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Post by ahinton on Dec 28, 2016 7:59:13 GMT -5
Yes, exactly. When British TV viewers pay for their TV Licence, is it fair or reasonable that the money they pay should be used to subsidise orchestras and choirs? Who don't appear on television. And yet viewers who fail to pay this "licence" can actually be sent to jail. Not even Mr Putin has anything so dastardly in his armoury. I suppose that the answer to that should come from those who pay their licence fees, but I don't see why not, provided that wasting of funds is avoided as far as possible and, after all, BBC is not the only national broadcaster that does this. . But what else would white, male, ex-Public-schoolboys with no noticeable skills do? I neither know nor care, really, but it is not enshrined in law that BBC in general or R3 in particular should be run by such people. However, as I said earlier - the BBC has locked-out its overseas listeners behind a paywall for which no payment option is available. And thus I am a non-listener. I can see the schedules on line, and really there is nothing much I feel I am missing - the sad old Reithian claptrap of yesteryear. I have no idea when or why it's done this and it sounds to me like a case of shooting itself in the foot - almost as though an anti-self-marketing exercise...
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2016 8:13:13 GMT -5
Yes, dashed peculiar, that, eh, what? Whyever does it happen? As if we didn't know. Try to find an R3 presenter who didn't go to public school?
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Post by ahinton on Dec 28, 2016 9:30:37 GMT -5
Yes, dashed peculiar, that, eh, what? Whyever does it happen? As if we didn't know. Try to find an R3 presenter who didn't go to public school? I really do not have details of the primary and secondary education of R3 presenters although I rather doubt that they were all privately educated; then again, when blame is reasonably deserved, it's sometimes better laid at the scholars than the school, methinks - after all, my MP went to Eton and so, for that matter, did Jonathan Powell (by whom I do not mean Tony Bliar's one-time side-kick of that name). I've just done a random check and found that Ian Skelly and Petroc Trelawny did not seem to have a private education and I rather doubt that Sarah Walker had either; I'm unsure about most of the rest.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2016 14:36:33 GMT -5
Does it matter?
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Post by Deleted on Dec 28, 2016 14:57:47 GMT -5
I wonder how usual the name "Petroc" is in State schools?
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Post by ahinton on Dec 29, 2016 3:48:16 GMT -5
I wonder how usual the name "Petroc" is in State schools? I doubt that it's particularly common in any schools outside Cornwall; in any case, for the record, the presenter concerned is actually James Edward Petroc Trelawny.
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Post by ahinton on Dec 29, 2016 3:49:23 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2016 11:14:38 GMT -5
Saint Petroc was probably of Welsh origin, although I am not quite sure when or where he was born. There is a church named after Saint Petrox south of Pembroke, so I would guess that he was born in Pembrokeshire in the early sixth century AD/CE! He arrived in Cornwall to a hostile welcome, but eventually gave his name to Padstow, originally Petrocstow, and several local villages, including Little Petherick and Trebetherick. According to Harden's, St Petroc's Bistro is a good place to eat, and stay, in northern Cornwall, quite unlike the reception Petroc would have originally received. Landing at Trebetherick, he asked some unfriendly locals for a drink and they refused him. Undeterred, Petroc simply tapped his staff on the ground and a spring of fresh water appeared. The hostile group were instantly converted to loyal disciples. After his death his relics were taken to Bodmin to be housed in an ivory casket decorated with brass and gold, where they remained undisturbed until 1994, when the casket was stolen from the church by thieves. Fortunately for the people of Bodmin who were distraught by the theft, the thieves were apparently unable to find a market for one of the most priceless reliquaries in Britain, and it was recovered shortly afterwards and returned to its display case in the church. According to Wikipedia, Saint Petroc or Petrock (Medieval Latin: Petrocus; Welsh: Pedrog; French: Perreux; died circa 564) was a British prince and Christian saint. James, Edward or Peter might be safer options for Petroc Trelawny, but I rather like his quintessentially Cornish name!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2016 10:12:36 GMT -5
BBC Radio 3's demise may be on the cards, but Radio 3 has announced its New Year’s revolutions; a year of programming inspired by cultural, social, religious and political unrest. Entitled Breaking Free, Radio 3's 2017 theme will be divided into three parts. The first focus begins in January with an examination of a controversial early twentieth-century attempt to alter the direction of European music: the Second Viennese School. The second focus starts in Spring, when Radio 3 turns its attention to the 500th anniversary of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation, a period of radical religious and political transformation which heralded a seismic shift in intellectual life, music and culture. The Breaking Free year culminates in Autumn with the third focus, a look at the political upheaval and objectives of the 1917 Russian Revolution and how artists and musicians – from sympathizers to exiles – responded. Controller of Radio 3 Alan Davey says: "In our own interesting and uncertain times it is illuminating to look to turbulent events of the past; the arts act as a lens, helping to make sense of the world around us. BBC Radio 3 has a long history