"Serious" Music

Started by mn dave, July 22, 2008, 05:31:09 AM

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karlhenning

#60
July 23, 2008, 04:23:00 AM
Not a bad article, Dave.

Ten thumbs

#61
July 23, 2008, 02:08:20 PM
Quote from: Don on July 22, 2008, 09:10:22 AM
Why do you equate enjoyment with amusement?  Serious music can certainly be enjoyed.
I was rushing but my point really was that serious music can also amuse. Certainly the writing of works like 'Pirates' is a very serious business that takes quite as much genius as writing a major symphony.
A day may be a destiny; for life
Lives in but little—but that little teems
With some one chance, the balance of all time:
A look—a word—and we are wholly changed.

jwinter

#62
July 23, 2008, 06:29:25 PM
I'm still not sure what makes music "serious", but as a practical matter I tend to think of the distinction similarly to how TS Eliot considered "literature" vs fiction -- the real deal displays "ambiguity", it doesn't have one single obvious meaning that bangs you over the head ala "Love Me Do, You Know I Love You, I'll Always Be True, So Please, Love Me Do", but can be interpreted many different ways.  It's music that has complexity, layers of sound that come together in interesting ways, and that rewards multiple listenings.  Peter Gabriel leaps immediately to mind, as does late David Bowie, the Talking Heads, Robbie Robertson (both with and since The Band), Emmylou Harris' recent stuff, Sgt. Pepper, there are lots of examples.  Even the Rolling Stones, who indeed often take a minimalist bluesy approach, and who probably should have hung it up back in the early 80s (but that's another thread), released Exile on Main Street, which in terms of raw power and sheer grandeur I'd put up against anything I've ever heard, classical included.
The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.
Let no such man be trusted.

-- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

karlhenning

#63
July 24, 2008, 06:23:57 AM
Quote from: jwinter on July 23, 2008, 06:29:25 PM
. . . it doesn't have one single obvious meaning that bangs you over the head ala "Love Me Do, You Know I Love You, I'll Always Be True, So Please, Love Me Do"

Dang! Was the obvious answer the right one there, too?

And here I always thought the coded message for that song was on the lines of:

QuoteThis weekend is the big sheep shearing. Saturday all the sheep get shorn and plentiful will be the wool to skirt and get ready for market. We had hoped the shop would be done so the wool can go upstairs in the new skirting area but what can you do? Love me, do.

karlhenning

#64
September 02, 2008, 04:36:48 AM
How many threads have been killed by references to sheep, eh?
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