Chocolate is the root of all evil

Chocolate comes, chocolate goes, chocolate disappears. And that's natural. When you understand this, your relationship with chocolate can change. When you DEEPLY understand this, you will truly have no fear of anything at all.
That allegory by Lama Yeshe conveys the essence of Buddhism, but it also contains another important teaching. Classical music is riddled with silly conventions. Less damaging conventions include composer anniversaries, binary mindsets, concert etiquette, proscenium arches, embedded journalists and classical charts. Among the more damaging conventions are celebrity, industry experts, discrimination, ambition and greed. But, just like chocolate, these damaging conventions come and go and finally disappear. And that's natural. When classical music understands this, its relationship with audiences - new and old - can change. When classical music DEEPLY understands this it will truly have no fear of anything at all.

Also on Facebook and Twitter. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

Comments

billoo said…
chocolate comes, chocolate goes..you know, for a while there I was all ears, Bob. but, but...this is sacrilege!

:-)

Recent popular posts

David Munrow - more than early music

Classical music must be doing something wrong

Does Facebook really have to be this dire?

Soundtrack for a porn movie

The Accidental Pilgrim

Brilliant Russian sacred choral music

The act of killing from 20,000 feet

Classical music's biggest problem is that no one cares

Master musician who experienced the pain of genius

The purpose of puffery and closed-mindedness