Anthony Hopkins - Composer (?)

[rubbernecker]

. I don't think Anthony Hopkins is doing this for the money - but CFM is.

...

The only question for me is: if that's "classical music", I don't know what "classical music" is.

Herein lies my problem. I am not a CFM listener, but I am now forced to listen to this garbage (and a whole load besides) because it is programmed by R3 as part of its weekly survey of the supposed Specialist Classical Music Chart. The reason it is in the chart is because it is on CFM's label and has been shamelessly plugged to a largely ignorant CFM audience who almost certainly "don't know what classical music is". They have bought it and by consequence we are made to suffer it.

I don't begrudge Sir Anthony for wishing to scratch this particular itch of his. He is by all accounts a talented pianist and clearly has a passion for composition. The titles of some of the pieces are also quite touching, drawing as they do from his childhood in Port Talbot. I object to it mainly because a once glorious and challeging record label - Decca - has seen fit to harness itself to Classic FM to boost its dwindling sales and that will mean they will be less and less inclined to release anything more challenging. The intellectual bar will be increasingly lowered. This how dumbing down works, and this is what is happening across the world of what we like to think of as serious music. And yes, it will affect sales of other composers, because they are in turn denied the privileged platform that has been afforded Sir Anthony.

Polemic over. I think I'll now dig out and play my old Birtwistle Decca LPs... Orpheus, indeed

[Nick Armstrong]

Herein lies my problem. I am not a CFM listener, but I am now forced to listen to this garbage (and a whole load besides) because it is programmed by R3 as part of its weekly survey of the supposed Specialist Classical Music Chart. The reason it is in the chart is because it is on CFM's label and has been shamelessly plugged to a largely ignorant CFM audience who almost certainly "don't know what classical music is". They have bought it and by consequence we are made to suffer it.

I don't begrudge Sir Anthony for wishing to scratch this particular itch of his. He is by all accounts a talented pianist and clearly has a passion for composition. The titles of some of the pieces are also quite touching, drawing as they do from his childhood in Port Talbot. I object to it mainly because a once glorious and challeging record label - Decca - has seen fit to harness itself to Classic FM to boost its dwindling sales and that will mean they will be less and less inclined to release anything more challenging. The intellectual bar will be increasingly lowered. This how dumbing down works, and this is what is happening across the world of what we like to think of as serious music. And yes, it will affect sales of other composers, because they are in turn denied the privileged platform that has been afforded Sir Anthony.

Polemic over. I think I'll now dig out and play my old Birtwistle Decca LPs... Orpheus, indeed

[Suffolkcoastal]

I'll 2nd those Bravo's for rubbernecker!

[Stanfordian]

I see Sir Anthony's music is being played by André Rieu. What I heard of his Johann Strauss II waltz style and throw away film music was mainly pleasant and generally melodic and would probably be described as being 'light music' these days. As I expected there is nothing new here. No one but a celebrity such as Sir Anthony would get away with writing something as derivative as this if they sent it to a music publisher or renowned conductor. Yes it has Classic FM written all over it.

[teamsaint]

Heard a few minutes of it as I began to prepare dinner... lushly late-romantic - why doesn't that surprise me?
And why do so many ageing rockstars and songwriters produce such obvious derivations when they "get serious"? No prizes...

I recall Elvis Costello attempted some sub-sibelian, sub-debussian ballet, then got upset after the reviews and fled to America. Poor dear.

Wouldn't it be nice if Anthony, or Macca and/or his er, amanuensis produced a set of twelvetone variations about 6 minutes long.
(Allegedly!)

At least EC can justify his efforts , in the sense that he has produced some pop music of an exceptional quality.

I can't abide people who cross genres with no real artistic justification..........strikes me as taking another persons job/opportunity/whatever.

Sure Ec could do 12 tone variations with the best of them !!

[rubbernecker]

At least EC can justify his efforts , in the sense that he has produced some pop music of an exceptional quality.

