A muse on music

It is, of course, entirely ridiculous for me, a man who does not know the difference between a crotchet and a quaver, to opine on the subject of music but - hey! - check out the name of this blog!  Even so, music only occupies roughly a third of my existence despite me hardly ever listening to it during the day (unless I'm driving) and during that one third of a day I am mostly asleep!  Oh dear, I had better explain.

As I have mentioned before, I always go to bed with a radio earpiece stuck in my ear.  For years my radio has been tuned to either TalkSport or BBC 5Live.  The former, of course, concentrates on sport, mainly football, about which I have zero interest but the usually angry antagonists do provide some entertainment before I doze off.  BBC 5Live is more political and thus has a similar soporific effect.  Alas, given the current blackout and lockdown, both sport and politics have disappeared!

Thus, I have been forced to turn to music.  Nothing would ever induce me to listen to so-called 'pop' music - the fact that we used it, deafening loudly, as a torture discomfort application in my days in the Army's Interrogation Unit says it all!  But I have always had a discriminating fondness for classical music.  The problem of playing it as a means to waft me off to sleep is that the music I love, through its magic (of which more later), actually excites the senses and keeps me awake.  Thus, my natural choice of a radio station for classical music, Classic fm, has far too much of the music that turns me on instead of turning me off, so to speak!

So, the other night, I had a moment of brilliance!  I switched to BBC Radio3, the epitome of truly tedious and therefor mostly unknown classical music.  Practically the first piece I heard was by a Japanese composer which sounded as though he had filled a studio with tin cans and lumps of wood and upon which he practiced his, er, 'timpanic' skills!  Yeeeeeees quite!  After that, it was a stream of truly tedious and totally forgettable music and I was off to the 'Land of Nod' in no time!

I will return to the mystery of music later . . .

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

David I take it that classical music is the true source of your erudition?

[JK]

https://www.youtube.com/user/amyturkharp/videos

You're welcome.

[Bob]

David,

I also dislike atonal compositions. The composer is usually just showing off to other composers and musicians. No one else understands or likes the stuff.

Did you see the Bournemouth play Tchaikovsky? You wrote you were going then never commented.

Here's some pop music you might like. It's Annie's tribute to American pop written during the 1930's - 50's. Voice of an angel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1WocrNF--4

[Timbo]

I was in Leipzig some years ago and was invited to a musical recital, or at least that was how it was billed. They were going through some local artist’s repertoire and I couldn’t tell if it was over energetic tuning-up or not. The only clue was that every so often there was a blessed pause and the perpetrator was invited onstage to receive a bouquet. Pretty sure it was the same one each time.
The funny part was how much the members of the orchestra seemed to be enjoying it.

[David Duff]

Yes, Bob, I did see them and hear them play and, truly, "I was moved with all"!

[JK]

https://babylonbee.com/news/lockdown-made-permanent-to-end-traffic-deaths-for-good

[Hank]

JK

Thanks for the Amy Turk link. Dat's good moosic!

[JK]

And Hank, 'full of surprises' too she is - you have time to check out her rendition of Billy Idol's White Wedding? Whoda ever thunk that noise coulda ever been rendered, dare I say it, quite wonderful?

[Scrobs]

I think if I listened to the Portsmouth Sinfonia, I'd just start laughing until I dropped off to sleep...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pICA--V9stE