Friends, here, in this photograph, are those who love music and those who can play music sharing together the marvels that composers, both living and dead, have created.
The famous composers, many of whom were geniuses, heard things that we common folk busy with our little lives cannot understand. They were not men who desperately sought wealth or positions of power or who loved war. Instead they were driven to create music, grand music, moving music, the kind that brings tears to the eye and food for the spirit. Fortunately for us, they also wanted to share their music with all who would listen.
The members of the orchestra, who individually may be very talented, come together, not to big-note themselves but to join together so that the sounds created by the individual instruments can merge together to create an uplifting whole that is far, far bigger than the sum of the parts. Their goal, selflessly, is to bring to reality the dreams of the composer, to become part of it.
And the audience, though strangers who are seated close together, sit enraptured, their souls stirred, their spirits soaring. No one is trying to rip off someone else, to gain an advantage. In the concert hall there is peace. There is harmony. There is beauty. For a time, a few hours, the ugliness and chaos of the world diminishes, vanishes, and the music of the symphony transcends all.
Surely, nothing that man has created comes anywhere near the accomplishment of music and the symphony must be near the top of the musical hierarchy.
Why not take some time today to listen to your favourite symphony? It will help to remind you that humans, some humans, are capable of artistic greatness and generosity of spirit beyond price.
Peace to you and yours!
I agree with you, David G. Presently, I am listening to Bach’s “Symphonie Concertante for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra”. Have a great week all, and don’t let the hired help, our elected officials, sell you out to their money masters.
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To mention a symphony and ‘elected’ officials’ in the one paragraph is irony indeed.
The only thing that ‘elected’ officials and a symphony have is common is that the former are mainly phony!
Cheers.
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Let us listen to “Ironic” by Alani Morisette, full blast. Music is my middle name. smile!
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Alanis
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I’m addicted to music too, Swan. Birds of a feather!
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Me too, friends! Me too! Addicted too!
I left home last week and in my travel bag i have at the moment Brahms ,Grieg and “A troubled resting place” – Robert Rich. (that before reading your post, dear David)
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I wonder..throughout the history of humanity: is it a coincidence the fact that most artistic geniuses died in miserable conditions (poor, bankrupt, sick.. ).. while the dualistic elite prospered in their battles.. left, right, left, right, while humanity marched at their command, instead of dancing and evolving with the music?
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I played in bands for twenty years.
Yes that music they said wouldn’t last “Rock Music” Ah to sooth the savage beast in me, an E power chord through a Marshall 100 watt Amp, and the Valves screaming let me out of here.
Sorry to you Classic oficianado’s but after Wagner,Puccini,it becomes rather boring.Oh yes genius to be sure, but leaves me flat.
Yes I know,I am a Philistine,according to the highbrow set, I could care less.
Yes music is the national language,and speaks volumes. Oh the pity most people will go through life with, out the true experience, and meaning some music can bring.
I would imagine George Bush is probably tone deaf.Or is he just deaf?
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That classic leaves you flat, it’s OK , Phil. Why would it be tough necessary to comment on it? Has anyone here offended your Rock? I m sorry if anyone else hurt your feelings by saying the music you like won t last. i didn t, swan and david didn t…. we just express our admiration of classics. Did we deny Rock by that?
If our liking classics brings offense to you, you re not far away from the people who hurt you so much, thus made you become hurting to others.
I do not take offense, Phil, of your demeaning comment, as my classics are mine, and are simply fantastic. I do not pity neither judge the ones who do not understand the magic of a symphony.
But I won t allow you to arrogate the right of critic to the Universal Values. Rock is ONE OF THEM.
Who are you to call it the ULTIMATE ONE? Can t you appreciate Rock without calling classics Flat?
Why are you so obtuse?
See David, even here, we have to find people who still enjoy left, right, this, that, cool, flat… and find ways to criticise and opose always, even the simple fact of a personal choice in music.
Damn it. David. I give up on humans.
Even a nice discussion turns into conflict. Damn it. I m fed up.
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Hey, I love rock and roll too. I love most music (not rap). I love Dixieland. I love Roy Orbison. I even love Abba!
There is no problem Phill and Adina. It’s just a case of horses for courses.
All that’s important is to appreciate the treasure that is music, to see it as something that, on occasion, lifts humans above the level of savages.
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Hey Adina lighten up, give your brain a bit of time, it may be able to engage in the debate.. That classic music makes me feel flat and depressed, is how God, if there is one, made me. If you read what I said, I referred to the writers of classical music as geniuses.
I gave credit to a couple of the ones I like,and I have heaps of them and others of their ilk, in my collection.
Most people I know that listen to classical music,and (I did not name anyone)and NO I am not contradicting myself, regard other genres of music and especially ROCK, as crap.To deny this generalization of the prevailing attitude, is abject twaddle.