as a cultural pioneer, inspiring, challenging and connecting our listeners with remarkable music and culture - what better way to start the New Year than by discovering moments that altered the musical and cultural landscape forever." Breaking Free begins straight after the annual New Year’s Day Concert from Vienna, with a shift to the groundbreaking music of the three composers at the heart of the Second Viennese School, who dared to tamper with the building blocks of music; Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. The week-long focus, Breaking Free: The Minds that Changed Music, leaves few stones unturned in its attempt to tell the story of the radical new Viennese School that built a new system for composing twelve-note music - from rare audio of Schoenberg talking about his music, to the unlikely link between a pack of cards and an asteroid. Breaking Free traces how these musicians, living in the turbulence of Central Europe in the run-up to the First World War and its aftermath, cast music on a new path of discovery, shocking audiences then and even now. In The Listening Service, Tom Service hands listeners the tools to understand and appreciate the music of the Second Viennese School. He will also present a 12-part mini-series called The Listening Service Extras, each built around archive audio of Schoenberg discussing his music and explaining its origins in the music of Bach, Mozart and Brahms. Tom McKinney presents a special series focusing on five Viennese objects, from a set of playing cards designed by Schoenberg to an asteroid named after Webern. He also investigates Schoenberg’s fear of the number 13 and Berg’s fascination with the number 23. The Essay features five personal reflections on the power of Second Viennese School composers, from writers including Gillian Moore, head of classical music at London’s Southbank Centre, BBC Vienna correspondent Bethany Bell and Radio 3 presenter Sarah Walker. Throughout the week, Breakfast plays early works by the three composers and Essential Classics gives an airing to the seldom-heard Schoenberg String Quartets which, together, chart the clear evolution of his music from Brahmsian tonality to strict serialism. Afternoon on 3 features works by the three composers performed by the BBC Orchestras and Choirs. There will be another chance to hear the Royal Opera House’s production of the shattering Berg opera Wozzeck, and In Tune hosts a live performance of Schoenberg’s masterpiece of dark tonality, Verklärte Nacht. Elsewhere in the schedule, Radio 3 looks at these composers’ connections with the intellectual world of early twentieth-century Vienna. Stephen Johnson’s Sunday Feature tackles Sigmund Freud’s alleged dislike of music, Tom Service talks to Schoenberg’s daughter Nuria Nono Schoenberg in Music Matters, Words and Music celebrates the words of Stefan Zweig accompanied by Schoenberg’s music, and Sound of Cinema shines a light on Schoenberg’s role in the development of Hollywood horror film soundtracks. The week concludes with the enormous energy and cataclysm of one of the twentieth century’s most seminal operas, Berg’s Lulu, in English National Opera’s recent production. BBC - New Year's Revolutions for BBC Radio 3 in 2017I am particularly looking forward to the Protestant Reformation and the Russian Revolution later in the year! BBC Radio 3's demise may be on the cards, but perhaps it is just breaking free!
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Post by Deleted on Dec 31, 2016 19:59:21 GMT -5
Oh dear, an unfortunate typo has crept in there! They meant to write attempt to Sell the story of the radical new Viennese School This 'story' is the tale of the first musical group which had no grass-roots support whatsoever - and was artifically hot-housed to give the hokum impression of popularity. It was popularised by the evil genius of Critical Theory himself, Theodor(e) Adorno - a false name adopted by Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund. The period following the defeat of Nazi Germany was one of incalculable cultural upheaval. Europe - once the cradle of the creative arts - lay in ruins, and many neo-Atlanticists envisaged an opportunity in which the new kernel of artistic activity would move to the USA... as indeed so many of Europe's cultural figures, especially Jews, had already done. 'Adorno' (Wiesengrund) was an active figure from the Frankfurt School, who had fled early to the USA, who was very happy to leave the dirty work of actually defeating the Nazis to others - while pursuing a career as a chatterbox in California. He quickly snaflled a sinecure appointment at the Insitute for Cultural Reserch - a Frankfurt School bastion, which had moved across the Atlantic even before WW2 began (1934). Once entrenched within Columbia University, the Institute began a new phase of its work, on a political and economic level... acting as a clearing house for 'correct-thinking' refugees from the Reich, and putting them in touch with well-intentioned sponsors and donors. The aim was a 'second Mayflower' - the flowering of European culture on American soil... under the watchful eye and direction of the Thought Police (the Insitute staff), who were sure to direct funding solely towards projects and ideas which met their Cultural Marxist agenda. But let us go back to Wiesengrund, briefly. His family had high hopes for him, he was put to the piano, and they hoped he would become a soloist, a composer, or both. Only one thing was lacking - talent. But in his new role as the Black Cardinal in charge of culture and music at the Institute for Cultural Research, Adorno was in a position to promote the work of his hero, Arnold Schoenberg... and sideline everything which did not accord with Schoenberg's ideas. Most particularly, Wiesengrund (Adorno) harboured a bitter hatred for jazz, or anything which sounded at all like jazz. He even wrote that it was his job to remove anything 'aesthetically pleasing or pleasant' from