An interesting perspective from an excellent classical music critic.
Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
Tales of True Adventure for Rugged Men Not Unlike Yourself
An interesting perspective from an excellent classical music critic.
I think my next question for the three people on that panel is “can you show me America on a map?” or something that can establish a minimal baseline of awareness.
But yeah, that’s how it goes. I work with people born in the late 1990s. Nirvana to them is like Pat Boone to me. It’s wild.
Anyone over 50 would freak out if they saw McCartney in an elevator. Anyone in their 20’s would ask who’s the old British guy.
Mr. Classical Guy has a point. A self-respecting musician (or connoisseur) is eventually bound to discover Robert Johnson and Bach. Calling the former “classic” and the latter “classical” seems ok.
Just please, no one use the phrase “instant classic.” It permeates the sports landscape and is just as bad in music.
One of you once posted a video of a band performing a note-for-note copy of the White Album for an audience of mostly gray heads. Not too different from an orchestra performing Beethoven, Brahms, et al. for an audience of…mostly gray heads. The main difference is that for the White Album we have a definitive recorded performance by the composers. Interesting will be whether such cover concerts continue to mimic closely the original recordings, or whether those recordings become starting points for different interpretations, like printed scores in classical music. Or maybe just the melodies live on as improvisational themes, as in jazz. Maybe all of the above. Maybe none.
But I’ll leave it to someone else to judge what the cover bands are up to. I’ll go when someone makes the music his or her own. I’d rather hear the real record than watch someone play a note-for-note copy.
“Instant classic” is an oxymoron. You can’t know what will last. Last Tango in Paris was considered an instant classic. When’s the last time you heard anyone mention it? J.S. Bach wasn’t famous in his day. Johann Reincken, Dieterich Buxtehude, and Johann (of course) Pachelbel were far better known than Bach. The first two are entirely forgotten by everyone but baroque connoisseurs, and Pachelbel is now a one-hit wonder. George Frideric Handel was more famous than all of them. And he’s still big. Reputation-wise, Handel/Bach strike me as the baroque equivalents of the Beatles/Velvet Underground. Both hugely influential, one hugely famous in his time, the other almost completely obscure. True, the VU’s status grew more quickly after the band’s demise than Bach’s after his death, but word spreads faster in the era of recordings.
The evolution of composers’ various reputations is fascinating. I imagine that analogs abound with artists, scientists, historical figures, etc. Even in my lifetime, many of the founding fathers have kinda gone from noble freedom-loving men of enlightenment to slave-owning bastards.
No one told me that Last Tango was amazing, only that I should watch it. That was 20 or 25 years ago. I saw it once, and it really stays with me. I find Brando riveting. It’s hard for me to think of two performances by an actor in a single calendar year even in the same universe as Last Tango and The Godfather.
I was too young to see Last Tango in Paris when it came out, but I managed to see it a few years later when I was around sixteen, courtesy of an art house that didn’t check ID’s. Of course I was there for the sex/nudity, so Brando didn’t partiulcarly resonate with my stupid adolescent brain. Aside from Brando’s performance, its reputation at the time had to do with breaking barriers that no longer exist (it got an X rating, which is laughable now). It might have been overpraised because it was so outre, but I’d have to see it again to judge that.
A better example would be the varying reputation of Sgt. Pepper. Considered an unassailable masterpice upon release, and regularly topping (along with Pet Sounds) those dopey All Time Greatest Albums lists for a generation or more, its status hasn’t really held up with most people. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever spoken with any die-hard Beatles fans who named it as their favorite. It’s just too much of its time. No doubt that its great moments rank with the best of their work, but some of the filler…
Right. Everyone had to listen to it the moment it came out, and it was certainly influential in that respect.
But everyone I know rates Revolver, The Beatles, Abbey Road, and Rubber Soul higher.