'Why Music?' weekend

[Serial_Apologist]

It reminded me of some of the "new age" (so-called) music which started appearing in the '80s - saccharine and amorphous. (Was it actually played by humans, or computers? If the latter, I hope they built an anti-boredom extension into the operating system.)

I did wonder about complaining to the BBC about telling listeners to leave their radios on all night, and the amount of power which would thereby be wasted. (But given the size of R3's audience, and the likelihood of anyone actually taking up the suggestion, it probably wouldn't be substantial.)

I thought it sounded very Moogy, like early Brian Eno - circa 1976: "Music for Airports" era, alternated with acoustic versions of itself.

[zola]

I thought it sounded very Moogy, like early Brian Eno - circa 1976: "Music for Airports" era, alternated with acoustic versions of itself.

I was suffering a bout of insomnia caused by irritating cold symptoms and so left it on in the hope it would achieve the stated aim of lulling to sleep ( or in and out of sleep ) But I did not actually succeed in finally falling asleep until I switched it off around 0415 ! I quite liked the segment some time after three thirty.

[Daniel]

I've listened to a few bits of this weekend en passant, I'm glad it's happening. The bits I heard seemed to contain an honourable interesting/meh balance.

it's how I look at what Radio 3 should do and be.

Yes I do too I think, if I understand you correctly. I like the idea of a bold, pioneering and learned Radio 3 that doesn't ape a market-driven model, but that also provides the core, sweet flesh, skin etc repertoire too. It seems so possible to do, but is apparently not desired by enough people, or the right people.

This video seems conceivably relevant to any speech/music discussions, I wonder if it (or similar) came up anywhere? It's quite revealing as well as amusing I think. I'll certainly listen to the Schumann/Wagner programme that Caliban recommends, amongst others in the coming weeks.

[Nick Armstrong]

I'll certainly listen to the Schumann/Wagner programme that Caliban recommends

It was Rachmaninov rather than Wagner, but go for it and let us know what you think!

[french frank]

I'm glad it's happening. The bits I heard seemed to contain an honourable interesting/meh balance.

Yes I do too I think, if I understand you correctly. I like the idea of a bold, pioneering and learned Radio 3 that doesn't ape a market-driven model, but that also provides the core, sweet flesh, skin etc repertoire too. It seems so possible to do, but is apparently not desired by enough people, or the right people.

The fact that it isn't 'desired by enough people' is where the courage comes in. The BBC had the 'courage' to ditch Top Gear in the teeth of all the outrage. R3 should have the courage to ditch Essential Classics (that is, the programme concept) even though it amasses a large audience.

[Daniel]

It was Rachmaninov rather than Wagner

Doh, I knew that! I blame it on the 38C + temperature that seems to have joined me for the weekend. Though my stupidity helps too.

[doversoul1]

Now gone back and listened to the first part of the Schumann segment (I'll listen to the Rachmaninov part tomorrow). Very impressed indeed, this chap Dr Kogan is quite a phenomenon. To have a professional shrink talk about the music (and the composers, from letters etc) from the inside out, and then himself give pretty exemplary performances of the music, is pretty remarkable. It's sent me back to Schumann at a canter, playing in my stumbling way some of his very late Gesänge der Frühe in the light of the lecture, and listening to Papillons...

I would recommend that if people only listen to one thing of the immersion weekend, they make it this programme.

I was quite put off when I found that the first programme was (sounded) a chat between three people. However, I am glad I didn’t give the whole series a miss. Taking up Caliban’s recommendation, I’ve just listened to Dr Kogan’s programme, which I thought was most impressive. It felt like Radio3’s coming home.

I don’t think I can take in more than two programmes a day if they are all as substantial as this programme. What a good thing i-Player is.

[agingjb]

Odd how the last half hour of the "weekend" clashed with BBC4's program on Arvo Part. Very BBC.

"Sleep" being imperial nudity? Perhaps, then again for most of my friends and family any so called serious music after 1934 (and some before) is cacophony. Oh well. I switched it on at 4am, slept mostly until 7am, and got up then and heard the rest. Nothing special, but I've heard much worse.

As for the rest of the weekend: some gems indeed, but then that's what R3 should be giving us day after day. The politicians, all stripes, won't allow it.

[french frank]

The politicians, all stripes, won't allow it.

Unclear. Andrew Bingham, a member of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has been sounding off about Radio 3 becoming more like Classic FM. What he would think of Why Music? is another matter. "Enough, already," perhaps.

Disappointingly, Lord Hall takes up the usual BBC stance of defending even the indefensible. I think the present controller is the best chance we have to return Radio 3 to a more 'erudite' service ('learned', as daniel says).

