'Intellectual Snobbery'?

[Conchis]

The booklet of a recent recording of Rossini's Guiglelmo Tell describes an intellectual snob as 'someone who can listen to the G.T. overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.'

I have fitted this description for a number of years now.

Likewise, I can't help inwardly sneering when someone refers to the 'Hovis Symphony' - or even as just 'Hovis'; or when someone sighs 'I could murder a pint of Stella' when they hear the overture to La Forza Del Destino.

Are YOU guilty of musical snobbery by this definition? And, if so, are you bothered?


(I'm not).

[french frank]

No. I often think of the Lone Ranger when I hear William Tell, so I don't sneer at me. I would sack any Radio 3 presenter who referred to the Hovis symphony, but if anyone heard the music and only recognised it as the Hovis commercial music, I should just feel there was a huge gap in our cultural interests and we probably wouldn't have much in common, musically.

But I should feel depressed rather than superior

[antongould]

Tonto and the bakery boy with the bike every time ..... Sad really but I am only here for balance .....

[Conchis]

No. I often think of the Lone Ranger when I hear William Tell, so I don't sneer at me. I would sack any Radio 3 presenter who referred to the Hovis symphony, but if anyone heard the music and only recognised it as the Hovis commercial music, I should just feel there was a huge gap in our cultural interests and we probably wouldn't have much in common, musically.

But I should feel depressed rather than superior

Even back in the 70s, I'm not sure it was possible to think the Lago from Dvorak 9 had been 'specially composed' for a bread advert. It was already a famous tune and plenty of people would have been able to identify it as such: that's the way knowledge percolates down.

You would have to be WILFULLY IGNORANT not to know where the tune came from and who composed it, I'd say.

[pastoralguy]

Take at look at the BAL thread on 'Carousel'...!

[mercia]

I hadn't heard that Adagio from Spartacus before seeing The Onedin Line so it is bound to be linked in my mind. Likewise I hadn't heard that Adagietto before seeing Death In Venice, but fortunately the film has completely faded from my memory.

[I'm not old enough to remember The Lone Ranger]

[Mary Chambers]

I've never seen The Lone Ranger, and I can't recall the advertisements, although I may have seen them - so the answer is yes. No, I'm not at all bothered.

[Conchis]

I hadn't heard that Adagio from Spartacus before seeing The Onedin Line so it is bound to be linked in my mind. Likewise I hadn't heard that Adagietto before seeing Death In Venice, but fortunately the film has completely faded from my memory.

[I'm not old enough to remember The Lone Ranger]

Likewise: Onedin Line and DiV were my introductions to both of those pieces but I never now associate them with the places where I first heard them.

I suppose that means they were successfully used: they enhanced the film/programme and encouraged me (the viewer) to do further research.

[Padraig]

I'm with Conchis. When I hear that overture I always say "Oh listen! That's William Tell and I'm not even thinking about ..... anything else".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The booklet of a recent recording of Rossini's Guiglelmo Tell describes an intellectual snob as 'someone who can listen to the G.T. overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.'

A sign of the times, perhaps - the original joke (an old one - IIRC it was a Frank Muir who first thought of it) didn't use the word "snob", just "an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Ovt without thinking of the Lone Ranger" - which I think is both wittier and less aggressive.

"Snobbery" is something that demands definition in this new context, or it doesn't work. Is "an intellectual inverted snob" someone who hears the Overture and refuses to think of Rossini?

[french frank]

and I'm not even thinking about ..... anything else".

Snob … :-)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

the original joke (an old one - IIRC it was a Frank Muir who first thought of it)

Ah - according to Wiki, Jack Guin in the Denver Post in 1962.

[Flosshilde]

the original joke ... Didn't use the word "snob", just "an intellectual is someone who can listen to the william tell ovt without thinking of the lone ranger" - which i think is both wittier and less aggressive.

[Zucchini]

Anyway I like the tune Chopin did for Sparky's Magic Piano

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Anyway I like the tune Chopin did for Sparky's Magic Piano

Which one? He supplied 4 for this purpose.