From: markf@sco.COM (mark forry)
Subject: Re: So exactly what's wrong with Bolero, anyway?
Organization: The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 23:09:28 GMT


In article <C0ILLv.EsB@world.std.com> kaya@world.std.com (Kaya Bekiroglu) writes:
>
>Pardon my ignorance of classical music, but what is wrong with
>Bolero?  I have heard only a portion of it, and it sounds alright
>by me.. I happen to like it.

As others in this newsgroup have suggested, your enthusiasm for
this music is the only thing that's really important.  Listen as
long as you love it.
 
>I first heard it on my local classical radio station (WCRB)
>during their "Classical Radio Countdown"  The DJ said that
>he gets many requests for it late at night by studying college
>students.  I does have a lonely, march-by-moonlight quality to it...

People around the world use music for many different purposes.
Personally, I've never been able to study to music, but I know
many people who do.  My teenage step-daughter has taken to
listening to the Mozart Requiem while studying, particularly
math and sciences; it was exciting to me that she picked that
piece from my eclectic classical library -- she also likes the
Beethoven Wind Octet, but only as dinner music.

>I was following the Ravel thread and picked up the distasteful
>remarks concerning Bolero and hope someone can elaborate on them
>for me.  I don't want to be listening to a shallow piece or anything
>(peer pressure really gets to you after awhile, doesn't it?).

As you've no doubt discerned from reading this group, mentioning
Ravel's Bolero at a cocktail party won't get you far; mention his
Sheherezade songs instead (that'll get 'em ;*).  

What's interesting to me in this thread is the idea that some
pieces are more accessible to an audience unfamiliar with
classical music.  I don't know exactly how one would define
accessible -- all sorts of ideas about obvious form (Bolero),
touching harmonies (Barber Adagio), and flashy effects (1812
Ouverture) -- come to mind.  But you could draw up a list of
these pieces fairly easily; the aforementioned, plus the Four
Seasons, and anything that's ever been used in a film.

I think this idea of accessibility runs deep in contemporary
American music culture.  Just as our ideas about genre have been
shaped by mail-order marketing categories ("Check one of the
following:  Classical, Pop, Easy Listening" etc.), so has the idea
that great art should be approached according to a prescribed 
trajectory.  Compendia of classical pieces with recognizable
themes, marketed on late-night television, is only one
manifestation of this belief.  (For more on this issue, see
Lawrence Levine's "Highbrow/Lowbrow").

I'm frequently posed the question "I don't know much about classical 
music; where should I start?"  I find it fascinating that the idea 
of a starting point is such a common one (as if there were really 
only one door into a musical Narnia ;*).  Often what they mean is, 
"What music SHOULD I like?"; this is clearly a question of canon.  
But even when it's meant on a level of personal
aesthetics, there is a widespread view that it's not ok to like
certain pieces of music.  This idea mystifies me somewhat, since
music's emotional and intellectual appeal is so diverse.  

I must confess that an "accessible" piece played a big part in my
musical development.  I once loved Orff's Carmina Burana 
(a favorite whipping boy in this newsgroup ;*) very much.  
While it's no longer my absolute favorite piece of
music ever written, I'm grateful to my youth symphony conductor for 
programming it, as it's a wonderful piece for adolescent musicians.  
For me, it was a way in; specifically, it was a way into a passionate 
relationship to music.  Once I've passed the portals, their architecture
concerns me little but I'm sure glad they were there.
-- 
Mark Forry                 A little girl, after hearing Beethoven's Ninth 
Technical Publications     Symphony for the first time, asked, 
The Santa Cruz Operation   "What do we do now?"
uunet!sco!markf              -- quoted by Richard Kehl, Further Departures
markf@sco.COM             
(408) 427-7509            Standard disclaimers apply.