Classical music,Opera,or indeed even the Ballet apart from the last fifty years, were considered property of the rich and the aristocracy, and the snobbery that goes with these art forms,and only a fool would deny its existence, is an anathema to me.
Music is, and always will be personal,that is to say people will interpret different things from the same piece of music.Some Mozart could drive me to topping myself.
So hence,
Who am I to say Rock is the ultimate you ask? I don’t remember saying that,however, I don’t like cabbage so I don’t eat it.Are you getting the drift here?
The fact that David chose a picture of some orchestra unknown to me,and his following comments , has already laid the foundation and the perception that, this genre of music is mans greatest achievement!.
He could have used the Rolling Stones,I could care less.”Is this mans greatest achievement? TO SOME BUT NOT ALL.
AND MOSTLY NOT TO ALL.
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Yes David, Roy Orbison,one of my favorites a man with a tragic life.
ABBA ummmm every time I see this group I think, how many people are actually listening to the music? The rest I will leave to your imagination.
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Music is like the spirit. There is the river of life and there are many wells to drink from. My father was a trained classical pianist and so I am partial to certain pieces written for the piano. I like almost any kind of music, however Especially if the artist plays it like they “mean it.” Total engagement. After watching the DNC and RNC clips, my latest fave is “Rage Agaist The Machine.” They were prohibited from playing by the Republican fascists, so they made all the sounds from their mouths out of a bullhorn with thousands in the audience singing along! That is my idea of a musical revolution. Music does keep us connected to a higher reality. There is always, AUM (according to Hindus) – that is, if you take all the sounds in the entire Universe and roll them in to one sound you get AUM. Peace, peeps.
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I play the piano and engage in a bit of composing now and again, Phill.
My selection of the photo of a symphony orchestra was deliberate because of the number of instruments that are so cleverly combined and because such music illustrates the complexity of the composer’s mind and his or her consummate grasp of harmonies, etc.
Certainly the early composers did move in wealthy or royal circles. How else were they to get patronage for their creative endeavors?
Music should not be a class thing. It should and does bring us together as the photograph shows.
Grace, the AUM sound is quite soothing though not quite Tchaikovsky!
Cheers.
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David you have missed my point.
Of course early musicians moved in wealthy circles,people dying of consumption and rickets, did not attend concerts.
Classical music is the domain of the most vile snobbery possible,and it was always promoted as the superior art form.
It was only the introduction on the scene of geniuses like Leonard Bernstein, that challenged the orthodoxy, since the first violin came out of Europe.
There is in my opinion no good or bad music (apart from rap which is absolute shite and should be classed as dirty ditties done to a bad rhythm)it is personal taste.
David I assume you are about the same age as me? You would remember the first time rock culture hit the air waves.The consensus at the time was, it was going to be the end of civilization as we know it.It was probably the biggest culture shift in history,and people like Lennon and McCartney, were just as much geniuses as any composer before or since.
David, the real proof in the popularity stakes is,without government funding UNFORTUNATELY the orchestras in most parts of the world, would be very light on the ground indeed..
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Phil,
my brain thinks fast and deep, and I give it the time that I want. I am free to chose that time. Who are you to suggest the timing of my thinking/response? Second, who are you to tell me to lighten up? Maybe I like it heavy.. this is how I want to stay. Watch your language, don t be an arrogant “…”.
Now it looks to me as I have to explain to you you own words.
If you stopped at I don t like cabbage, cool down, I would have gotten it, and accepted it.. Did you stop there? No. You said after Wagner Pucini and what else you like, the rest is quote “BORING”. Wow. What a critical genius. and what a huge statement. do you realize the magnitude of your own thinking and expression? I didn t think so.
Pardon me. Are you an American? As after all, when I criticize your arrogance, and factually demonstrate you are obtuse in your statement, you simply prompt me to “lighten up”. Oh really?
Well no. i do not.
Quote from your own sentences: “after Wagner,Puccini,it becomes rather boring”. Really. You do arrogate yourself the right to be a Music Critic and cancel a whole era of classics just like that, without thinking too much..without limiting to a personal choice by simply saying I do not like them.
and that just because, as I assumed, and you confirm, you have been repeatedly hurt by other individuals , who happened to listen to classics, and be obtuse, and deny rock, hence you drew the easy conclusion that Rock and Classics fans must be
antagonist.
Read your own sentences and give your brain some space to function deeper.
Why did David chose an orchestra as “Mankind greatest achievement”? He did not stop to this title. Give your brain some time and read the rest of his exposure , which I gave my brain enough time to read without jumping to easy conclusions. David said: “And the audience, though strangers who are SEATED close together,SIT ENRAPTURED, their souls stirred, their spirits soaring. No one is trying to rip off someone else, to gain an advantage. In the concert hall there is PEACE. There is HARMONY. There is beauty. For a time, a few hours, the ugliness and chaos of the world diminishes, vanishes, and the music of the symphony transcends all.”.
