Trouble at t'Proms

[Vile Consort]

On the train coming back from the Prom conceret last night, my wife spotted a sticker mentioning boycotting Israeli goods! Someone had tried to peal it off!

That rings a bell

[Lateralthinking1]

Gobbledigook?

http://vimeo.com/9298382

[Flosshilde]

The Plain English Campaign, who should know more than anyone about how officialdom abuses and confuses with the English language, has settled upon gobbledygook http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/exampl...generator.html
and that is what I taught for many years.

Was gobbledygook part of the National curriculum?

[Mr Pee]

Oh, apart from the missing apostrophe, it make very clear sense, though that does not necessarily mean that a Pee can grasp it.

For some unaccountable reason I am put in mind of a comment by Harold Shand in the closing minutes of The Long Good Friday. It can be heard 2'17" into:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVVrZJaN1IU

Unaccountable indeed. How strangely your mind must work.

[Bryn]

It was, I think, the allegorical nature of that film which triggered the memory. That and, of course, your chosen soubriquet.

[Sydney Grew]

Nationalism in music is always a mistake. That is one of the problems with all those "folk-song" merchants is it not. Modern men must long for the time when there will be no more nations.

[greenilex]

Are we allowed to celebrate the planet, Sidney?

[ahinton]

Nationalism in music is always a mistake. That is one of the problems with all those "folk-song" merchants is it not. Modern men must long for the time when there will be no more nations.

Oh, here we go again! If it's a "mistake", how might it be "corrected"? Should the spectre of criminality be imposed upon the practice of music as it has been practised since the dawn of humankind, such as has occurred on occasion in post-revolutionary Iran? When does the indigenous music of any people become "nationalistic" and how do you distinguish between the before and after in this regard? What is a "folk-song merchant" and what is the reason for your apparent implication that those who sing folk songs are somehow involved in commercial activity by reason of so doing? Have you forgotten Elgar who, when taken to task for allegedly eschewing folk music refereces in hnis work, responded that he was one of the folk and he wrote music, ergo he wrote folk music? Who are "modern men"? Why might they all long for the same thing? What about the women, modern and otherwise? usw usw...

[Ariosto]

Sydney never grew up, just ignore him.

[Al R Gando]

Nationalism in music is always a mistake. .

And not only in music.

Nationalism is the last refuge of the talentless. When revealed as failures in every aspect of human endeavour, nationalists take pride in the accident of their birth in their country of origin... as though this "achievement" required some particular exertion on their part?

[ahinton]

And not only in music.

Nationalism is the last refuge of the talentless. When revealed as failures in every aspect of human endeavour, nationalists take pride in the accident of their birth in their country of origin... as though this "achievement" required some particular exertion on their part?

Indeed so, but what is"nationalism in music"? Surely not mere recourse to folk melodies that can be identified as having their origins in the composer's own "nation"? (assuming that there have been no changes of border between the original music and the composer's use of it). Can one say that Brahms's or Wagner's music is not German even when there are no obvious references to folk melodies? or that Debussy's music is somehow not French? Don't let's forget the wise homily as expressed (independently from one another, as far as I know) by Virgil Thomson and Elliott Carter that, in order to write Amercian music, one simply has to be an American citizen and write just whatever one wants...

[Al R Gando]

Don't let's forget the wise homily as expressed (independently from one another, as far as I know) by Virgil Thomson and Elliott Carter that, in order to write Amercian music, one simply has to be an American citizen and write just whatever one wants...

Rostro quipped that all you had to do to be a successful soviet composer was title your work "Lenin In A Hut" - and they'd be obliged to fund your work ;)

Just this week I was engaging in intellectual discourse with our very own Mr Pee. The discussion (at least on my side) stretched to members of "The Five", who were ardent Nationalists. Indeed, Balakirev's hatred of Tchaikovsky (which included wrecking performances of Tchaikovsky's opera "The Henchman", and probably shopping P.I.T. to the Masonic nationalist loonies who blackmailed him into suicide) arose exclusively on the subjective charge that Tchaikovsky's music wasn't suitable nationalist in nature.

We leave our readers to judge who was the greater composer... Tchaikovsky, author of six symphonies, of major operas and ballets, of string quartets, romances... or Balakirev, author of... ummm... errr....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

and probably shopping P.I.T. to the Masonic nationalist loonies who blackmailed him into suicide)

Ah, you were there, were you.

It's rather sad that a thread about a few insignificant protesters generates far more interest than the actual concerts.

[BillyR]

It's rather sad that a thread about a few insignificant protesters generates far more interest than the actual concerts.

Unfortunately, those "insignificant protestors" succeeded in shutting down the radio broadcast, thanks to the fecklessness of the BBC, their security staff, the London Police, and all others charged with keeping order. A dark day for "The World's Greatest Music Festival."

We'll see when this great orchestra is next invited to play at the Proms. I suspect we will see another victory for the thugs when they disappear from the program in future years.

[Serial_Apologist]

Will this go down as The Last of The Happenings at the Royal Albert Hall?