"What I learn from Radio 3, I am not going to learn about classical music from anywhere else. And it’s [sic] commitment to live music and music making is actually second to none. And also, Radio 3’s commitment to finding new music and commissioning new works I think is also really important," said [Lord Hall]. "Ooh, and another thing &c &c … "

The usual ploy: to pick out what is self-evidently different and ignore all the issues the critics are talking about.

[agingjb]

I'm sure there are non-philistine voices in all parties. I fear those with real influence pat them on the heads and say: "there, there, don't fret, when we have the cash and time we'll get round to it".

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I don’t think I can take in more than two programmes a day if they are all as substantial as this programme.

Yes - this was essentially my point, too. Many of the programmes - and the concept of the theme itself - were reminders of the R3 as I remember it from the '70s to the mid-'90s; but the idea of bunging them into a couple of days' intense broadcasting is pure "Wright-athon" - not just because of the disruption to the schedules (although it's notable that Jazz is again the chief victim of this) but because of the damage to the theme itself, which needs to be treated accumulatively if justice is to be done to it, not bunged together in an "all-you-can-eat", "Wagner's Ring complete in a day" lump.

What a good thing i-Player is.

[Nick Armstrong]

The politicians, all stripes, won't allow it.

I'm sure there are non-philistine voices in all parties. I fear those with real influence pat them on the heads and say: "there, there, don't fret, when we have the cash and time we'll get round to it".

These issues came into my mind when watching Question Time this week. Anyone else see it? After months of petty tedium, it was the best for ages, I thought - enlivened chiefly by Yanis Varoufakis, Professor of Economic Theory (who was also Finance Minister of Greece for the first seven months of 2015 ).

Putting aside various characteristics by which one can either be repelled or dazzled (e.g. that he is clearly a charismatic media performer, that he describes himself as an 'erratic Marxist', that his political CV isn't the strongest , that he appeared to tower intellectually above other panellists ("like having Einstein on Blankety Blank" was one description I read in a review ), and that he did so using his second language), much of what he said gave me pause for thought.

In particular, this final answer at the end of the programme, in relation to the health service: but if one substitutes "BBC" for "NHS" and "Universities", it's just as valid, it seems to me:

"Allow me to look at this issue from the outside, being an outsider. This country has produced precious institutions - the NHS is one, the great Universities another. Somewhere along the line, you folks lost your nerve, and you started questioning your own achievements. And this market fetishism entered realms it was never meant to be good at, like for instance the NHS or the Universities, and you started trying to introduce market solutions where they would never work - they resemble more like Soviet planning, with these ‘market indicators’ and trying to quantify the unquantifiable - the result of which, of course, is the loss of quality, both in the Universities and in the hospitals. I think you should go back to the great tradition of public service and public services provided by means of hierarchical institutions in which good people dedicated to the task do good stuff without having constantly to tot up and quantify everything they are doing, with the managers in the end taking a large part of the cut away from the doctors and the nurses.”

(I transcribed that from my recording of the programme. I corrected one solitary grammar error - he said 'tot down' rather than 'tot up')

The programme is here for anyone with a spare hour. There's some good knockabout stuff with Ken Clarke, some woman from UKIP, etc, for those with a taste for Punch and Judy shows too!


.

[ardcarp]

Hats off to Tom Service

My hat stayed firmly on, alas. I can't pretend to have listened comprehensively to Why Music...just dipped in and out....but I got fed up with Tom Service's witterings, especially this afternoon when he was being simperingly agreed with by Sarah Walker in the dying throes of the marathon. I was reminded of what French musicians call France Classique, "France Parlotte". HOWEVER, a long afternoon drive on Saturday was very pleasurably passed with the excellent Richard Kogan (fabulous programme, IMO) followed by Words and Music.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06dd1wq

and

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06db4zt

[peterthekeys]

I thought it sounded very Moogy, like early Brian Eno - circa 1976: "Music for Airports" era, alternated with acoustic versions of itself.

Hmmmmm. I do actually like the Brian Eno "ambient music" series (I often put on "music for airports" if I'm working on something which needs concentration - it does seem to help.) I didn't think that "Sleep" was in the same league. (Now if they'd got Eno to do the all-nighter, I suspect that that would really have been worth hearing. I remember that he once commented that he doesn't write music - he builds systems that write music (he once owned more than 70 tape recorders ...))

[MrGongGong]

I was working most of the weekend so missed most things but the bits I did hear (mostly Sunday afternoon) were fascinating and i'm looking forward to exploring the rest.
The "sleep" piece was presented as some radical new idea (marketed ?) but to me sits well in the middle of a canon of similar works

http://www.factmag.com/2014/10/10/dreamcatching-the-remarkable-story-of-robert-rich-and-the-sleep-concerts/

for example
and

http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012/events-and-exhibitions/sleep-concet

The tradition of the all night concert is long established in Indian music

WHICH isn't to say it wasn't a great piece and experience...

(Maybe these things were talked about ?)