GMG Classical Music Forum

The Music Room => General Classical Music Discussion => Topic started by: hornteacher on October 27, 2008, 05:33:00 PM

Title: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: hornteacher on October 27, 2008, 05:33:00 PM
I got the idea for this thread after I found myself listening to Pappano's recording of the 1812 Overture which includes a full chorus singing the Russian Hymns within the piece.  I enjoyed the recording but felt guilty because 1812 is such a piece of schmaltzy fluff.  Anyone else have similar reactions to other pieces?
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Dundonnell on October 27, 2008, 05:43:13 PM
Carmina Burana by Carl Orff :)

It is cheesy too in a way and the critics(used to?) hate it....but it is GREAT fun :) :)
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: mn dave on October 27, 2008, 05:44:48 PM
I never understood feeling guilty about music.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Drasko on October 27, 2008, 05:57:48 PM
Quote from: mn dave on October 27, 2008, 05:44:48 PM
I never understood feeling guilty about music.

What he said.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Brian on October 27, 2008, 05:59:46 PM
Works I Do NOT Feel Guilty for Enjoying  :D :
1812 Overture, Franz von Suppe's overtures, everything by Johann Strauss, Holst's "The Planets", things by Elgar and Khachaturian, Offenbach's "Gaite Parisienne", the Rage over a Lost Penny, the Romanian Rhapsody No 1, the world's worst performance of Also Sprach Zarathustra (http://www.stacken.kth.se/~vladi/orebros_kommunala_musikskola_2008.mp3), and the "Most Unwanted Song".

Works I DO Feel Guilty Enjoying:
"Superbad"  ;D
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Kullervo on October 27, 2008, 07:59:46 PM
I don't feel guilty about liking anything, but I would have trouble explaining why exactly I enjoy something like, say, "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean, or Scritti Politti's Cupid and Psyche '85. I never have this problem with classical music.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Symphonien on October 27, 2008, 08:18:10 PM
Quote from: Brian on October 27, 2008, 05:59:46 PM
Works I Do NOT Feel Guilty for Enjoying  :D :
... world's worst performance of Also Sprach Zarathustra (http://www.stacken.kth.se/~vladi/orebros_kommunala_musikskola_2008.mp3) ...

Now where the hell did that clip come from? They manage to make the bass at the beginning sound like didgeroos and the brass sound like elephants! The rest is too excruciating to listen to...
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Brian on October 27, 2008, 09:31:25 PM
Quote from: Symphonien on October 27, 2008, 08:18:10 PM
Now where the hell did that clip come from? They manage to make the bass at the beginning sound like didgeroos and the brass sound like elephants! The rest is too excruciating to listen to...
A public high school in Sweden. From Bjorling's hometown, according to Dundonnell.
I love how even the drums are completely off.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Ugh! on October 28, 2008, 01:19:03 AM
Quote from: Brian on October 27, 2008, 05:59:46 PM
Works I Do NOT Feel Guilty for Enjoying  :D :
the world's worst performance of Also Sprach Zarathustra (http://www.stacken.kth.se/~vladi/orebros_kommunala_musikskola_2008.mp3), and the "Most Unwanted Song".


I am sure this will come across as insane - but I do not feel guilty for stating that it is by far the most exciting rendition of that part of the work I have ever come across, almost Tibetan!

http://www.youtube.com/v/Na7x-CUqNnY
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: marvinbrown on October 28, 2008, 02:57:15 AM
Quote from: hornteacher on October 27, 2008, 05:33:00 PM
I got the idea for this thread after I found myself listening to Pappano's recording of the 1812 Overture which includes a full chorus singing the Russian Hymns within the piece.  I enjoyed the recording but felt guilty because 1812 is such a piece of schmaltzy fluff.  Anyone else have similar reactions to other pieces?


  Yes and I am going to get crucified for posting this but what you describe above is exactly how I feel about Puccini's Madam Butterfly...... :o........ :-\

  marvin
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: karlhenning on October 28, 2008, 03:05:51 AM
Quote from: hornteacher on October 27, 2008, 05:33:00 PM
. . .  I enjoyed the recording but felt guilty because 1812 is such a piece of schmaltzy fluff.

