Re: [microsound] Classical music is booming, contrary to the pessimism of most inthe business

[Guillaume Grenier <grenier.g@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 02/06/03 10:46, Michael Arnold Mages said in living color:

> 
> On Sun, 1 Jun 2003 macrosound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> 
>> I knew that one was gonna raise some eyebrows.  To be more specific,
>> everything after stravinsky with a few exceptions: cage, reich, xenakis,
>> et al.
> 
> Well, everything before Stravinsky has been strained by the filter of
> history to eliminate the 'boring' composers.  Don't you think
> that there has been a vast majority of boring composers throughout
> history, punctuated with rare flashes of brilliance?  The only reason that
> Salieri is part of the public discourse today is becouse he was rewritten
> to be the murderer of Mozart in the movie "Amadeus".  What about the other
> 15-20 court composers who gigged for the Viennise royalty? As VH-1 would
> say "Where Are They Now?".
 
I just want to add some words about the popular topic that is time's
"optimizing" effect on the legacy of music.

I think that time is a double-edged sword in this regard. Sure, it does have
the virtue of getting rid of unremarkable composers. But it also forgets
(buries!) loads of fantastic music...

J.S. Bach, one of the most universally revered figures in music history, was
for a long time almost completely ignored. We owe our current enjoyment of
his music to Mendelssohn (who resurrected the St Matthew Passion almost a
century after its first performance).

Another case: Mahler -- today one of the huge figure of symphonic music. His
music was largely ignored until (among other things) it was propelled by the
championship of Leonard Bernstein.

Large chunks of romantic opera (Schumann's, to give an example) have, up
until now (the resurrection here is still in its very infancy), been
virtually forgotten.

We unearth frequently lost marvels of music from the baroque epoch.
Christoph Graupner (he was a contemporary of Bach and a friend of Handel; he
was mainly known in music circles as "the guy who turned down the job of
Cantor in Leipzig" which allowed Bach to obtain it) is an example of a major
composer who had been ignored.

Etc., etc.

Conclusion: I think that history/time is a pretty indifferent judge of
music's worth. It buries great and poor composers in the same grave.

g.

-- 
Guillaume Grenier - grenier.g@xxxxxxxxxxxx

in space there is no north  in space there is no south
in space there is no east   in space there is no west

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