Max news.

[teamsaint]

personally, I would rather our future leaders knew how to fight the banks, or how to stand up to American foreign policy than be able to recognise excerpts from Mahler, but I guess in this interconnected quantum universe, they are all part of the same thing, somehow.

[jean]

Play them any well-known piece of music and ask who is the composer. After an embarrassing pause, one of the eight students will sound his/her buzzer and answer hopefully "Beethoven?"

And then Paxman himself , though far from young, will witheringly correct them with the name of a composer every bit as wrong:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/watch-jeremy-paxman-correct-student-2815540

[Stephen Whitaker]

"Play them any well-known piece of music and ask who is the composer, etc, etc".

Having been a contestant on both 'Counterpoint' and 'Brain of Britain' I can assure you
that the tentative Beethoven response is quite as likely to come from the 50+ types who make up the contenders on B.O.B.

and even from some of the supposed 'music lovers' appearing on Counterpoint.

Actually I think that over the whole of 'University Challenge' the students impress with their musical knowledge equally as much as their ignorance appals

[Stephen Whitaker]

And then Paxman himself , though far from young, will witheringly correct them with the name of a composer every bit as wrong:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/w...tudent-2815540

I thought I might have been the only viewer who spotted that, so it's nice to know the Mirror is interested too.

[ahinton]

How very true!

One has only to watch BBC 2s "University Challenge" - a contest berween two teams of students from our top universities.

Play them any well-known piece of music and ask who is the composer. After an embarrassing pause, one of the eight students will sound his/her buzzer and answer hopefully "Beethoven?"

.. and these are supposed to be the future intellectual leaders of our country.

...or indeed when the actual "leader of our country" was asked a little while ago who composed Rule, Britannia! and meekly answered - after a similar embarrassing pause - "Elgar, was it?"; leaving aside the notion that it's rude to answer a question with a question (so it might be argued to set an especially bad example when a Prime Minister does so), all that he demonstrated here is that he doesn't know his Arne from his Elgar...

[jean]

...it's rude to answer a question with a question...

Doesn't that depend on the sort of question?

A tag question like that just indicates that you're not very confident about your answer!

[Beef Oven!]

I have only just picked up on this. So good to hear that things appear better than before regarding PMD's health. Fingers crossed.

Must say that I agree with Max (and Neil McGowan - apart from the vitriol towards us).

[Boilk]

One has only to watch BBC 2s "University Challenge" ... Play them any well-known piece of music and ask who is the composer. After an embarrassing pause, one of the eight students will sound his/her buzzer and answer hopefully "Beethoven?"

Well someone correctly guessed 'Beethoven' this week when the question related to which German composer featured in Gustav Klimt's 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition frieze of 1902. It's usually a better bet than saying Lortzing or Telemann!

And then Paxman himself , though far from young, will witheringly correct them with the name of a composer every bit as wrong:

Strictly speaking, Paxman was not at fault here, he was simply reading what was printed on his card - and no one present at the recording would have known (except maybe in the audience).

[MrGongGong]

The supposed "ignorance" on University Challenge was recently echoed when Lou Reed died and some people expressed the view that they had
"never heard of him"

Knowing the names of composers and their dates doesn't mean that one necessarily knows or understands much about music apart from some names and dates. Confusing knowledge with information methinks ?

[eighthobstruction]

Do the posters know the answers to all the other questions too....??

[Richard Barrett]

Back to P M D, I would value some suggestions as to good places to start properly with his music. I've dabbled here and there, and found lots to intrigue, but the "lots" is the problem, so a few pointers would be very welcome.

I'm not much of a Max fan, but there are a few pieces which have made a lasting impression:
Ave maris stella - far and away my favourite piece of his
Symphonies 1 & 2 (admittedly I've only hear the later ones once or twice each, if that, but they seem less memorable to me)
some of the Fires of London-related theatre pieces - Eight Songs for a Mad King, Vesalii icones, Miss Donnithorne's Maggot...
the orchestral piece Worldes Blis
the chamber opera The Lighthouse
If I try to think of any more I feel like I'm getting close to scraping the barrel, but that should be a start.

[Bryn]

I'm not much of a Max fan, but there are a few pieces which have made a lasting impression:
Ave maris stella - far and away my favourite piece of his
Symphonies 1 & 2 (admittedly I've only hear the later ones once or twice each, if that, but they seem less memorable to me)
some of the Fires of London-related theatre pieces - Eight Songs for a Mad King, Vesalii icones, Miss Donnithorne's Maggot...
the orchestral piece Worldes Blis
the chamber opera The Lighthouse
If I try to think of any more I feel like I'm getting close to scraping the barrel, but that should be a start.

What, not the Missa super l'homme armé or Revalation and Fall?

[jean]

Strictly speaking, Paxman was not at fault here, he was simply reading what was printed on his card...

I was only following orders, he could have said.

True, the initial mistake was made by the researchers, but he should have realised something was wrong.

[Bryn]

I was only following orders, he could have said.

True, the initial mistake was made by the researchers, but he should have realised something was wrong.

Quite, someone of his supposed cultural education should surely be able to tell plainchant from late 19th century Czech romantic?

[Stephen Whitaker]

Do the posters know the answers to all the other questions too....??

I sometimes keep a score and do quite well but have to admit that it's the maths, physics and chemistry that let me down.
One or zero used to be reliable guesses for the maths question but rarely nowadays.

We can all have a go here

http://www.buzzfeed.com/robinedds/university-challenge-questions-that-you-probably-can