Where have the Great Composers gone?

[Jo498]

OK, I don't care if a piece is an artistic masterpiece or not, if it don't sound good to me I will not buy it.
If an engineer designs a car and it is hailed by his peers as an engineering masterpiece but when produced just dose not work as a motor car who do you blame? 

But this analogy does not work at all. There is no obvious external function against which a piece of music or art should be judged, whereas an automobile has a fairly clear and narrowly defined function.
Such complaints against music are somewhat like blaming "Crime and Punishment" as a poor novel because we are told straight away who committed the murder. Or like blaming a motorcycle because you might get wet and cannot transport several passengers while everyone knows a motorized vehicle should protect one from the elements etc.

[North Star]

You can only have one of those, of course....

Your above statement reminds me of the student who explained away yet another absence from a day of school with the excuse he had already used many a time before.

Teacher: "Why were you absent yesterday?"
Student: "My Grandmother died." 
Teacher: "Just how many Grandmothers do you have?"

That's not quite fair, though - each time James says that, it means that it's the stupidest thing he's read so far.

[Karl Henning]

I am more interested in listening to an unknown composer's latest YouTube offering.

Sure. But, you know, it's the all-caps GREAT that really supports the assertion, I feel.

That's not quite fair, though - each time James says that, it means that it's the stupidest thing he's read so far.

This thread can bring James nothing but sorrow.

[Karl Henning]

Mr Henning I explored some of your music on YT and loved it particularly the choral, also the Piece for unaccompanied clarinet but not quite as much, I am a fan.   

I meant to thank you for being my latest fan  0:)

[Monsieur Croche]

That's not quite fair, though - each time James says that, it means that it's the stupidest thing he's read so far.

All I know is that if I ran across "stupid" as frequently as J. seems to, I would be looking for different reading material in a different venue than that from which all the stupid flows... I mean constant exposure is sure to dull even the brightest of boys.

[Monsieur Croche]

The current generation of young great composers of the world are all huddled in a cramped and wholly overcrowded waiting room of Groves ~ each awaiting their five minutes with the editors in order to be approved of and certified as great in order then that listeners -- who are so hungry to be told by official pronouncements as to what and who is great before they dare venture forth and listen independently to currently written music -- will not have to worry about doing any of their own thinking.

Heaven forfend that the listener has to not only listen to newer music, but has to then make up their own mind about whether that music is any good, or great.

Best to wait for the hackneyed and proverbial Test Of Time ("TOT") to inform the public of what they dare listen to without being ridiculed or misunderstood by other listeners.  Though that Test of Time is tricky, involving a fifty to one hundred year wait period, because that means they may have missed out on the music and might be dead before that particular verdict is in.

[San Antone]

The current generation of young great composers of the world are all huddled in a cramped and wholly overcrowded waiting room of Groves ~ each awaiting their five minutes with the editors in order to be approved of and certified as great in order then that listeners -- who are so hungry to be told by official pronouncements as to what and who is great before they dare venture forth and listen independently to currently written music -- will not have to worry about doing any of their own thinking.

Heaven forfend that the listener has to not only listen to newer music, but has to then make up their own mind about whether that music is any good, or great.

Best to wait for the hackneyed and proverbial Test Of Time ("TOT") to inform the public of what they dare listen to without being ridiculed or misunderstood by other listeners.  Though that Test of Time is tricky, involving a fifty to one hundred year wait period, because that means they may have missed out on the music and might be dead before that particular verdict is in.

I hope you are not being serious.  Why do you, or anyone, need to know if the music is considered great or not?  And anyone who would ridicule you for liking or merely listening to something that isn't considered "great" is an supreme asshole. 

[San Antone]

Here you go -



Relax.

[nathanb]

I hope you are not being serious.  Why do you, or anyone, need to know if the music is considered great or not?  And anyone who would ridicule you for liking or merely listening to something that isn't considered "great" is an supreme asshole. 

Alas, "supreme assholes" are actually a dime a dozen...

[Monsieur Croche]

Here you go -



Relax.

The very kind of thing to make me want to crawl up the wall or some other how escape the room, that -- or a Frank Sinatra's greatest hits compilation 

[San Antone]

Hold on, there fella - Old Blue Eyes is GREAT.

[James]

I am more interested in listening to an unknown composer's latest YouTube offering.

Yea .. run from things. Ignorance is bliss.

[Monsieur Croche]

I hope you are not being serious.

"The current generation of young great composers of the world are all huddled in a cramped and wholly overcrowded waiting room of Groves..."

I thought just that opening most certainly would have tipped anyone off right up front! ;-)

[James]

All I know is that if I ran across "stupid" as frequently as J. seems to, I would be looking for different reading material in a different venue than that from which all the stupid flows... I mean constant exposure is sure to dull even the brightest of boys.

i guess some folks are content in eating everything, it's all food you know. no differences, just stuff it in, just pleasure.

[Karl Henning]

"The current generation of young great composers of the world are all huddled in a cramped and wholly overcrowded waiting room of Groves..."

I thought just that opening most certainly would have tipped anyone off right up front! ;-)

0:)

[San Antone]

Yea .. run from things. Ignorance is bliss.

LOL

You and I just don't have the same orientation.  My listening habits are not guided by a search for "the Great"; I simply listen to music.  A wide variety iof music.

[Karl Henning]

LOL

You and I just don't have the same orientation.  My listening habits are not guided by a seach for "the Great"; I simply listen to music.  A wide variety iof music.

Doesn't seem like ignorance to any rational being.

[James]

Why do you, or anyone, need to know if the music is considered great or not?  And anyone who would ridicule you for liking or merely listening to something that isn't considered "great" is an supreme asshole.

Learning why something is considered great is useful, don't you think? A lot could be learned, could be useful, no? Ignorance is bliss orientation?

[Karl Henning]

Hold on, there fella - Old Blue Eyes is GREAT.

Separately . . . I was watching an interview with Mel Brooks about High Anxiety. "Nobody does Sinatra better than me."

[San Antone]

You're full of shit imo. No offence. This whole exchange has been a play of words. We both know, that listening to and coming into contact with a great musician is useful. To try to downplay all of that, as if it doesn't exist, is just plain dumb.

Once again it seems common ground eludes us.  Honestly, I am not the least interested in what seems to wind your clock.  Call me "full of shit" or "just plain dumb" - water off my back.