"Classical Music" and other names for it

[vinteuil]

... the Chart is also interesting):

http://www.classicfm.com/radio/shows...AMuoISGAEGw.97

God, that's awful.

I mean - no Perotin, Dunstaple, Froberger, Ferneyhough, or Feldman AT ALL!!!!!

[Richard Barrett]

What is at the Top of the "Classical" Charts at the moment? Alexander Armstrong!

I'd never heard of him until now. Obviously I don't know enough about classical music! But I wonder what strangeness took place to put Hans Abrahamsen at no.28? I mean, a real, living composer with a quite original and intelligent musical style, with an opera on a libretto by Paul Griffiths based on Shakespeare???

[jean]

In that case clearly 'we're' to blame and not 'them' ?

Who said anything about blame?

[teamsaint]

In what sense "value"? (As opposed to "pricing"?)

value, as in "Give their students the opportunity to participate and excel in".

I suspect the value it primarily for what further opportunities it may help the students access, and not particularly for the activity itself.

All very generalised opinion I know, , by I have a very cynical view of the the reasons for the emphasis on this music in private schools, which of course doesn't mean that some of the teachers there aren't committed and skilful.

[Richard Barrett]

Who said anything about blame?

Well I sort of did, in implying that anyone who voted Tory has no excuse to complain about the rising wave of philistinism in education and dumbing-down in culture. (Benny Hill, for god's sake!)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I suspect the value it primarily for what further opportunities it may help the students access, and not particularly for the activity itself.

I share your "cynical view" - but think that the mindset involved in such an idea of "value" does little to suggest any genuine understanding of the word.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I wonder what strangeness took place to put Hans Abrahamsen at no.28? I mean, a real, living composer with a quite original and intelligent musical style, with an opera on a libretto by Paul Griffiths based on Shakespeare???

"Frequently Bought with:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Thoughts-Suede/dp/B0150Y6MW0

[teamsaint]

I share your "cynical view" - but think that the mindset involved in such an idea of "value" does little to suggest any genuine understanding of the word.

yes, a poor choice of word on my part, probably.

And conversely, just because many State schools often find it hard to support ( "classical")music to the level that they might like, doesn't mean that they, or some within them, don't "value" it, as a great activity/part of life, of course.

[jean]

Well I sort of did...

That was earlier in the argument - we'd moved on to whose business it was if our elected representatives were ill-educated.

[teamsaint]

"Frequently Bought with:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Though.../dp/B0150Y6MW0

I think somebody at Amazon has been on the Animal Nitrates.

I would imagine that the weekly sales figure required to reach #28 in the classical chart is not very high.

[jean]

(Alexander Armstrong was a Cambridge choral scholar, so he can't be entirely ignorant about singing.)

There must be lots and lots of ex-choral scholars around, all competent singers, very few of them making a living out of singing, let alone reaching no. 1 in any sort of ranking. He's there because he's already in the public eye for entirely extra-musical reasons.

[Richard Barrett]

I think somebody at Amazon has been on the Animal Nitrates.

I would imagine that the weekly sales figure required to reach #28 in the classical chart is not very high.

<Yorkshire accent> I used to dreeeeam about reaching no.28 on t'classical chart!

[ahinton]

Recall that David Cameron's "Desert Island Discs" were by Bob Dylan, Benny Hill (!), Pink Floyd, Radiohead, The Smiths, REM, The Killers and Mendelssohn ("O for the wings of a dove"). Clearly the classical-music-education part of those astronomical Eton school fees was a waste of money.

Quite - although that suggests that DC wasn't paying attention and/or didn't want to (and his reply to the question "who wrote the music for [I]Rule, Britannia!", namely "Er - um - Elgar, was it?", thereby proving beyond reasonable doubt that he didn't know his Arne from his Elgar); after all, Jonathan Powell is an "old Etonian" although he attended there on a scholarship and I don't imagine that he'd take at all kindly to being so described...

Angela Merkel on the other hand is happy to be photographed making her annual pilgrimage to Bayreuth.

Indeed so - not to mention her support of BPO; I wonder what kind of school she attended...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

And conversely, just because many State schools often find it hard to support ( "classical")music to the level that they might like, doesn't mean that they, or some within them, don't "value" it, as a great activity/part of life, of course.

Indeed - and Art, Drama & Dance, too.

I should also have made a point of agreeing with the comment in your earlier Post about the (genuine) value of some/many/most Music/Arts teaching in non-State schools.

[P. G. Tipps]

Well I sort of did, in implying that anyone who voted Tory has no excuse to complain about the rising wave of philistinism in education and dumbing-down in culture. (Benny Hill, for god's sake!)

Yes, you did, and I took it as being rather more explicit than implicit!

My own point was that we vote for people with whom we might agree on some things but certainly not everything. We all can have our quite different reasons for voting for the same candidate..

That takes us straight back to democracies, the imperfections of political candidates, and then, sadly, simply assessing 'degrees of evil'.