are hearing whatever they play 'for the first time' which would allow them to play, every day, a Johann Strauss II waltz (sorry - a polka this morning), the overture from Candide, an orchestral bit from a George Gershwin show... I see we had an Elgar Pomp & Circumstance March, a Kreisler piece, a Brahms Hungarian Dance, a song from The Mikado, Grieg's Morning and an Offenbach overture.

There is no defence in saying that there were other things in between. I love the piano transcription of Jesu bleibet meine Freude, but not wedged between Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity and a Saint-Saëns cello work.

One doesn't listen in order to complain, but to try to explain why a lot of people find the programme so awful. We KNOW that it 'isn't aimed at us' - but that, surely is at the root of the complaint?

(As for CFM listeners, many of them do recognise that they are getting the same pieces recycled over and over again. They may turn to Radio 3 and discover after a year or so that they're getting Radio 3's same pieces over and over again).

[Sir Velo]

This is surely where the argument falls down that 'They may be familiar to YOU, but a lot of other people are hearing them for the first time' . (As for CFM listeners, many of them do recognise that they are getting the same pieces recycled over and over again. They may turn to Radio 3 and discover after a year or so that they're getting Radio 3's same pieces over and over again).

I agree that some of those drawn from CFM may well get cheesed off with hearing the same stuff all the time on R3 as well.

My point is really that, as much of what they really want (OK I am being presumptuous ) is just tuneful background listening, it really doesn't matter what is played provided it is: (a) (in the main) tonal; and (b) harmonically not too challenging (which I suspect is what most of us want first thing in the morning anyway).

As has been amply demonstrated on another thread there are literally thousands of pieces which fall into this category. Who knows, with a bit of imagination in the programming, disgruntled listeners (such as us) might even start listening again!

[french frank]

As has been amply demonstrated on another thread there are literally thousands of pieces which fall into this category. Who knows, with a bit of imagination in the programming, disgruntled listeners (such as us) might even start listening again!

I suppose/think perhaps that the idea of 'educating our new listeners' means that they have a list of, erm, essential classics which Every Classical Music Lover must be familiar with - and Breakfast is the programme where they play: Pieces You Will Meet In Your Journey Into Classical Music (continuing into Essential Classics). With half the pieces falling into that category the entire programme loses its appeal for those who are Further Into Their Journey.

As far as 'education' goes, the method seems to be to give as little information as possible - but just keep playing the pieces so that they become familiar.

[cloughie]

You need to tell Clemmers not me Cloughie

Nah - she can get it from the thread if she wants it!

[Bax-of-Delights]

I tell you what "blows my head off".
The juxtaposition of Walton's Crown Imperial played on the organ followed a nano-second later by Isabel Bigley bellowing out "If I had a Bell" from Guys and Dolls. And I see from the playlist - as I had turned off at this point - that was followed by the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem.
Crass.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Crass.

You might say it's a programme for idiots, run by ... gmbmbgrr..

[french frank]

The juxtaposition of Walton's Crown Imperial played on the organ followed a nano-second later by Isabel Bigley bellowing out "If I had a Bell" from Guys and Dolls. And I see from the playlist - as I had turned off at this point - that was followed by the Agnus Dei from Faure's Requiem.

And I know. Because I was there. Unable to switch it off.

[Bax-of-Delights]

And I know. Because I was there. Unable to switch it off.

You were there, FF? At the BBC? Having a cup of tea with Clemmie?

[french frank]

You were there, FF? At the BBC? Having a cup of tea with Clemmie?

Certainly not! I was here, but on the leg extension machine, remotely situated from the remote . It was the original cast of Guys and Dolls but the singing was painful. In My Humble Opinion, of course.

I can understand people having very wide tastes in music (sort of). But I can't understand how they could hop about from one extreme to another every five minutes, including classical, other than just to have any old thing pumping into their brains.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Certainly not! I was here, but on the leg extension machine

Didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, did you?


(Actually, who needs the Rack, the Iron Lady, Thumbscrews etc when there's unmutable Breakfast? I'd confess to anything!)

[amateur51]

Didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition, did you?


(Actually, who needs the Rack, the Iron Lady, Thumbscrews etc when there's unmutable Breakfast? I'd confess to anything!)