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From: tss@astrovax.UUCP (Thomas S. Statler)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Real slime vs. Real music
Message-ID: <203@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 29-Dec-83 19:00:39 EST
Article-I.D.: astrovax.203
Posted: Thu Dec 29 19:00:39 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Dec-83 00:48:17 EST
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 19



   This is in response to tekig!davidl, who asked if "reading spots off a page
put there by somebody else 400 years ago and making noise out of them is real".

   Yes, sir, it is. It is the composer speaking to us, in our own voice, of his
loves, his hates, his fears, his passions. To play or listen to a work by a
great composer is to experience a great mind at work; whether that mind was
alive 400 years ago or yesterday afternoon makes no difference to the work's
value as art. If it sounds different, it's because it's from another culture,
where opinions on life and art differ from yours. The opportunity to hear such
opinions, especially those from past societies, should be cherished in a culture
that considers free exchange of ideas so important. To dismiss any music as
"irrelevant 'cuz it's old" reeks of closed-mindedness and ignorance. Have you
ever actually listened to any classical music? Have you ever actually studied
any theory? Or do you just pick away at your guitar strings and hope you'll
hit on something? Sorry to be so caustic, but your remarks sound so trite and
generation-gap-ish they should be on television. Come to think of it, they have
been.