From: ujwb@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jeff Beer)
Subject: Re: Lite Classics
Organization: Educational Computing Network
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 05:19:12 GMT

In article <ALLMUSIC%92091410104198@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU> Tim Johnson <ST402711@BROWNVM.BITNET> writes:
>>But suppose that you're right about those folks.  What if just one of
>>them finds out that (s)he likes classical music (you know, finds
>>something in it that's more fulfilling than his/her usual pop radio diet)?
>
>  Then there are still millions of posers, and it is still a
>good generalization.

While I have always been skeptical of arguments that it might turn
someone not previously into the music on, it also is a fact you don't
need lite music to be a poser.  Both of you might have made that point,
but if not, I am making it now.

>>Besides, I can't help thinking that Yo Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin had
>>a good time doing it, and music made by people who are having a good
>>time is often fun to listen to.
>
>  I can't speak for Bobby McFerrin, but I have read interviews
>with Yo Yo Ma which indicate that he was hardly set afire by
>the production.  It isn't clear he was having a great time doing
>it, at least, not from what he has said about it.

From the sound of things, YoYo wanted to improvise.  If you are a
classical musican and want to improvise, you go to the jazz musicians.
They are the improvisers.  As for Bobby conducting, that has to be a
gimmick.  Yet, in my dreams, I hear Elvin (Jones) conduct Le Sacre Du Printemps.

>  And yes, I have heard the album.  Grade school humor, and
>Lite music.  Bleah.

Well, not to let the topic die, I only partially agree.  I think
seeing what was said about YoYo's interview, "tiresome" was an apt 
word for it.

But.....  as far as the album goes, Bobby's pieces usually were pretty
good.   As for the "classics",  two of them I like.  The Bach Air, which
I talked about earlier, and the Rachmaninoff Vocalise.  (BTW, isn't
Rachmaninoff by definition Lite Classics?  Just asking)  It is funny,
or maybe significant, but both pieces I have performed in my career
so I know them on the inside fairly well.  On the Rachmaninoff, 
I like the way there are minor chords when you expect them major.
On the Bach, there are lots of dominant 7th chords with a minor 9th. In
jazz, that was the first upper extension I was able to strongly cop, 
so whenever I heard it in a classical piece, I always got excited.
On both pieces, the way they phrase has an urgency.

The rest?  Washouts in my book.   

While Bobby is very pop oriented, even Kinda-L.A.ish, normally the
type of thing that I hate, he is a virtuoso, and he always has a
spontenuity that cannot be ignored.  

>  It also has some potential to absorb resources that should
>be spent on real music.  On the other hand, it has some potential
>to provide resources to be spent on real music.  Either way, I
>think that the people listening to it would better spend their
>time and money listening to music instead.

on and on and on.  let the allmusic bouncer finish this line off...

... so I can go back to my attitude of insisting that any orchestra hall
that does not play at least one work from the following composers:
Xenakis, Messiaen, Webern, Berg, Schittke, post-neoclassical Igor
be bombed ;)

Jeff
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU