I had forgotten for a time how good a musician Ry Cooder is. I promise to play more of his music in future. Having come across him this morning in YouTube, I immediately ordered a CD of his. Such outstanding music in all dimensions.
Category: music
Leonard Bernstein explains the 20th century in terms of Mahler
The death of
- his self
- tonality in music
- society itself
Mahler was ignored for fifty years because what he said was too true. -Leonard Bernstein
Anne Akiko Meyers on the music of Arvo Part
“Just breathe and stay calm”.
As Meyers says of the prospect of meeting him, “sort of like meeting God.” An apt comparison.
And by the way, Part’s name is pronounced Part, not Pehrt, as many believe to be correct.
Really modern music has become listenable again
After a century of recovering from World War 1: Schoenberg,and other modernist German crap, music has again become listenable. There is some good news to be had.
Jeanne Lamon RIP
Jeanne Lamon has died of cancer early at the age of 71. She was for many years the head of the Toronto baroque ensemble Tafelmusik. Do her the appropriate honours and buy a box of Tafelmusik CDs.
Listen to Tafelmusik rip through Zelenka’s Missa Dei Filii under the baton of Frieder Bernius and an all star cast of singers: Nancy Argenta, Christoph Pregardien, Michael Chance and Gordon Jones. As always, Lamon was the concertmaster, namely, lead violin. Ars longa, vita brevis
Cultural appropriation
Have you noticed the ease with which all superior cultures absorb the cultures of others? Have you noticed the enormous influence of Chinese, Japanese and Korean musicians on western classical music? Kyung-Wha Chung? Yo-yo Ma? Michiko Uchida? Yuja Wang? Appropriate this, you people!
Gustav Holst’s symphonic band from the 1930s, performed by a Japanese wind band. They dont give a damn it is western. They only care about perfection. And we should appropriate that concept and make it our own, in an act of cultural appropriation.
