tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1591129538025550902.post2926142635142319853..comments2023-11-17T08:19:25.366+00:00Comments on The auld lang syne.: Schu-bert'Bryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03409235823234923798noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1591129538025550902.post-6644783680847499642008-06-23T21:17:00.000+00:002008-06-23T21:17:00.000+00:00I have a recent Schubert bio that spends considera...I have a recent Schubert bio that spends considerable time on the composer's lost weekend with Cobain. Apparently the goddamned Melvins were responsible for that too. I never liked those guys. I call them THE BROKERS OF DOOM (and I hold my arms out, see-sawing side to side like Frankestein when I say that). And I say THE BROKERS OF DOOM in an evil voice.Bryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03409235823234923798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1591129538025550902.post-9099636656407018602008-06-23T20:16:00.000+00:002008-06-23T20:16:00.000+00:00My favorite songwriters are Kurt Cobain, ansd Schu...My favorite songwriters are Kurt Cobain, ansd Schubert. Those guys were great songwriters.dwrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11976387796686006425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1591129538025550902.post-53533718521748918672008-06-23T15:52:00.000+00:002008-06-23T15:52:00.000+00:00What I love about Alex Ross is--and forgive me bec...What I love about Alex Ross is--and forgive me because I don't read so much classical music writing that I can absolutely qualify this, but what I really enjoy is the way Alex Ross will talk about the elephant in the room. In a lot of ways discussing this kind of music is like discussing Faberge eggs, or Victorian zoological prints. It bespeaks a kind of elitist refinement that works against the magnificence and beauty of the thing itself. Ross noted how the avergae Joe would know a Picasso to see one, a Frank Gehry building to see one, but he'd be at a loss to identify The Rite of Spring--arguably the greatest work of twentieth century classical music. <BR/><BR/>The stuff is just entirely unrealistic to most people. Being such it gives guys like Woody Allen a lot of influence on the precious little we know (or even feel!) about classical music. <BR/><BR/>Just the other day I watched Guy Ritchie's atrocious "Revolver." In a key scene of violence, amid mounting tension, we hear music from Mozart's Requiem. I think, or maybe from Don Giovanni. Whatever it was I remember thinking he probably got the idea for using this music in this scene from one of those ludicrous NFL Films ads in which Vinny Testaverde is made to look like Alexander the Great. Either that or he heard it in an elevator.Bryanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03409235823234923798noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1591129538025550902.post-40352315951833977042008-06-23T01:29:00.000+00:002008-06-23T01:29:00.000+00:00Now I really need to buckle down and read Alex Ros...Now I really need to buckle down and read Alex Ross' <I>The Rest is Noise</I> already.J T. Ramsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12457407592151996748noreply@blogger.com