Reading this statement, which complements the picture and which synthetise the message and the reason for which the picture was chosen, even you may understand that for a few hours it is the greatest achievement to have so many individuals gathered together in a hall where “there is peace” and they SIT, simply SIT , “sit enraptured”. Now no offense, in the Rock concerts, can you picture that?
I hardly picture the Rock and roll autidorium as some peaceful place, where everybody “sit together enaptured” and “there is peace”.
Not that the Rock and roll chaotic fan’s behavior in the concert is something bad, it s their choice, and who am I to argue. Not at all. I maybe even enjoy it. But a picture of a Rock concert audience would hardly give the idea that David wanted to expose about a metaphor of what our world could be: TOGETHERNESS IN STILLNESS! IN HARMONY! STOP THE CHAOS !PEACE!
This is David blogs, this is his choice of pictures. And I respect that. You too respect that.
but then please, just because the little-rock-soul-child in you got hurt and abused by other obtuse-classic-fans, do not arrogate yourself the right to call classics BORING. You become just as obtuse.
I commented on your offending statement regarding classic. Now I take your hint, and will lighten up. So for me, this topic is closed, I won t further reply to it.
But if you want, I ll lend a shoulder to cry on to the little rock-child inside you, who let himself hurt by so many bad bad bad classic-music-lovers. Get over it, and grow up.
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It is you that is arrogant. And I repeat most classical music is destroying to the soul, my soul.
If it wasn’t for the governments putting money into this stuff, it would go the way of the dodo.
Record sales is an indicator of how popular this stuff is, so please spare me, “The magnitude of your statement etc” that is an insult to my intelligence.
There were many greats of the genre you seem to know so much about, most of them are dead and buried.
You do not have to be qualified to be a music critic, I am a musician and have been paid for playing music for forty years,that does not qualify me anymore than you, so please spare me your “Critical genius routine” the only qualification to be a music critic, is that you are breathing, and are not deaf.
You lost your argument with your asinine comment, about the behavior of rock fans, what a load of twaddle. When a rock band can draw in excess of a hundred thousand people,a small percentage of them will be idiots,it’s called the law of average,and the music it must be shit right?
Nobody has hurt me “the little rock child inside of you”, you do have an imagination don’t you?
That very statement tells me volumes about you,I am on to Adina.
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That you are both passionate about your music is fantastic. That you both have very different preferences is unsurprising and is your right.
Why not simply agree to disagree?
Cheers.
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David, thank you, and forgive me..
But Wow. I will contradict myself, shame on me, and waste my time to reply, because you Phil are too non-sensical and non-logical to allow myself to shut up.
So, you played music and you are paid for it. Hence you are qualified. it all resumes to your qualification: you are an expert in music, hence you know what is good and what not.
Hahahaha. WOW… Wall street are playing stock markets. and they are paid for it. I guess that gives them the right according to your logic to decide the “economy’. So I hope you can gather all the music experts and make some rock concert in honor to the Wall street experts.. and why not.. to America who for so many years brought democracy in the world, hence they can decide who is democratic and who not.. what the hell? they are paid for it..
and then..n hahahaha about the government sponsored orchestra,… and lack of spectators… If to you , MASS consensus is sign of quality, and lack of it is not, then you got a problem to justify your drastic view on Rap… consensus is not what they lack.. but heck, phil the expert don t like them.. and consensus is not a measurement took in this case..
But what the heck,.,. you are the expert… you can pick and chose.. and I ain t nobody, listening to dead people..
But I bet again.I could put my hand on fire.. You must be an American.
Aren t you?
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Adina,for some body that was going to give me the Spanish Archer, you sure have a lot to say.
Rap is not music point one.
Wall St. Wall St is sad, but it is the system that runs the world, surprise even communist regimes use it.I would have the place fire bombed if I had my way, but that’s a revolution that may be years away yet, or possibly months, hope springs eternal.
MASS CONSENSUS. Mass consensus is what separates us from the animals,it’s what makes our laws and gives most people a moral compass.A bit like cabbage, they grow tons of it because most people love it,a bit like rock music.
Also see point one again.
I have avoided your question “Are you an American” because this has got nothing to do with it. But here goes,you wanted it.
Americans are currently the most generous people to a fault on the planet,they give more in charity and money to third world country’s than most of the rest of the planet combined.
They are leaders in technology,and still have a can do attitude.They saved our arses in two world wars.
ETC, ETC, ETC, ETC.
