When you've a moment.. have look at this!

[MrGongGong]

I just thought it was a shame that it was a piece of bank advertising
thassorl

[Northender]

Well, you don't have to open an account with them!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

if only all advertising was like it!

[doversoul1]

Originally Posted by JanH
It is a lovely musical snippet

It is a brilliantly filmed event for a commercial purpose, but you can still enjoy watching it, as long as you can forget that the people didn’t gather there to listen to the music that was being played there and then, and producers never rely on chances to get what they want, especially where children are concerned.

You might say, but they all enjoyed the music and that’s what matters, but that’s something we don’t really know. Again, you might say ‘but you can see it’. Of course we can see it. We are meant to see it. Still, we can dream a dream. That’s what good advertisements do to us, as this one obviously does.

[pilamenon]

I said 'generosity of spirit' and it is abundantly clear that you do not understand or have any empathy for the latter...

No, MrGongGong, you are a sad, miserable, embittered old man (or old woman, take your pick, as anyone can be anything behind the anonymity of the Internet). Keep your negativity to yourself.

Strikes me that if you had more 'generosity of spirit' yourself, you might indulge MrGG his point of view a bit more rather than hurl insults.

[ahinton]

There are a number of groups concerned with the ethics of corporate sponsorship of the arts, specifically sponsorship by the oil industry:

http://www.liberatetate.org/home.html

http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/

Enthusiasts for culture like to insist that the stuff - unlike oil - is so pure and Ideal it floats above anything as mucky or murky as politics. I don't have a particular view about the video, but I don't see that it's that outrageous or killjoy for someone to point out that it's a piece of commercial advertising (whatever else it may be). Members of the orchestra clearly didn't just get together and say 'let's go out into the Town Square and play Beethoven for the fun of it and the pleasure it will bring whoever might happen to be in the Town Square at the time' ... they are participating in an advertising video (as well, no doubt, as giving pleasure etc.)

I agree with this, but there's no realistic catch-all solution to it. All government sponsorship of the arts comes from taxpayers' money, including taxes on and as a consequence of profits made in the kinds of industry that you would not approve of (and, in the case of oil production and distribution, I wouldn't either). What sparks my curiosity in this case is that a firm seeking to advertise its wares has decided that it would be in its interests to have something like this done, thereby (albeit indirectly) suggesting, perhaps, a desire to disprove the notion that the arts are incapable of producing any profit...

[Serial_Apologist]

Re the attacks being made on MrGG, the words sledgehammer and nut come most immediately to mind.

One wonders whence all the overreaction - there surely must be some psychological overcompensation mechanism at work. Is it some barely suppressed resentment, smouldering in the depths of gullible souls, at the manner in which those who run everything, from banks to olympic games, are at last being revealed as the real culprits for what is most wrong in our world - as opposed to the "usual suspects"?

[doversoul1]

ahinton

What sparks my curiosity in this case is that a firm seeking to advertise its wares has decided that it would be in its interests to have something like this done, thereby (albeit indirectly) suggesting, perhaps, a desire to disprove the notion that the arts are incapable of producing any profit...

One of the best ways for a firm to advertise its wares is to make people feel good about the firm, not directly but in association with it. This is particularly true in the case of business like banks, where the difference between each bank in terms of the actual benefit to customers is insignificant. It’s the image that counts.

When it is genuine, it does make us feel good to see people spontaneously responding to music. This advertisement skillfully creates this effect by organising a ‘spontaneous’ audience. I am sure it wasn’t the performance but seeing the people’s reaction to classical music, especially that of children, by which everyone was so moved.

S-A

One wonders whence all the overreaction - there surely must be some psychological overcompensation mechanism at work.

Nobody likes to be pointed out that s/he was moved by a fake.

[ahinton]

ahinton


One of the best ways for a firm to advertise its wares is to make people feel good about the firm, not directly but in association with it. This is particularly true in the case of business like banks, where the difference between each bank in terms of the actual benefit to customers is insignificant. It’s the image that counts.

When it is genuine, it does make us feel good to see people spontaneously responding to music. This advertisement skillfully creates this effect by organising a ‘spontaneous’ audience. I am sure it wasn’t the performance but seeing the people’s reaction to classical music, especially that of children, by which everyone was so moved.

S-A


Nobody likes to be pointed out that s/he was moved by a fake.

But who cares - or indeed can care? Those who wish to exercise PR moves or advertise whatever they like will do so just as they like and seek to control those to whom it's directed just as they like provided that their actions do not breach the law of the land in which they do and/or market it. So what's new? Everything from music to painting to the Church to you name it was, is now and forever shall be, world (possibly) without end used in such ways by those who choose so to do and just as they want it to be used. Live with it! And recognise when not to be taken in by it. That's all that can be done, surely?

[doversoul1]

ahinton
I agree with you entirely, but when it comes to music, sometimes, I can’t help caring. Still, I think I’ll say now ‘nuuf said.

[MrGongGong]

I think the key phrase is

And recognise when not to be taken in by it.

given that people are more used to seeing people acting at being musicians rather than being musicians (TV is full of it) it is IMV important to have a little understanding of the semiotics of performance. Theatre can be moving, uplifting, disturbing and thought provoking (etc etc etc ) and our responses to it are still there even when we know it's theatre. Knowing the science of how the sun sets does not make it less beautiful and for many people it makes it more so.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think the key phrase is



given that people are more used to seeing people acting at being musicians rather than being musicians (TV is full of it) it is IMV important to have a little understanding of the semiotics of performance. Theatre can be moving, uplifting, disturbing and thought provoking (etc etc etc ) and our responses to it are still there even when we know it's theatre. Knowing the science of how the sun sets does not make it less beautiful and for many people it makes it more so.

Which reminds me of what a jazz musician once said to me: "Surely how we respond in awe to a beautiful sunset, or a dawn chorus, can't be down to a matter of bourgeois aesthetics?"

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Surely how we respond in awe to a beautiful sunset, or a dawn chorus, can't be down to a matter of bourgeois aesthetics?"

or even a species nature? ....chimpanzees have been observed captivated by water and light in the forests ...gazing in isolated raptures ....

[MrGongGong]

or even a species nature? ....chimpanzees have been observed captivated by water and light in the forests ...gazing in isolated raptures ....

and i've seen people with much less intelligence than your average chimp in raptures at a certain piece by Elgar

[ahinton]

and i've seen people with much less intelligence than your average chimp in raptures at a certain piece by Elgar

Which one? And DO please stop whistling, you, am51 and others; I can hardly hear myself fail to think...