Classical Music Torture?

[Ken B]

Not everyone has your same tastes. If someone speaks badly of Cage, don't worry about it.

The time to worry is when they speak well of Stockhausen.

[Pat B]

It makes me think though; Why are people so stuck up about 4'33 when Cage gave us so much beautiful and inventive music? (that actually contains notes!!!)

Because it's famous, and because it might be the single easiest piece of music to write about.

[Monsieur Croche]

Pardon my ignorance of most things religious, including the dogma of any religion or sect, but...

Isn't purgatory like one big waiting room? And, if purgatory is one big waiting room, what could be more torturous and drive-you-mad than a 24 - 7 continuous stream of MUZAK?

Ergo, the music as torture in purgatory, in an especially set apart side-room for those who love classical music, piped in and inescapable, and forever unrelieved, is Muzak.

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

I've always loved the idea of reincarnation much more than spending an eternity anywhere. For me, eternity = torture

[(poco) Sforzando]

Pardon my ignorance of most things religious, including the dogma of any religion or sect, but...

Isn't purgatory like one big waiting room? And, if purgatory is one big waiting room, what could be more torturous and drive-you-mad than a 24 - 7 continuous stream of MUZAK?

Ergo, the music as torture in purgatory, in an especially set apart side-room for those who love classical music, piped in and inescapable, and forever unrelieved, is Muzak.

If you read the Purgatorio of Dante, which admittedly is not religious dogma, you'll find that Purgatory is indeed a kind of waiting room, but one that the sinners therein are happy to endure because after their expiation there is a final promise of Heaven. Each of the deadly sins in Dante's Purgatory is met with a parallel expiation: the slothful are made to run fast, the gluttonous to starve, the proud to carry immense boulders on their backs. But your premise that Purgatory is an area where torture is "forever unrelieved" is completely false. That statement would more accurately apply to the Inferno.

[Monsieur Croche]

...premise that Purgatory is an area where torture is "forever unrelieved" is completely false.

^That is the premise in the OP, not mine.  I happily leave things religious and the dogma around and therein to those who are busy with them.

Still, torturous waiting room as set up in the OP, perpetual Muzak, I say ~ or perhaps, a perpetual drone of a perfectly tuned Pythagorean major third?

[Ken B]

^That is the premise in the OP, not mine.  I happily leave things religious and the dogma around and therein to those who are busy with them.

Still, torturous waiting room as set up in the OP, perpetual Muzak, I say ~ or perhaps, a perpetual drone of a perfectly tuned Pythagorean major third?

Sigh. It's precisely the perpetual which is false of purgatory.

[Monsieur Croche]

Sigh. It's precisely the perpetual which is false of purgatory.

Since the OP is mistaken as to the nature of an artificial human construct worthy of the bureaucracy of ancient Rome's Civil Service, from whence it and so much like it came, I'm not particularly fussed.

I was quite correct, then, about the waiting room, i.e. a way station betwixt and between two possible ultimate destinations, ergo, not 'eternal,' lol.

Not that I can dream of ever posting an OP at all dependent upon a hierarchical construct of that nature, but nonetheless, your lesson on that spot of the catechism has been duly noted.


Best regards.

[Florestan]

Mr. Croche, you ask for information on a religious topic and after you receive it from two independent posters you state that actually you´re not interested in it, besides being ironical on them. What was the point of asking that question then?

[Monsieur Croche]

Mr. Croche, you ask for information on a religious topic and after you receive it from two independent posters you state that actually you´re not interested in it, besides being ironical on them. What was the point of asking that question then?

It is a dogma factoid, and now I know.  That does not change the 'error' in the OP, to which most respondents have responded as written.  And as I questioned myself, it turns out I did somehow absorb via osmosis, literature, or through the ether that 'purgatory' is in essence a way-station waiting room. 

If one was inclined and zealous enough, one could PM the OP and each contributor who did not catch the error that purgatory ≠ eternity.  You know, "Set them all straight."

[Ken B]

Since the OP is mistaken as to the nature of an artificial human construct worthy of the bureaucracy of ancient Rome's Civil Service, from whence it and so much like it came, I'm not particularly fussed.

I was quite correct, then, about the waiting room, i.e. a way station betwixt and between two possible ultimate destinations, ergo, not 'eternal,' lol.

Not that I can dream of ever posting an OP at all dependent upon a hierarchical construct of that nature, but nonetheless, your lesson on that spot of the catechism has been duly noted.


Best regards.

No, no. It's your error not the original poster's.
He wrote

Okay, so if you were cast into a purgatory of suffering, where one piece of music was repeated back to back for ten thousands years,

Nothing about eternal there. Just a wee ten thousand years. You were the one who erred. And it's not a "dogma factoid". You don't have to believe in it to understand it.

[Monsieur Croche]

No, no. It's your error not the original poster's.
He wrote
Nothing about eternal there. Just a wee ten thousand years. You were the one who erred. And it's not a "dogma factoid". You don't have to believe in it to understand it.

I wanted to confirm the accepted convention of purgatory as a temporary waiting place.  You were so kind as to confirm that. "Not Eternal" understood, and I thank you again for that.  The purpose was to be certain my Waiting Room with Musak quip had a context... for the rest, I went along with the (erroneous) OP.

Enough contributors have mentioned music... for an eternity.  That is probably where I picked that up.  "Ten thousand years" has been a long-accepted convention of speech with an analogous meaning of 'forever.'

Ten thousand years, just a wee ten thousand, would be enough for the greatest work of music played for that duration to drive anyone mad...  though the OP seemed to be phishing for people to name pieces and composers they hated, I was happy to see so many say that even their favorite piece would begin to pall after very little time.


Best regards.

[GioCar]

Involuntary association to the above posts:

Diecimila anni al nostro Imperatore!
A te, erede di Hien Wang,
noi gridiam:
Diecimila anni al grande Imperatore!
Alte, alte le bandiere!
Gloria a te! Gloria a te!

Ten thousand years to our Emperor!
To you, heir of Hien Wang,
we cry: ten thousand
year's life to our great Emperor!
Hold high, high, the banners!
Glory to you! Glory to you!

Turandot - Finale Act two  (and the rhyme is made)