That they are currently led by an abject moron, and Wall St is in a state of collapse, is no reflection on Americans per se.Most Yanks are like me, they go out in the morning to a job,come home eat dinner, and repeat the process the next day, and for them like me the world turns.
And some of them just may, just some mind you, listen to classical music.
As for me being an expert.An x in an unknown quantity, and a spurt is a drip under pressure.I am neither.
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Phil, what do you say.. too bad we can take this outside.. like between two men
he he he. Kidding.
Listen. Do you know how much US Americans consume from the World resources in percentage? Do you know how much they pollute compared with all other nations? Do you know they are in average Obese? Do you know the financial crisis is caused by their greed and incapability to understand that borrowing to finance your third SUV and not being able to pay is wrong?
Do you know that the “charity” that they give, and i m speaking from the perspective of a citizen of a poor country, is a cheap demeaning condescending nothing in comparison with what they benefit economically from the exploitation of the economies of these countries? Can you blame Wall Street collapse on ONE ABJECT MORON? where is the Consensus of the american people, who by consensus as you say are above animals, therefore.. they should select someone else if they think he s a moron, yet he got re elected.. why always blame someone else? if an ONE ABJECT MORON is able guide 300.000.000 people, to do all that and make himself reelected by consensus of these great people, oh my mighty god, he is a GENIUS MORON.. or their consensus.. got something wrong in it..
Don t know what to say.
As for the music.
Let s take our fight on neutral ground.
I like classics. I like rock.
You like rock. You like few classics.
Let s talk about RAP then, which neither of us two fancy.
But RAP IS rhythm.
It is music.
It gathered consensus.
It has vulgar words sometimes, as some rock music does as well, sometimes.
And mind you, those who listen to it also go to work, eat at night, and the world turns for them.
Should we call their music not music?
Why?
Now between you and me.
Peace?
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Congratulations for resolving your differences as two gentlemen should.
There is perhaps hope for humanity after all.
Take care, both of you.
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Adina peace and good tidings,let us move away from the stuff that obviously makes us both feel good, to something we can get a consensus on, that George Bush is an idiot.
2.Americans are mostly responsible for using up the worlds resources,out of kilter with their population, to be sure.And their thirst for oil is not waning.They are the victims of their own success.
I have always blamed the media in any country apart from the obvious dictatorships,on putting abject morons in power.And it will always be so.
I am only repeating what most people know on this blog, humans are driven by greed,and fear.The media who are always pro conservative,apart from a few, outlets that be counted on one hand,play on this situation.
However,having said the above, why they vote for people like Bush,Blair,Howard,and the other waste of spaces(add your own names)will have people of the left bent, baffled for a thousand years.
And look at the situation now,Obama, Mc Cain,Biden and Palin. None of these people are fit to run a pub chook raffle, much less the most powerful nation on earth.
You would think out of all the great people in America???,this is the best they can come up with?
Adina,as the Titanic was sinking you’ll be pleased to know it was reportedly “Nearer thy God to thee” played as she went under a classic piece to a hymn, if ever.
For mine maybe we should all learn it,we are all sinking into a morass,and it will come like the grim reaper in the night,and be calling on us all soon.
The Bush’s,Howard’s Blair’s Putin’s of the world have just brought the date forward.
I despair.
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Dear Phil,
Me too! Peace and sorry for my comments ( especially the little rock child nonsense comment. i’ve been nasty).
While we re fighting over music, food, religion, politics.. I couldn t agree less. We re sinking. And I m fed up. I really am. I don t care what we ll listen when we sink. we are sinking! Hence if i ever snap for details, please forgive me.
And Thank You.
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Adina no worries like wise.
There are enough people to offend on the opposite side,we on the caring and sharing side must stick together in these trying times.Who knows we may need each other yet.
Let us hope for a new dawn in the world,I think the true messiah and not in a biblical sense, has yet to show him/her self.
So when I feel depressed it’s on with the music,and I astral travel away to better places in the mind.
How’s that for a bit of sixty’s head waffle?
Peace Phill.
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Dear Phil, at least you can astral travel, and that from what I ve read a wonderful experience, which despite many attempts I have never accomplished myself. My only escape are books, and meeting people who share, and care, like in this blog.
Lately, even following Wall Street is a weird/kind of perverted escape for me, something like watching Broadway .. tough not entertaining, but mostly irritating.
My English is bad. what does it mean “sixty’s head waffle”?
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“My English is bad. what does it mean “sixty’s head waffle”?”
The vernacular of hippies.Of which in some ways I still am.
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Your English is fine, Adina. Your meaning comes through loud and clear!
Phill, may you long stay a hippie!
Cheers.
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I understood that David’s point was that a symphony orchestra shows how people of various sounds work together to create a masterpiece. Thank goodness for orchestras, and what they represent. Have a great weekend! Life is fleeting.
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