Primal stream
My recent post Music of things was adroitly distilled by Alex Ross and tweeted onwards . Which prompts me to return to a 2011 post on the same theme which arrogantly contemporized a celebrated teaching of Benjamin Britten. Disruptive technology has moved on in the last four years, so here is a new version of that teaching on the primal stream: Anyone, anywhere, at any time can listen to the B minor Mass upon one condition only - that they subscribe to a music streaming service. No qualification is required of any sort - faith, virtue, education, experience, age. Thanks to the internet music is now free for all. If I say music streaming is the principal enemy of music, I don't mean that I am not grateful to it as a means of education or study. But it is not part of true musical experience. Regarded as such it is simply a substitute, and dangerous because deluding. Music demands more from a listener than a Wi-Fi connection. It demands some preparation, some effort, a journey to