Now see the music



A really fresh approach to classical music and the televisual...

With thanks to John Shimwell. Report broken links, missing images and errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot Also on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

Pliable said…
I guess this redefines a wooden performance.
Neal Chen said…
I generally agree with the posts on this blog, but I am very much surprised by how gung ho you are about this visual thing. It strikes me as novelty, a stunt in which the music becomes buried or even lost.

I wonder if you are familiar with MacDonald's theory of "midcult." I question the idea that all music is or should be made accessible to everyone. At the risk of repeating Babbitt's "Who Cares if You Listen?" mistake, I rather feel that certain music can only be appreciated by those who put in the effort to do so with their full attention. Yes, future generations might be more visually attuned than aurally, but that does not mean we should give up on helping them to cultivate their ears and practice listening; the brain is amazingly plastic, after all.

I can name plenty of songs that, while musically perhaps not so exciting, became popular because of an entertaining dance or video attached to them. I don't look forward to the day when a composer's success is measured by how much they can spend hiring artists and CGI editors to mask their mediocre music.

Recent popular posts

Those are my principles....

David Munrow - more than early music

Who needs streaming?

Swamped by a tsunami of classical populism.

The Acid Queen hears Stravinsky in Jajouka

Elgar and the occult

Classical music can learn a lot from our feline friends

Wagner, Mahler and Shostakovich all sound like film music

The end of innocence

Great recordings without the spin