An amusing follow-up

[mmcirvin]

Alex Ross also wrote a response to some responses to his long essay about elitism and classical music, and it includes the following amusing parenthetical:

The only people who seemed really incensed by my piece were pop snobs who didn't want me venturing outside my culture ghetto. Within CM it was much less controversial than I'd expected.

Snobbery works in all directions.

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

My snobbery is better than your snobbery.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Here's what i wrote ACD (i guess i was bored):

---

    classical music is not merely "one of [music's] streams," but
    music's very apotheosis; the one instantiation of music that alone is
    capable of subsuming and transfiguring all of music's other
    instantiations.

That's backwards.  Such sublime music becomes classic to the listener
(for example, i found King Crimson's /Discipline/ and Duke Ellington's
/The Far East Suite/ musical works that shattered my musical
Weltanschauung in ways that no "classical" piece has done); however,
to try to set the body of work under the "classical" label free to fly
away under its own magnificent power will result in a lot of music
falling to the ground.

    So, if pandering to proles is not the answer, what, then, is?

Why pander?  When a musician panders, the music suffers.  And the
whole assumption of "proles" sets you off on the wrong foot, as well
as this "hierarchy of music" that, you claim, holds "classical" music
at its apex.  That is more a vicissitude of time and culture than of
design.  Where does non-Western music sit in your hierarchy?

    Sad to tell, nature's (Nature's) course in this particular
    business virtually guarantees that no matter how engaging the
    introduction, the overwhelming majority of those to whom classical
    music is introduced will fail to see (hear) that it's "something
    worth loving."

You might as well say that about any genre.  Sure, pop is a genre that
is predicated on the one-night stand, but love still exists in there.

I'll still cling to my anti-trance elitism, in that the so-called
trance genre is utterly devoid of any sort of musicianship, but i'm
willing to admit that it's *possible* for a trance musician to create
something rich, enjoyable, and --dare i say it-- transcendent.

---

OK, so i used "Weltanschauung" on purpose, just to show off to some elitist punk. So sue me.

[doctroid.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what "Weltanschauung" means, I just like saying "Schauung!! Schauung!! Schauuuuuuuuuung!!"

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Darth Vader's lightsaber goes "SCHAUUUUNG!" and leaves a nasty Welt on your head!