i get the hint, kai! so here i am posting, on the eve of an econs case study that i'm not really studying for (taking a leaf out of your book, kai) unlike everyone else. so anyway i shall post. i am tired and this week is tiring and i'm sick (judith i HATE you and your STUPID flu bug, but anyway zhipeng got it first) and i feel absolutely horrible inside ie stomach churning and perpetual coldness and so on.
i hate mugging. i think.
and so concludes my whine-for-the-day.
had a very fulfilling practice just now! from 3 to 7+++ (nearer to 8) and everything is being sorted out! ensemble pieces sound quite nice methinks and will get even better (and today we weren't even at full strength), the brandenburg concerto no. 3 is going along nicely and i'm sure quartet rocks! so a bit of shameless advertising here first, before i move on to other things: strings concert, 17th may, monday (i know it's a bad day but can't be helped) 7.30 pm at victoria concert hall. i can say without reservations that it's going to be good, much better than last year's concerts. the programme is highly interesting. (how often have you seen brandenburg no. 3 performed by school orchestra in its original setting i.e. 3 violins 3 violas 3 cellos 1 bass 1 harpsichord?) the hall is very good acoustically some more. (and for zhipeng: there will be a shostakovitch quartet, which you'll find very interesting.) a guaranteed treat! and tickets are going at only $8 and $10, which are very low prices for a good hall. so do come! (and anyway to paraphrase kai it's always more interesting to actually watch a live performance than merely listen to a cd.)
a mediocre attempt at demand manipulation, i'm afraid.
so anyway we were talking about how modern culture tends to be more esoteric (i think) and there being this convergence of artistic and literary forms and conventions in modern days. maybe it's because we are viewing cultural/artistic history in hindsight but it seems somewhat more homogeneous in those days than now. anyway my area is more sort of inclined towards music so i was talking about how modern "serious" music tended to be far more esoteric than older classical forms. not everyone can appreciate shostakovitch and bartok but vivaldi and mozart are instantly grasped - so their music is always used for jingles on TV. (perhaps a most ignonimious fate.) they have nice melodies and recognizable tunes - not to say there is little esoteric technique in their construction, but i think much of the time it's the tunes that will appeal instantly while technique lies mostly in the background.
in any case a newsweek article once blamed this movement towards the abstruse and the erudite in music as the cause of serious music losing its popularity in the 20th and 21st centuries. in its 19th century apogee it was part of the cultural mainstream. today classical music takes up 3% of total cd sales. (interesting thought: perhaps this could be due to another factor - which is the infiltration of consumer society to the lower socio-economic classes. perhaps serious music was only ever suitable for a bourgeois/aristocratic mindset - i say this with great risk of over generalization - but... wait, stupid theory. too biased, too class based to be true i think)
anyway i'm not sure if this movement in "serious" music (as opposed to non-serious, or popular, music, or what barnard will call um-cha um-cha um-cha) towards the esoteric is actually reflected in modern poetry. but somehow i think at least some of it is reflected because musical and artistic and literary conventions tend to mirror each other historically, as part of the larger intellectual/artistic consciousness within each society in a specific time period.
am tired. and ill. bleeeeeeeaaaaargh. and slightly stressed, though less so than yesterday. and whoo, long post. for once.
i hate mugging. i think.
and so concludes my whine-for-the-day.
had a very fulfilling practice just now! from 3 to 7+++ (nearer to 8) and everything is being sorted out! ensemble pieces sound quite nice methinks and will get even better (and today we weren't even at full strength), the brandenburg concerto no. 3 is going along nicely and i'm sure quartet rocks! so a bit of shameless advertising here first, before i move on to other things: strings concert, 17th may, monday (i know it's a bad day but can't be helped) 7.30 pm at victoria concert hall. i can say without reservations that it's going to be good, much better than last year's concerts. the programme is highly interesting. (how often have you seen brandenburg no. 3 performed by school orchestra in its original setting i.e. 3 violins 3 violas 3 cellos 1 bass 1 harpsichord?) the hall is very good acoustically some more. (and for zhipeng: there will be a shostakovitch quartet, which you'll find very interesting.) a guaranteed treat! and tickets are going at only $8 and $10, which are very low prices for a good hall. so do come! (and anyway to paraphrase kai it's always more interesting to actually watch a live performance than merely listen to a cd.)
a mediocre attempt at demand manipulation, i'm afraid.
so anyway we were talking about how modern culture tends to be more esoteric (i think) and there being this convergence of artistic and literary forms and conventions in modern days. maybe it's because we are viewing cultural/artistic history in hindsight but it seems somewhat more homogeneous in those days than now. anyway my area is more sort of inclined towards music so i was talking about how modern "serious" music tended to be far more esoteric than older classical forms. not everyone can appreciate shostakovitch and bartok but vivaldi and mozart are instantly grasped - so their music is always used for jingles on TV. (perhaps a most ignonimious fate.) they have nice melodies and recognizable tunes - not to say there is little esoteric technique in their construction, but i think much of the time it's the tunes that will appeal instantly while technique lies mostly in the background.
in any case a newsweek article once blamed this movement towards the abstruse and the erudite in music as the cause of serious music losing its popularity in the 20th and 21st centuries. in its 19th century apogee it was part of the cultural mainstream. today classical music takes up 3% of total cd sales. (interesting thought: perhaps this could be due to another factor - which is the infiltration of consumer society to the lower socio-economic classes. perhaps serious music was only ever suitable for a bourgeois/aristocratic mindset - i say this with great risk of over generalization - but... wait, stupid theory. too biased, too class based to be true i think)
anyway i'm not sure if this movement in "serious" music (as opposed to non-serious, or popular, music, or what barnard will call um-cha um-cha um-cha) towards the esoteric is actually reflected in modern poetry. but somehow i think at least some of it is reflected because musical and artistic and literary conventions tend to mirror each other historically, as part of the larger intellectual/artistic consciousness within each society in a specific time period.
am tired. and ill. bleeeeeeeaaaaargh. and slightly stressed, though less so than yesterday. and whoo, long post. for once.
<< Home