RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article

Who says music isn’t political?

By Old Grumpy Guy on December 19, 2008 at 5:30 PM in Humor, OldGrumpyGuy, Open Thread

As the countdown continues, we come to the top of the bottom half of the list of the world’s greatest composers ever, and this time it’s a Frenchman (unfortunately) at number 6.

And if anyone asks (as someone often does) what a list of the greatest composers has to do with the kind of political issues generally discussed on NQ, the answer is that everything has a political element.

The very fact that I’ve named a Frenchman at sixth place represents a triumph of impartiality over political considerations, as you will see when you watch the video.

I wish some of my viewers showed the same impartiality. As I will be pointing out in a video on the composer at number three, I am getting threats from people who tell me that their particular favorite composer had better be on the list, or else….

One Italian viewer got abusive because I placed Gershwin above Wagner and told me that I was a total idiot if I didn’t have Puccini at number one. I couldn’t help but be reminded of the abuse I had suffered for my opinions during the recent elections.

But even NQ readers need a break from politics once in a while, and what better way to do it than to watch and listen to one of my composer vids?

  • sowsear

    NO BREAK FROM POLITICS IS AVAILABLE!
    Tell Gov. Paterson we don’t want a Stepford Senator to replace a real senator, Hillary Clinton,
    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/12/18/2008-12-18_records_show_caroline_kennedy_failed_to_.html

  • elliewyatt

    I SOOOooo enjoy these composer videos!!!! Thank you so much.

    Dang, who knew there is life outside of politics?

    Thank you again for these.

  • bert

    Many of the pictures with this video are as beautiful as the music. Of course, I like Romantic classic music best of all. And in keeping with the same style, my favorite artists are Impressionists.

    I like both the English and the French. I have been to both countries twice and thoroughly enjoyed myself, learned a lot, and ate way too much good food in both countries.

    I am not sure why so many English continue to dislike the French. Tradition I suspect. If it had not been for William conquering England and who made French the mandatory spoken language, English would not have become the richest language in the world for centuries and that culminated in the flowering of the English language under Shakespeare’s pen. (A good read on the English language is Robert Claiborne’s Our Marvelous Native Tongue, unfortunately, now out of print.)

    Debussy is a good choice for #6. Since you mention him here, I wonder if Tchaikovsky will make your top ten. Only four left and so many great have yet to be covered that I doubt Tchaikovsky will make your list.

    I agree that everything has a political element. But I have yet to figure out how you will tie all these musicians together to make a grand political statement. To be continued………

    • oowawa

      Well OGG, it was very open-minded of you to include a Frenchman on the list, but I will have to reveal my bourgeois sensibilities by ccnfessing I would have been much happier to have seen the maligned Tchaikovsky in position #6, particularly since Nutcracker Suite time is upon us again.

      Be that as it may, I would like to contribute a famous poem to the discussion, which also includes a composer who I am sure will be in your top 3, and one who was an “also-ran.”

      There was a young lady named Hatch
      Who doted on music by Bach.
      She said, “It’s not fussy
      “Like Brahms or Debussy;
      “Sit down and I’ll play you a snatch.”

      There are several very lewd versions of this poem which I will not cite here.

      • andrew191

        I think your version is lewd enough. I’m a rugby player, I should know.

        • oowawa

          Hmmmm . . . don’t know a thing about rugby & I am curious, but afraid to ask. I’ll bet that grumpy old English guy will know exactly what you’re talking about . . .

  • Garry

    Ah, what I like best about Debussy is the melody; in fact, it made him eminently listenable to my rather unsophisticated, teen age ears, so long ago.

    Ok, so he speaks French when he composes, but the beauty of his melodies, the early inclusion, to may ears, anyway, of the dreamy modern day pop hook (in some ways like Mozart’s Fantasie in D Minor), the 5-4 progressions, the 5-4 arpeggios, the 9th chords, the chunk chunk chunk of rhythm, was always extremely appealing, emblematic of the romantic period, I suppose. I used to play his arabesques, 1 and 2, but what I heard in my mind was different from what I heard on record, still, the beauty of the melody stuck with me, even when I was “misinterpreting” — drove my piano teacher crazy…

    He was a strong influence on Joni Mitchell, btw, you can hear it in her piano, and her songwriting, the inclusion of minor keys, the tuning of her guitars, always including the extra minor, the forlorn yearnings, the rhythm, always present, I think.

    Leading, IMO, to jazz, I’ve been listening to Ives “Sonata Num 2 Concord Mass, the Alcotts,” again, it has the pleasant resolution of the 5-4-1 chord structure, (in parts) against the discordant, and though I haven’t really THOUGHT on it yet, there is something appealing about it, in the manner it can “speak” to us, in that, to me, music organizes the chaos of the day -of which the atonal of jazz is also a reflexction. The modernism of Ives placed against the jazz greats of the day, (and I guess we can include Gershwin) reflects many similarities in expression. And if you listen close, you can hear Gershwin echoed in Carole King, and her piano.

    Thank you, for this, I ‘m in a hurry now, but I will listen to it, again, later.

    • Garry

      closely, sorry,

  • socalannie

    Lovely. Am greatly enjoying this series, and looking forward to the opera one next. Thanks Your Grumpiness!

  • Sonic Ninja Kitty

    Dear Old Grumpy Guy, Thank you for another wonderful installment of this intriguing series. I would never have guessed Debussy wrote a ragtime piece. How weird was that–a moody ragtime. Freaked me out!

  • http://deleted Buzz Latte

    I admit Debussy hasn’t been a favorite of mine, but WOW!

    Thank you so much for giving us this delightful series. I was really excited to see Chapter Six.

    At the risk of seeming lazy, can someone give me a countdown of all the composers from ten to six?

    • socalannie

      10) Strauss (Richard)
      9) Wagner
      8) Gershwin
      7) Vivaldi
      6) DeBussy

      • socalannie

        Huh? How’d that happy face get in there? I’ve never known how to do those.

        • interested party

          You entered which is html code for that smile. 8)

          • interested party

            One more time: you entered eight-parentheses which is code for that smile

            • socalannie

              Oh! Thanks! Learn something new everyday!

              • socalannie

                Do you know where I can find a list of the codes?

                • interested party

                  one check first: :?

                  • interested party

                    http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Smilies

                    It’s a WordPress link but if you go down to “What Text Do I Type to Make Smileys?” it gives a list of smilies and their symbol.

                    If that isn’t enough try a Yahoo link:
                    http://www.helpbytes.co.uk/smileys.php
                    A smilie for every occassion, but not sure all these smilies are valid here.

                    I’m still looking not having the text show instead of the smilie :)

                    • socalannie

                      Thank you ip!!

  • JozefAL

    The reference to Clair de Lune reminded me of a cartoon (I just wish I could remember what the title was). The cartoon shows a Great Dane (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Victor Borge) seated at a piano, announcing that his next piece is Clair de Lune, which he follows by saying “English translation–clear d’saloon”.

  • DAB

    Mr. Grumpy:

    You give “snotty and pretentious” a good name and lots of flair!

    This is the first of your classics series that I have watched but I intend to go back and watch the others.

    Of course, I would NEVER threaten you, but Bach and Brahms had better be in your top five.

    Thanks for a lovely Holiday Gift!