River of Music: 12 hrs Non-stop Music: Sunday 30 October

[kernelbogey]

...Now I'm going round to my local Korean café for a spot of supper and to write out my general thoughts about the River of Music, which criticisms I thought were justified and which not, what worked and what didn't. I think there is quite a lot to be said.

I'm curious, FF, whether you intend feeding this back to R3 management. I imagine you would present a more balanced summary than this raw thread.

[Zucchini]

I'm curious, FF, whether you intend feeding this back to R3 management. I imagine you would present a more balanced summary than this raw thread.

If so, it would only be a personal opinion

The squabbles and often inane and ill-informed nonsenses posted by 20 or so people with too much idle time on their hands can't remotely be representative of the opinion of the 1400 subscribers to this forum or those of the Friends of Radio 3 and will not match the consideration and care put in by BBC management/executives.

[doversoul1]

... and will not match the consideration and care put in by BBC management/executives.

Would you kindly inform me as to where I may see the result of that consideration and care put in by BBC management/executives other than the officially published Live Blog which contains the information on approx. 30 pieces of music out of 70 that were played on the programme?

Yes, the playlist has been published but not the information about relevance to the time etc. as far as I am aware.

[DracoM]

Agree entirely.
The way it has been presented - sorry, curated - and posted online would suggest that the BBC actually wants / expects the River to become merest wallpaper, since they seem not to believe listeners would be interested enough to access details.
Which i have to say i find puzzling given the amount of puff they have given it before and since. Do they not see it as a way of getting the new listener interested in the music played as a way in to pursue genres / composers / ensembles etc??

[Serial_Apologist]

Having just skimmed through the intervening posts I've come to the conclusion that the information I was hoping to find about the connections does not in fact exist.Or possibly it does(after all this was carefully crafted/curated) but for whatever reason it is not deemed necessary to share it with us - in which case I wonder why not?

I am reminded of the famous quote of Lao Tse apropos something else altogether, maybe: "Those that speak do not know; those that know do not speak".

[vinteuil]

I am reminded of the famous quote of Lao Tse apropos something else altogether, maybe: "Those that speak do not know; those that know do not speak".

Lao Tse : impenetrable or inane. Discuss.

[Thropplenoggin]

Lao Tse : impenetrable or inane. Discuss.

To a narrow-minded Occidentalist, perhaps.

[vinteuil]

To a narrow-minded Occidentalist, perhaps.

.

"Those that speak do not know; those that know do not speak".

[french frank]

If so, it would only be a personal opinion

That was always Roger Wright's answer. Carry out whatever surveys we liked, provide the evidence of the replies, no, what I said was 'my personal opinion'.

My intention was to post here first my impression of what people had said and ask for comments. The problem is that many people do believe that their own opinion is 'what most people think' so if what I wrote didn't accord with what they thought it would need adjusting.

What I try to do is give opposing views, though if necessary I might indicate that sometimes an opinion was a very minority view (i.e. NOT MANY people expressed the view here).

It doesn't amount to a methodology, it won't be claimed as 'representative' other than of the people who participated in the discussion, but if you could suggest any useful refinements, Zucchini, I would be very grateful.

(I hadn't thought of sending it to BBC management, but to post it on our website which managers have been known to look at from time to time)

[Sir Velo]

Those that speak do not know.

A comment whose truth is frequently borne out by what passes on these boards.

[vinteuil]

A comment whose truth is frequently borne out by what passes on these boards.

but:

if there are some who speak who do not know

there are some who speak who do know

and -

if there are some who do not speak who know

I assume

there are some who do not speak who do not know

[ahinton]

but:

if there are some who speak who do not know

there are some who speak who do know

and -

if there are some who do not speak who know

I assume

there are some who do not speak who do not know

All true, of course, even if it sounds faintly reminiscent of the egregious Donald Rumsfeld's semi-comical attempt to peer through his own particular Johari window with the words "reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know...we also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know...but there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know...and if one looks throughout the history of our country and other free countries, it is the latter category that tend to be the difficult ones"; although this was correctly attributed to Rumsfeld, the principle under which he made that statement was already well established rather than being entirely of his own invention.

[Thropplenoggin]

There is a wisdom in paradox. See Zeno, Bertrand Russell, Alice in Wonderland, etc. Paradox is a fundamental aspect of reason and logic. It cannot be avoided and has always been explored by Western philosophers. The East offers its own methods outside of Western rationalism. The point is that Zen, Taoism, etc. force you to think outside normal categories and concepts. Perhaps, indeed, to bypass thought itself. To not think, even. If you want to read a Western master on 'what is called thinking', read Heidegger. Or read outside the Western canon. There's a whole world of other thoughts out there.

[vinteuil]

.

thank you, Throppers, for your enlightenment.

Many years ago I too read these things.

I was young.

I am now old.



.

[ahinton]

.

thank you, Throppers, for your enlightenment.

Many years ago I too read these things.

I am now old.

So was Elliott Carter when he composed his swansong, 12 Epigrams for piano trio, just over four years ago. Didn;t stop him...