Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lanierrnd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!lanierrnd!jwg From: jwg@lanierrnd.UUCP (Joe Guthridge) Newsgroups: net.music.classical Subject: Re: discussion Message-ID: <61@lanierrnd.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Dec-84 13:12:54 EST Article-I.D.: lanierrn.61 Posted: Mon Dec 17 13:12:54 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 18-Dec-84 03:15:35 EST References: <> Reply-To: jwg@lanierrnd.UUCP (Joe Guthridge) Organization: Lanier Business Products, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia Lines: 36 Summary: In article <> malik@helos.DEC (Karl Malik ZK01-1/F22 1-1440) writes: > > I admire many old composers; for example, John Cage is 72. This brings me to one of the points I was trying to wrestle with. How many of you out there enjoy John Cage's music? Do you enjoy the idea of what he is doing, the act of doing it, the sounds produced while doing it, or just the fact that someone has to do it :-} ? Needless to say I don't. I'm trying to educate my taste in music, and here's a big question I confront often: SHOULD I enjoy this? It's true that there's music that almost everyone agrees is bad, and some that almost everyone agrees is good. In fact, outside those classifications, people can often agree that piece A is better than piece B. But what is the object of good taste in music? A friend once told me, "If I don't enjoy a piece, it's my problem." That's an easy and good answer to the problem, but I can't live with that. Is there always an answer to whether a piece is good or bad? Is there sometimes an answer? As an aside, I'm convinced that opera is an acquired taste. Flame me. > I suspect I'm in the minority, but I much prefer the 'perfect' >recording to the live performance. I want to hear the piece not the >performer. Live performances often make me want to buy the record, >a record never makes me want to hear a live performance. Maybe the answer to the whole problem is, "De gustibus non est disputandum." So when a performance is given, even if a performer takes great liberties with the score, one happy audience member justifies the performance. There's an interesting question: What, in general, "justifies" a performance? Awash in a sea of cultural profundities... -- Joe Guthridge ..!akgua!lanierrnd!jwg