RealGM

leave it to the old guys to screw everything up yet again....




what? looking for something?

I will say as a performing musician and percussion instructor (I run my own studio and work with multiple HS/MS bands), the posts of Reed and Unklchuk offered their valid point of view, but I do not agree with the information being labeled as good. Meaning, I don't see it as more valid or a realistic view of the music education world. To Joana, I don't even know if I should waste my time offering up a response, I'll simply say if you have nothing positive to add to a serious thread, then why prove how little you respect the topic?

Joana wrote:

adamcz wrote: I'm not sure if it's supposed to be funny or what.

That's exactly the kind of feeling that assaults me every time I'm listening to or watching "modern opera" - I'm never sure what it's supposed to be. I strongly believe the same happens with every civilized and cultivated person.

Come on, you're trying to seduce people to the delights of opera with John freaking Adams and his terrorist-loving, anti-semitic, nonsensical and pedantic pieces? What's next, Philip Glass? People here are fans of basketball, so the chances they enjoy being bored to hell are minimal (no pun intended).

What's wrong with Phillip Glass? Saw his Hamlet and it was great, especially the music (& the death of Ophelia was spectacular) .... until all the crazy killing and dying in final Act. Too much going on there for a ballet. But then, the play has the same problem, as though Shakespeare just finally annoyed with them all and decided to kill them off and be done with it.

just call me the infamous thread killer. i didn't realize any of the posts made including the original one were serious to begin with. I thought adamz was just joking around when he started the thread. the subsequent posts didn't seem serious either . they just seemed like the typical one liner sarcastic posts twirls makes about everything.

it's like telling people you got a job as a math instructor. You know some fool is going to offer his sarcastic one liner as part of the thread. and some other fool is going to take him seriously and get offended.

See head! see nail! hit it!

power4wardjinx wrote:What's wrong with Phillip Glass? Saw his Hamlet and it was great, especially the music (& the death of Ophelia was spectacular) .... until all the crazy killing and dying in final Act. Too much going on there for a ballet. But then, the play has the same problem, as though Shakespeare just finally annoyed with them all and decided to kill them off and be done with it.

Nothing wrong with him, just with his suffocatingly boring music, that should be sold by pharmacists due to its powerful soporific effect. He's been serving the same repetitive and banal crap for years (I liked the Einstein). I had no idea he had a Hamlet. There's a joke to be make about Ophelia's descent into madness in there.

beyond_the_arc wrote:To Joana, I don't even know if I should waste my time offering up a response, I'll simply say if you have nothing positive to add to a serious thread, then why prove how little you respect the topic?

I apologize to the topic for the lack of respect. What exactly bothered you? My mocking of such a brilliant musical mind like Adams? Negatives can be added, that's what I did - I added my bitter taunting of those Sphincterus Maximus of classical music (there, some Latin to add some intellectual respectability).

Joana wrote:

power4wardjinx wrote:What's wrong with Phillip Glass? Saw his Hamlet and it was great, especially the music (& the death of Ophelia was spectacular) .... until all the crazy killing and dying in final Act. Too much going on there for a ballet. But then, the play has the same problem, as though Shakespeare just finally annoyed with them all and decided to kill them off and be done with it.

Nothing wrong with him, just with his suffocatingly boring music, that should be sold by pharmacists due to its powerful soporific effect. He's been serving the same repetitive and banal crap for years (I liked the Einstein). I had no idea he had a Hamlet. There's a joke to be make about Ophelia's descent into madness in there.

The bed for the joke was in the comment about Shakespeare's plot decision, there.

For the musical descent into madness, check out Ellington's composition (which I suspect is in this case more the work of Billy Strayhorn) "Madness in Great Ones," from Such Sweet Thunder. One of my top-5 favorite albums of all time.

As for John Adams, I do think he's a brilliant composer. He gets lumped in with all the minimalists, but in his case, minimalism is but one tool in the toolbox. I'm very fond of "Naive and Sentimental Music," "Gnarly Buttons," and a dozen other pieces that I know less well, but have enjoyed listening to. I'd love to get my hands on some of those scores, if B&H will ever lower the price down to a point that would be reasonable for an individual.

Like I said in the first post, that tv broadcast was my first time listening to Dr. Atomic, and I had a mixed reaction to it. I'd have to hear it a few more times to give a real assessment. My initial reactions are that the libretto was distractingly silly, and that the orchestration was just fantastic.

Today only, you can download John Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" - the complete album - for 99¢. This is a great album; the very beginning of Coltrane's classic quartet. Early enough in his chronology that it's still listenable for non-musicians. Just FYI.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00122 ... d_i=507846

I think they do a different $1 album each day.

got it

thanks

Thanks adam, I got it as well!

the link said it was $5.99 ! I guess i missed out.

MajorDad wrote:the link said it was $5.99 ! I guess i missed out.

Then I offer you the consolation prize of four free tracks to listen to from one recently released and one upcoming Nonesuch album.

Saxophonist Joshua Redman
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/compass

Bassist Edgar Meyer with mandolin player Chris Thile
http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/edgar-me ... hris-thile

something's wrong there, that bass isn't even electric