No, what you're guilty of, is of dismissing the 1812 as "a piece of schmaltzy fluff"  $:)
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Tsaraslondon on October 28, 2008, 05:42:49 AM
I don't feel guilty for enjoying any of the music I like, whether it be Neopolitan song, Barbra Streisand singing Canteloube's Brezairola, or any of the operettas and musical comedies I like. I don't feel guilty for liking Madonna or Robbie Williams, I might feel guilty if I didn't also love and appreciate the music of Verdi, Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and a host of other great composers too numerous to mention, but I make no excuses for the lighter fare that makes its way to my CD player from time to time.

Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: hornteacher on October 28, 2008, 06:58:46 AM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 28, 2008, 03:05:51 AM
No, what you're guilty of, is of dismissing the 1812 as "a piece of schmaltzy fluff"  $:)

I accept that.  How do I get beyond the shameless patriotic "My country kicked your country's rear end, so there." feel to the piece?  Even Tchaikovsky is reported to have said his heart wasn't in it when he wrote it.  How can I approach this music in a different way?
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: karlhenning on October 28, 2008, 07:12:09 AM
Quote from: hornteacher on October 28, 2008, 06:58:46 AM
I accept that.  How do I get beyond the shameless patriotic "My country kicked your country's rear end, so there." feel to the piece?  Even Tchaikovsky is reported to have said his heart wasn't in it when he wrote it.  How can I approach this music in a different way?

Don't know what to suggest, as I've just always liked the piece (one of the first classical works I was ever aware of).
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: The new erato on October 28, 2008, 09:22:35 AM
I have such impeccabke taste that anything I like is per se worth liking.  ;)
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Bulldog on October 28, 2008, 12:52:40 PM
Quote from: Drasko on October 27, 2008, 05:57:48 PM
What he said.

What they said.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: drogulus on October 28, 2008, 02:44:10 PM
Quote from: hornteacher on October 28, 2008, 06:58:46 AM
I accept that.  How do I get beyond the shameless patriotic "My country kicked your country's rear end, so there." feel to the piece?  Even Tchaikovsky is reported to have said his heart wasn't in it when he wrote it.  How can I approach this music in a different way?

     I saw the (not very good) film of War and Peace, and what I got from it is that the Russians didn't feel that they had defeated Napoleon by dint of some national superiority, but rather that they had survived a plague through sheer endurance. I haven't read the book (I don't know why, since I loved Anna Karenina).
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: donaldopato on October 28, 2008, 02:52:11 PM
Bolero... always great fun, always hear something new in the orchestration. ;D
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: knight66 on October 28, 2008, 02:54:06 PM
I can't think of anything I feel guilty enjoying. If I liked Andy Williams I would feel guilty about that; but I don't, so I don't.

Mike
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Kuhlau on October 28, 2008, 02:55:15 PM
Quote from: karlhenning on October 28, 2008, 03:05:51 AM
No, what you're guilty of, is of dismissing the 1812 as "a piece of schmaltzy fluff"  $:)

Quite so.

FK
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: knight66 on October 28, 2008, 02:59:13 PM
Yes, that would be more...The Sugar Plum Fairy.

Mike
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: vandermolen on October 30, 2008, 10:32:23 AM
Mike Oldfield  :o

Mind you, Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist, when asked what was the greatest mistake common to all mankind replied: "feeling guilty".
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: M forever on October 30, 2008, 02:26:31 PM
Probably true. Which is why many religions are so obsessed about guilt and sin, because people suffer from that a lot, so it makes it easier to control them.
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Dundonnell on October 30, 2008, 06:19:43 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on October 30, 2008, 10:32:23 AM
Mike Oldfield  :o

Mind you, Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist, when asked what was the greatest mistake common to all mankind replied: "feeling guilty".

Mike Oldfield eh, Jeffrey ;D

When I was about 26 I heard 'Tubular Bells' for the first time and that made me aware that just because some guys had long hair and dressed casually that didn't necessarily mean that their music should be condemned out of hand(as I had previously!).

Pink Floyd came next....but that's another story :) ;D
Title: Re: Works You Feel Guilty for Enjoying
Post by: Wanderer on October 31, 2008, 01:39:43 AM
Quote from: erato on October 28, 2008, 09:22:35 AM
I have such impeccable taste that anything I like is per se worth liking.  ;)

Good one!