-=> Ardith Hinton wrote to James Bradley <=-

 AH> Hi, James!  Recently you wrote in a message to Ardith Hinton:

NOT so recently...  

 JB>  "Great" orchestral works in the day, were [...] disposable.

 AH>  Yes... and the same also applies to various other types
 AH>  of music.  I heard that a patron of J.S. Bach, for
 AH>  example, insisted on a new chorale every week.  It seems
 AH>  the desire for novelty has been a factor for a long time.

...
 AH> Opera trickled down to the masses as operetta (e.g. Gilbert
 AH> & Sullivan) and later as the "Broadway" musical (e.g.
 AH> Rogers & Hammerstein).  Now, when did you last hear either?
 AH>  :-))

I'm afraid show tunes don't get much play around here.  Last heard on the CD
player, (Ya... I'm "old school"! |-) early Dave Mathews Band.  


 JB>  Now that you mention it, works of a choir

 AH>            A cautionary note... I take it chorales were not
 AH> intended to be sung only by a choir.  Martin Luther
 AH> evidently had the idea that the congregation of the church
 AH> should be allowed to sing along.  Good pedagogical
 AH> strategy....  :-)

As in, Martin Luther King (Jr.)? Before my time, (both) but I'll assume they
were named after the fella that you speak about. I just remember sitting in a
Catholic/Orthodox church before I could read, listening to everybody singing
while looking at a hymnal. I just assumed that's the way it was always done,
and there was something wrong with me if I didn't get with the program.

Hmmm... "Pedagogical"... 
No wonder I had
never seen the word before. (-;

 JB>  would also apply to the "pop" category of yore. B-]

 AH>            Uh... yes & no.  Until relatively recently, the vast
 AH> majority of the common people were illiterate.  The
"popular" music of
 AH> earlier times is largely unknown to us now because the
 AH> gramophone had yet to be invented & the few folks who
 AH> understood how to write it down were seldom motivated to do
 AH> so.  (I imagine you & I & Dallas & Richard would have made
 AH> a bare living as wandering minstrels in those days!)  Some
 AH> of it, however, is still in use for various reasons.  One
 AH> is that familiar tunes were often used to accompany
 AH> religious poetry... another is that years ago the Lord of
 AH> the Manor was usually expected to pay for a house of
 AH> worship for his own family as well as for the serfs who
 AH> lived on his estate. In my irreverent "1066 and All That"
 AH> interpretation, Bach had to keep coming up with new hymn
 AH> tunes so his wealthy patron would not suffer the
 AH> embarrassment of falling asleep in church.  Certain folk
 AH> songs & hymns may have survived because they came to the
 AH> attention of or were composed by someone who had the skills
 AH> to pass them along.  The average person may be unable to
 AH> read four-part harmony as the choir sees it, but chances
 AH> are they'll recognize the soprano line.....  :-)

Ah... Those treble chargers ruled before electricity was harnessed!  

Now, the first music "recording" in standard notation - even if a
phenomenal
work and heard whistled throughout the land - did not displace the author from
the clutches of poverty. The artist had to depend on a Lord for sustenance. I
only wish to point out the disparity that today's flavour-of-the-day needs one
novelty song to never have to work another day, where the "great" composers
would more often die a pauper.

 AH>  To this day, folks in the entertainment business say "you're
 AH>  only as good as your last [gig]".  But once in awhile a song
 AH>  which has dropped off the Top Ten list will eventually
 AH>  resurface as a Golden Oldie or whatever.  I had a Beatles
 AH>  poster in my band classroom after the initial excitement
 AH>  had subsided, and was often asked "Who are the Beatles?"


 AH>            Uh-huh.  There's a senior citizen in our community band who
 AH> comes to life when we play songs from the 1920's.  I come to life
 AH> when we do stuff where all one has to do is read the notes
 AH> (baroque & classical era).  Different folks have different
 AH> talents.  My attitude is "I am who I am... take it or leave
 AH> it!" Some folks actually like me that way.  If the younger
 AH> crowd views things from a different perspective, they can
 AH> make their own unique contribution too....  :-)

If they asked why "Beatles" was spelled wrong, you knew they had
no place in
pop culture?  

Just yesterday, I was researching stuff on the community Internet connection,
where a fella about a decade older than me was streaming a pop radio station
over the speakers. A song or two found me bopping my head, but mostly I was
contemplating to put on my own favourite radio station on my computer station,
to start a volume war. 

Avoiding hostilities, (Who in their right mind prefers it?) I still wished he
would use a set of headphones instead of expecting everyone to share his taste.
You mentioned how taste could be such a subjective thing, but until my
preference went more eclectic/international, I too didn't understand why
everyone didn't enjoy power chord-rock. There's that glass house again. 


... James
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