Wednesday, December 2, 2009

A Last Goodbye

J S Bach: Brandenburg Concerto # 1 1st Movement - Allegro





Ralph said...

Your original exposure to classical music goes a long say in explaining your current musical tastes and why I enjoy your selections.

Have you noticed the wide divergence in pop music tastes between Europe and the U.S.? We and the Brits speak the same spoken language, but what hits in pop music there more often than not struggles for an audience here. And I find like what the Brits (and the French and the Germans) like more than what my fellow Yanks like. My musical snob wants to say that I and the Europeans are more "sophisticated" in our tastes, but that's really not it. What we call "classical" music is really just music with foundations in the European tradition, which means many things, but at bottom comes from European people, the "folk," and their intrinsic way of expressing themselves musically. "American" music is originally Africa-based jazz--it comes from the unique culture of black American slavery. In time a branch of jazz mixed with European folk-based "hillbilly" music and gave us rock. I've come to think of the two styles as "Europe-based" and "Africa-based." Since my first introduction to music was via the Eurpoean classics, I still prefer Europe-based music. Give me the songbook of American standards, Rufus Wainwright, and Elbow over most standard American rock any day.