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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