I can't abide people who cross genres with no real artistic justification..........strikes me as taking another persons job/opportunity/whatever.

Sure Ec could do 12 tone variations with the best of them !!

IMO The Juliet Letters was a particularly felicitous and original piece of work, and I don't even think of it as being cross-genre

[teamsaint]

IMO The Juliet Letters was a particularly felicitous and original piece of work, and I don't even think of it as being cross-genre

Never heard it. I will take your recommendation and give it a go.

EC is in my opinion one of this country's finest songwriters.

[Nick Armstrong]

Obviously this is music of the highest quality.

No it isn't. I caught some for the first time this morning. It's b*ll*cks. Couldn't stand it to the end of the track.

(And don't jump down my throat, rubbers - I know you were being ironic. Just wanted to use your phrase for dramatic effect )

[georgek]

I don't think it's that bad really. Not exaclty what I usually go for but lets give the guy some credit..

[old khayyam]

I ... can understand if it's been plugged on CFM that a lot of their listeners will find it pleasant enough, and that's what they want.

Its also being plugged on 'oldies' station Capital Gold, therefore doubtless many others.

[heliocentric]

Some people will find this music attractive and others won't. But I'm pretty sure that if it had been submitted anonymously to a music publisher, or an orchestra, or a CD label, or a broadcasting organisation, the composer would have received a gentle rejection encouraging him to take some composition lessons, in order to get past the limited material, lack of development and general structural clumsiness of his work (the orchestration is competent but I'd bet my bottom dollar he got someone else to do it). But since it's by a film star, none of that matters. There are hundreds of composers out there working in all styles from the most experimental to the most commercial who have devoted their entire lives, imaginations and energies to developing their musical work, and as a result make Hopkins' music sound crassly amateurish in comparison, but we never hear any of their work because celebrity trumps any other kind of "achievement". Now that Hopkins has "done" painting and music I guess he'll be working on a novel.

[old khayyam]

My point..was that such late-flowering composers always seem to take their models from the late-romantic tonal and orchestral style, which naturally and more justifiably became the language of much film music.

It would be nice if someone - especially those cushioned by commercial success - took inspiration and precedent from somewhere else.

Best point yet. AH is unlikely to gain any compositional credibility while his ambitions lie no higher than the functional muzak that smears its dreary bombast across the backdrop of most of todays films.

AH's efforts would be far more credible if he took inspiration from Bartok/Stravinsky/whatever, than drawing a vague line between mainstream Romantic composers of history and the likes of the latter-day John Williams et al.

But then, this is the postmodern world, so we are told. Originality is confounded by the pick-and-mix culture of the sampler-generation. As an emerging composer you are faced with a choice: Choose an era and emulate it; or risk ridicule and obscurity by attempting new and original music the like of which has not been heard before. Or thirdly, become a 'Mr Bojangles' and simply release an album of the piano tunes that impressed your Hollywood friends.

Actually, there is a fourth choice: Deep and Heavy. 'I dug deep within myself and these tunes represent my core being, they are what i have to say, and i dont care if any of it sounds like anyone else, its all just me'.

[french frank]

Best point yet. AH is unlikely to gain any compositional credibility while his ambitions lie no higher than the functional muzak that smears its dreary bombast across the backdrop of most of todays films.

The problem with, in jlw's word, 'late-flowering composers' is they are often older/elderly and compose in the style(s) of music which they have enjoyed. As far as 'up-to-the-minute' composers like Schoenberg and Bartok are concerned, they've probably already been rejected as unlistenable and therefore would hardly serve as models. And, being realistic, such 'late flowerers' probably haven't even heard of, still less heard, any contemporary composers.

[old khayyam]

such 'late flowerers' probably haven't even heard of, still less heard, any contemporary composers.

but they must face up to the fact that they are contemporary composers..

[Suffolkcoastal]

Perhaps I should start submitting my works to publishers and performers under an 'assumed celebrity name', I might actually get the chance to hear one of my works and even get the basic courtesy of a response or acknowledgement from the publisher or performer!