Re: [Marxism] When Facebook Isn't Fun, or..

[sabocat59@xxxxxxx]

Ian Pace wrote:

This is something of a devil's advocate's point: whilst in this particular case 
I can absolutely see the point in preserving in such music, more widely might 
some music be better left to die a natural death? The instinct to preserve 
historical music, at least in the West, only dates from the mid-19th century 
(with that era's strong historicising tendencies). In the classical world, I 
see the tendency towards preservation (and continuous digging up of obscure 
works and composers from past eras) as tied in with idealisation of hideously 
unjust former times. Presentation and appreciation of the operas of the French 
baroque, and styles of performance which emphasise the rigid hierarchical 
structures contained within the music, has undoubtedly something to do with a 
nostalgia for the supposed splendour of the absolutist feudal system of the 
time; similarly the mixture of exoticism, mysticism, canned sensuousness and 
de-subjectivisation in Tchaikovsky mirrors (and quite consciously so) the whole 
aura created around the Tsarist monarchy (and for this very reason it was 
despised by early musical revolutionaries in the Leninist era, though in the 
Stalin/Zhdanov times that music which had become part of a nationalistic 
construction of 'tradition', including most of the romantics, became presented 
as some type of 'workers' music'). I wouldn't be unhappy to see much of this 
archaic music die away.
------------------------------------
You won't get any argument from me there. I'm not much of a classical buff 
anyway, although I am fond of some of the contemporary classical composers like 
Arvo Part,  Henryk Gorecki,  and Adams. Part's "Tabula Rasa" is a favorite of 
mine and Gorecki's third makes me cry every time I listen to it. Of course you 
also cannot go wrong with Glenn Gould on Bach.  

But I much prefer not to separate genres. Charlie Parker was a big Bartok fan 
for instance. I think the Duke had it right when he said there are only two 
kinds of music, good and bad. 

But back to the whole context thing. The big band music of mid century was 
really live dance music and when economics dictated a small band approach you 
had bebop etc. I think that jazz ossified somewhat when the live dance music 
component faded away. 

That's why I'm a big Sun Ra fan.  Sun Ra incorporated vaudeville into his scene 
in a brilliant manner. The live show or happening was an important current for 
him up until the end, and he was experimenting with controlled free form way 
before Cecil Taylor. 

Of course Monk had elements of that approach as well but now I'm rambling.  

Greg McD  
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: 
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40archives.econ.utah.edu