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Re: Musical snobbery (was Re: Songs for BL)

To: <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Musical snobbery (was Re: Songs for BL)
From: "Alec Gallagher" <alec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 23:17:40 +0100
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----Original Message-----
From: Cameron Mabon <cmabon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 11 June 1998 16:00
Subject: Musical snobbery (was Re: Songs for BL)

 I think it should be
>possible to enjoy music without knowing anything about it (chord
>progressions, structure, etc.). I am the first to admit that I don't know
>very much at all about the musical structure behind Rachmanninov's 2nd
piano
>concerto, but that doesn't stop me enjoying playing or listening to it.
>
>I think that many people are so obsessed with following the "workings" of
>modern music that they forget to actually listen to the music. If they
>are continually listening out for such and such a chord, or for
>particular melodic or harmonoic patterns, they lose the benefits of
>taking the music at face value.

Couldn't agree more.  When I wrote about trying to understand the music, I
wasn't talking about the 'nuts & bolts' - chords, harmonic patterns and all
that - I was talking about the meaning of the music.  It is perfectly
possible, for instance, to enjoy Tchaik 6 at face value, but if you know the
circumstances in which it was written, the power of the music is enhanced in
the listener's mind.  Especially the 4th movement.  The more effort you put
into understanding the music, the more you get out of it.

Oddly enough, it has always seemed to me that it is the brass band
traditionalists who are most interested in the 'nuts and bolts'.  I recall
reading an account of a performance of Contest Music 'in which the principal
cornet held the top c sharp in the middle movement for fourteen seconds'.
Gosh - fourteen seconds!  What a musician!!

Cheers

Alec

________________________
Alec Gallagher
alec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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