Which part of music is your absolute specialist subject ?

[Alison]

I never cease to be amazed at the broad musical knowledge of any number of forumites.

But what is absolutely your thing? Whether you're professional or amateur ...

Roehre - surely even you specialise in something!!

[umslopogaas]

With great trepidation, since I am not a musician in any sense, I am just a person who loves music, I specialise in original LP recordings and have over seven thousand of them to prove my point. That's just enough to tell me that I barely know anything about the subject, but give me a try and I will do my best.

[Alison]

Thanks ums.

Ok then - how much of a problem is inner grove distortion to you LP enthusiasts?

[Roehre]

I never cease to be amazed at the broad musical knowledge of any number of forumites.

But what is absolutely your thing? Whether you're professional or amateur ...

Roehre - surely even you specialise in something!!

I am afraid this might shock some MBers it's Beethoven
(despite loathing finale 9 as symphonic finale )
plus in general compostional processes as follow from sketches and versions of works (JSBach, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Stravinsky, Webern to mention some in whose output I am more than average interested)

[Suffolkcoastal]

Mine is 20th Century American music, I probably know more about Roy Harris than anyone else in the UK. I could also add Vaughan Williams.

[EdgeleyRob]

I wouldn't say specialist,but I know quite a bit about RVW and the prog rock band Yes.

[teamsaint]

Punk and post punk type stuff.



any questions?! (not you, Beefy......!!)

[cloughie]

I am afraid this might shock some MBers it's Beethoven
(despite loathing finale 9 as symphonic finale )

I think my specialist subjects are loathing Beet 9 movt 4 and Bolero. Overall I've no overall expertise or a specialist in any area but a dabbler in a few areas and I doubt that anyone would agree with my views, tastes or approaches to these.

[Petrushka]

Like others on here, I'm a music lover and not a performer though I did spend 10 years in our Parish Church choir 1965 - 1975 which may count for something.

My specialist area is orchestral music from Bach to Birtwistle with special emphasis on Mahler, Bruckner, Elgar and Shostakovich. Outside of music it's the Second World War. Could do a Mastermind round on any of these.

[cloughie]

Punk and post punk type stuff.



any questions?! (not you, Beefy......!!)

Yes why? (ts You should probably have said not you Cloughie as we have disagreed on the merits and lack of thereabouts)

[Serial_Apologist]

Twentieth century composers up to WW2 culminating in Schoenberg, in the "classical" area, mainly, though I do love early electronica; then, oddly enough, cutting edge jazz and improv from 1964 to the present.

[teamsaint]

Yes why? (ts You should probably have said not you Cloughie as we have disagreed on the merits and lack of thereabouts)

because it needed doing. Because it unlocked, somewhat paradoxically, a strong DIY ethic, which was very powerful in allowing people to create music, literature, businesses and so on under their own steam, and not on the say so of some executive.

because it allowed musicians to express their local identity, to sing about politics (in a broad sense)in British (non american ) accents.

Because it helped create the situations where young British white kids could share and perform the music of British and non British black kids in a vibrant and powerful way.

Because it showed how raw energy can be harnessed into music of lasting value.

Because it fostered any number of areas of musical and other experimentation.

And so on and so on.....

( I said "not Beefy", because he probably knows more than me.....!!)

[cloughie]

because it needed doing. Because it unlocked, somewhat paradoxically, a strong DIY ethic, which was very powerful in allowing people to create music, literature, businesses and so on under their own steam, and not on the say so of some executive.

because it allowed musicians to express their local identity, to sing about politics (in a broad sense)in British (non american ) accents.

Because it helped create the situations where young British white kids could share and perform the music of British and non British black kids in a vibrant and powerful way.

Because it showed how raw energy can be harnessed into music of lasting value.

Because it fostered any number of areas of musical and other experimentation.

And so on and so on.....

So you say but all that had already been done in the sixties - it was reinvention but not done as well!

[Serial_Apologist]

because it needed doing. Because it unlocked, somewhat paradoxically, a strong DIY ethic, which was very powerful in allowing people to create music, literature, businesses and so on under their own steam, and not on the say so of some executive.

because it allowed musicians to express their local identity, to sing about politics (in a broad sense)in British (non american ) accents.

Because it helped create the situations where young British white kids could share and perform the music of British and non British black kids in a vibrant and powerful way.

Because it showed how raw energy can be harnessed into music of lasting value.

Because it fostered any number of areas of musical and other experimentation.

And so on and so on.....

( I said "not Beefy", because he probably knows more than me.....!!)

That's right! For me Punk in its original stages was more about raw energy than much else, it being what it sired (as you say) that gives it a retrospective value: it can't be repeated and had to go elsewhere pretty quick. In that sense alone rather like Wagner, albeit in a slightly different musical idiom! It gave free improvisation, which had been getting too abstracted from its origins in free jazz and avant-garde/experimental concert music, a kick up the a*se of rejuvenation from the rock end of things. Of course a lot of late 1960s high energy free jazz was (and in some instances still is ) more about rawness and rebellion than articulacy.

[teamsaint]

So you say but all that had already been done in the sixties - it was reinvention but not done as well!

even if that is correct, (and I would agree in part, but only in part), the musical and other creativity unleashed by punk was extraordinary.

Reinvention is surely the stuff of music?

I'm not sure how the use , for example,of Reggae by white bands like the Clash, Police, SLF was just something that was done in the 60's reinvented but not done as well?

Lets be more positive. Ask me for a recommendation !! (maybe on the Pop thread).