BBC Music Day

[french frank]

I knew I'd face trouble on these boards by actually owning up to thinking Music day was a good idea.

If all one's troubles were that hard to bear … But it wasn't a question of whether the idea was a good one, but on how well it was realised.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If all one's troubles were that hard to bear … But it wasn't a question of whether the idea was a good one, but on how well it was realised.

Precisely. It's all one-way traffic.

[MrGongGong]

No, they were a way into classical music for a lot of people. But the people who had no interest squawked so long (you should have seen the Radio 2 messageboards) they finally won the day when they got a controller who agreed with them because his main interests are sport and popular music. But, in any case, what music on Radio 2 do you like?

Ok

I don't listen to radio 2 much (if at all)
Looking here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/programmes/a-z there are a couple of things I wouldn't turn off in the car but wouldn't make a special effort to listen.

But (and i'm guessing here) that the kind of "easy listening" stuff that it used to play is probably catered for in better ways on commercial radio.

I think times have changed and the days when listening to a bit of "light classical" music on radio 2 would be a "way in" to other music are gone.
People use radio in different ways.

[french frank]

I think times have changed and the days when listening to a bit of "light classical" music on radio 2 would be a "way in" to other music are gone.
People use radio in different ways.

It's your opinion, but we shall never know because mainstream BBC services don't play classical music, light or heavy. It's all been cleared out. It is the fact that classical music is excluded from the musical mainstream that renders the argument that 'music is just music', 'people like many different kinds of music and don't make any distinction between genres' so patently untrue.

I think your guess may be wrong: here's a view of typical Saga radio programming. It's Radio 2's programmes that are indistinguishable from commercial radio.
(Link corrected)

[MrGongGong]

It's your opinion, but we shall never know because mainstream BBC services don't play classical music, light or heavy. It's all been cleared out. It is the fact that classical music is excluded from the musical mainstream that renders the argument that 'music is just music', 'people like many different kinds of music and don't make any distinction between genres' so patently untrue.

I think your guess may be wrong: here's a view of typical Saga radio programming. It's Radio 2's programmes that are indistinguishable from commercial radio.
(Link corrected)

If I was in charge of the BBC i'd probably ditch R2 and local radio as commercial stations do these things just as well IMV
I'm not sure that (as with music education) that "genre" based approaches are best at all.

But, as you say, that's my opinion.
now back to orchestration BUT is it "Classical" ? , personally I couldn't give a toss even though the things i'm working on will be played by one of the most mainstream "Classical" ensembles in the UK.

[french frank]

I'm not sure that (as with music education) that "genre" based approaches are best at all.
But, as you say, that's my opinion.

I'm not saying it is or isn't. I'm saying that the exclusion of 'classical music' (by which I mean the core repertoire) from the BBC's mainstream services is genre-based.

now back to orchestration BUT is it "Classical" ? , personally I couldn't give a toss even though the things i'm working on will be played by one of the most mainstream "Classical" ensembles in the UK.

You don't need to give a toss as long as it's being performed. Nor would being performed by 'one of the most mainstream "Classical" ensembles in the UK' make it classical. They'll play most things these days

[mercia]

I've been scouring the BBC website, without success, to try and find some sort of statement to tell me what the 'idea' or 'aims' of Music Day are (or were).

is it to allow people for one day of the year to hear some live music for free ? is it to encourage people to participate in 'music-making' of whatever kind ?

I'm quite sure some kind of 'music-making' takes place in every region of Britain every day of the year, I don't feel I need a special Day to alert me to this fact (if that was an aim).

[Bryn]

Here's the page you need,

[mercia]

thanks

"a UK-wide celebration of everything we love about music with the aim of bringing people from different generations and communities together"

nice and wide and vague. I think I was basically right with - "to allow people for one day of the year to hear some live music for free"

(p.s. where is that seaside venue in the top photograph ?)

[Nick Armstrong]

They'll play most things these days

It seems to be bleeding into The Choir today.... The lucky R3 audience is promised:

Karl Jenkins's Adiemus, Blokefest

Sara Mohr-Pietsch looks ahead to 'Blokefest', where men gather together in the Wiltshire countryside to enjoy a long weekend of choral singing and male bonding. Her choral classic is Karl Jenkins's chart topping Adiemus.

Mind you, you have to love these quaint rural euphemisms.

One thing I know is that there is likely to be a resounding click at Caliban Towers around 3.59pm... Because Choral Evensong sounds from the Choir thread to be a bit of alright So to be fair to R3, something for everyone....

[MrGongGong]

I'm not saying it is or isn't. I'm saying that the exclusion of 'classical music' (by which I mean the core repertoire) from the BBC's mainstream services is genre-based.

I guess so
But that maybe reflects the way in which 'classical music' isn't 'mainstream' anymore ?
I'm not sure that any music really is these days, even the multiple genres of 'popular' music?

There are many musics that are almost completely ignored by the BBC (as many of us know).

[french frank]

There are many musics that are almost completely ignored by the BBC (as many of us know).

I don't think there are (m)any which are in any way comparable with Western classical music in terms of the breadth and variety of the repertoire accumulated over 800 years and currently performed in at least four continents.

As for my point about 'exclusion', for the second year running BBC Four had nothing but a series of programmes about pop music (plus a news programme at the beginning).

BBC Two, now BBC Two I'll grant you: a showing of the film "The Great Caruso" with Mario Lanza. Otherwise we had Radio 3, in a somewhat more diluted form than usual.

[MrGongGong]

I don't think there are (m)any which are in any way comparable with Western classical music in terms of the breadth and variety of the repertoire accumulated over 800 years and currently performed in at least four continents.

.

One could argue that the global reach of this music is a case for it to have less exposure on publicly funded broadcasting.
(I'm NOT suggesting the BBC doesn't broadcast Bach or anything like that !)

[aeolium]

I don't think there are (m)any which are in any way comparable with Western classical music in terms of the breadth and variety of the repertoire accumulated over 800 years and currently performed in at least four continents.

Leaving aside the point about the music being currently performed in at least four continents (which classical shares with popular music and is just a comment on its popularity), I think there is a great deal that we in the West do not know about the much more extensive traditions of for instance Chinese music, or music from the Middle East. It's a shame when we are exposed - commercially and through the BBC - to so much of Western music that we still know so little of these other traditions.

[MrGongGong]

Leaving aside the point about the music being currently performed in at least four continents (which classical shares with popular music and is just a comment on its popularity), I think there is a great deal that we in the West do not know about the much more extensive traditions of for instance Chinese music, or music from the Middle East. It's a shame when we are exposed - commercially and through the BBC - to so much of Western music that we still know so little of these other traditions.

(I tried to say something like this recently and was taken to task for linguistic nonsense)