Major major bugbear

[ChamberNut]

Don't make me regret your return, Ray...     

All in good fun! 

[Florestan]

All in good fun! 

Of course! 

[Florestan]

I think that makes me a music lover rather than a pretentious know-it-all.

These days I've been reading an interesting Ph. D. dissertation titled "Repetitive Novelty: Italian Opera in Paris and London in the 1830s and 1840s". In the chapter dedicated to discussing the critical reception of Bellini's I Puritani premiere, I encountered these lines:


Italian music's appeal to instinct and its ability to act on the emotions apparently without engaging the mind made it an ideal un-intellectual art form, its appreciation requiring no special training but only openness to emotion and to pleasure. Etienne Delécluze cast Italian music and simple listening pleasure as almost pre-lapsarian, a precious form of aesthetic experience that academics were trying to take away from innocent listeners. Music, he wrote, is:

the only art in which the power of instinct is stronger than that of reflection...in
fact, it is the only art whose productions seduce, carry away, and transport us
without our knowing why or how. Leave us at least this innocent happiness.

(emphasis mine).

Reading your post, I couldn't help being reminded of that (with which, needless to say, I agree 100%).

[Karl Henning]

fact, it [Italian music] is the only art whose productions seduce, carry away, and transport us 
without our knowing why or how.

In fact, this does not tally with my experience, it is not the only music, let alone the only art. Nonsense on stilts.

[Florestan]

In fact, this does not tally with my experience, it is not the only music, let alone the only art. Nonsense on stilts.

My dear Karl, you misread it. The Etienne Delécluze (whoever he was) quote, although extracted from a review of I Puritani's premiere, refers to music in general, not specifically Italian operatic music. Please, read again. And also, please consider the time and place.

[Karl Henning]

My dear Karl, you misread it.

Sometimes, I do.

[Florestan]

Sometimes, I do.

Sometimes, we all do. 

[Florestan]

I like what I like, and am quite happy to enthuse tediously about how certain artists or composers are massively overrated and overplayed

Overplayed, yes. Overrated, no --- I can't think of a single one of the canonical composers who is overrated. The proof for that is that as time went by, new names have been added to the canon but no old name has been deleted from it. 

Of course, I'm talking about the canon as universally crystallized since the late 19th century and during the 20th century. In the preceding centuries the canon (or rather canons) varied widely and wildly, depending on geography.

[Symphonic Addict]

I very much agree with Roasted Swan. For me it's about the pleasure of introducing listeners to music which they might not otherwise be aware of. If they enjoy it that's great but, if not, that's fine too.

Amen to this.

You titled this thread "Major major bugbear."  IMO it is your intolerance which is the bugbear.

And also this. Not to be involved in a hateful discussion, but that member looks too of a bitter person to me.

[Maestro267]

It's more from the point of what is it going to do? We can't change the tide of music away from the warhorses. But as this thread has descended into personal attacks on me I shall close it.