the world of music. This struggle, he believed, was a political struggle - it was the job of stern academics such as himself to save the working classes from "Capitalist production (which) so confines them, body and soul, that they fall helpless victims to what is offered them" In other words, the Institute was being run to enforce Adorno's own personal ideas about music - and to stamp out everything he disapproved of. If this had been done in the USSR, it would have been ridiculed, and should have been. Yet because it was done by people who painted themselves as 'Hitler's victims' (not that Adorno ever went within 500 kilometres of a stormtrooper) it was accepted as not only acceptable, but the right way of doing things. Adorno was back in Europe by the 1950s, where he was influential in setting up the Darmstadt School. His 'victim status' secured him sinecure jobs in culture for the rest of his life - but the post-war generation were unwilling to be lectured by a do-nothing know-nothing dialectic autodidact. He was sidelined into academic posts with high salaries but no influence, where he spent his twilight years fulminating against the work of Stockhausen, and particularly against Stravinsky. How did the tripe which sells itself under the name of "serial music" come to be considered worthwhile? Because of amateur dabblers like Adorno, and the influential sponsors and organisations who foolishly listened to his twaddle. Even his beloved Schoenberg, newly arrived in the USA and in need of a worthwhile commission to make his name, was obliged to end his 20-minute atonal Ode To Napoleon with a thumping great Eb major chord. One imagines it was to placate the sponsors at the end of the work. Meanwhile, home-grown composers in the USA, who hadn't a victim background to help their careers, were cast adrift in an open boat. Samuel Barber's opera VANESSA (to a libretto by Menotti) managed to scrape a premiere at the Met in 1958, and was thereafter sidelined. Despite huge audience popularity, critics primed to admire only serial works wrote the whole thing off. The same has largely happened to Menotti's works - penalised for daring to be tonal. But what of European musical culture that was NOT of German, Austrian, or French pedigree? Szymanowski, Penderecki, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev? No, it all failed to be serial. And thus, to this day, is taught on University music courses in the final two weeks of the course... after the serious composers like Berg, Schoenberg, Boulez, and the other Critical Theory Cultural Marxist darlings have been amply covered. Barber's Vanessa. Sidelined for being too aesthetically pleasing and tonal.
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Post by Gerard on Jan 1, 2017 5:40:31 GMT -5
Some points our members may, indeed should, bear in mind: 1) there have, unsurprisingly, not lived any composers of distinction in central Europe since 1945. All rattled. 2) there have, unsurprisingly, not lived any composers of distinction on the other side of the Atlantic, ever. Any one who ignorantly claims otherwise is talking through his hat. 3) there no longer exist such entities as individual nations. There never have been, actually; it has always all been imaginary. 4) opera has nothing to do with serious music; it is mainly a vehicle for women who enjoy shrieking and exposing their bosoms. Serious men run a mile therefrom. It is no kind of Art. Here is Marx's well-known and influential book about money. But as Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw already so convincingly pointed out, Marx's great mistake was to put the mob above the individual. Volume I:www.archive.org/stream/capitalcriticala00marxrich?ref=ol#page/n5/mode/2upVolume II:archive.org/stream/capitalcriticala02marxrich#page/n5/mode/2up
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2017 10:54:50 GMT -5
I'm sure we're all grateful to Gerard for his pithy insights.
They certainly take the discussion forwards, do they not?
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Post by ahinton on Jan 1, 2017 11:59:22 GMT -5
Some points our members may, indeed should, bear in mind: 1) there have, unsurprisingly, not lived any composers of distinction in central Europe since 1945. All rattled. According to you only; even were it true, why would that be "unsurprising"? 2) there have, unsurprisingly, not lived any composers of distinction on the other side of the Atlantic, ever. Any one who ignorantly claims otherwise is talking through his hat. Then I'll talk through mine, even though I do not possess one. Why would such a "claim" be "ignorant"? What in any case of composers who are/were not originally from Canada, the United States, Central and South America who made their home in any of those places? I assume from your remarks that Sessions and Carter, for example, exist nowhere outside the imaginations of those would disagree with your absurdly blanket statement. 3) there no longer exist such entities as individual nations. There never have been, actually; it has always all been imaginary. Upon which planet do you live? 4) opera has nothing to do with serious music; it is mainly a vehicle for women who enjoy shrieking and exposing their bosoms. Serious men run a mile therefrom. It is no kind of Art. OK, so Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Strauss, Puccini, Busoni, Berg, Britten, Henze and others wrote stage works that are "mainly vehicles for women who enjoy shrieking and exposing their bosoms". Really? I have no idea who "serious men" are, but clearly you are not one of them.
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Post by ahinton on Jan 1, 2017 12:00:16 GMT -5
I'm sure we're all grateful to Gerard for his pithy insights. They certainly take the discussion forwards, do they not? My own gratitude is expressed above.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 1, 2017 12:01:34 GMT -5
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