Originally Posted by sean '90

Please look this guy up on Youtube! He's got great music!

You can just search what you want on YouTube.

Have you tried any Bittorrent?

Originally Posted by MichaelEaston

You can just search what you want on YouTube.

Have you tried any Bittorrent?

That's what's so great about Youtube!!!!!!!

No, I have not tried Bittorrent.

Originally Posted by MichaelEaston

Not with rock! I expect lightweight music to take people's mind off the troubles.

Not quite. In a 4T, people will need catharsis, and lightweight music won't do the trick.

The lightest-weight music that ever emerged in quantity was the so called "easy listening" of the last 2T, insipid stuff that consisted of reduced popular music (the more palatable rock of the 1960s stripped of its vocals), and Broadway and music tunes rearranged for string orchestra with no violas (the string instruments that give body to a string ensemble; without them one gets a sugary sound favored in "easy listening" music) with perhaps some gimmicky instruments -- one at a time -- to create the infamous 'elevator' or 'cocktail lounge' music.

It was to be found on countless radio stations at one time, FM stations with "EZ" in their call letters and branded as "Easy 98" or the like. It emerged in the 1960s because some GI radio executives found a format for superficially-attractive music that sounded good for a time because it had orchestration similar to that of the symphony orchestra but with none of the intellectual challenge. It could be turned on and turned off in time for commercials. It was perfect -- except that it had no lasting appeal.

Boomers and Thirteeners caught on fast to its emptiness. The "soothing" effects couldn't hide that one wanted more afterwards. Like LSD. GIs eventually reverted to the genuine 4T article of Big Band music and the Silent went whichever way they were headed otherwise. By the 1980s those "easy listening" radio stations either re-formatted themselves to be something else or went under because people quit listening to them, and advertisers found that this empty music had lost its audience.

Catharsis seems to require tragedy and loss as much as triumph -- and struggle or storm. Such is the essence of a 4T in any event. Classical music flourished on both sides of the Allied-Axis divide.

In the coming 4T, the most powerful music will prevail because it will suggest triumph as the result of the struggle against the current tragedy. People will want hope, and they won't have much temptation to drift into unreality. The gigantic scores of Gustav Mahler and Carl Nielsen will fit human needs far better than will some insipid, manipulative, and empty "elevator" music.

Originally Posted by pbrower2a

Not quite. In a 4T, people will need catharsis, and lightweight music won't do the trick.

(snip discussion of EZ Listening 'music' with which I totally agree)

Catharsis seems to require tragedy and loss as much as triumph -- and struggle or storm. Such is the essence of a 4T in any event. Classical music flourished on both sides of the Allied-Axis divide.

In the coming 4T, the most powerful music will prevail because it will suggest triumph as the result of the struggle against the current tragedy. People will want hope, and they won't have much temptation to drift into unreality. The gigantic scores of Gustav Mahler and Carl Nielsen will fit human needs far better than will some insipid, manipulative, and empty "elevator" music.

For a feeling of triumph over great struggle, let me add Beethoven.

Originally Posted by The Grey Badger

For a feeling of triumph over great struggle, let me add Beethoven.

The Nazis loved Beethoven, especially (ironically) his glorious Ninth Symphony for much the wrong reasons. Think of the sociopathic Alex DeLarge character in A Clockwork Orange... somehow the lyrics Alle Menschen werden Bruder, which Friedrich Schiller surely meant to include Jews, Poles, and Russians passed by them. The martial triumph didn't.

British and American propagandists exploited Beethoven's Fifth Symphony -- to the consternation of Nazis who thought it theirs as the definitive expression of German music. Tough luck, Nazis -- Beethoven wasn't a Nazi; he was too much a Humanist.

The Soviets had Tchaikovsky... not a bad choice. They used his Fifth Symphony as often as possible to depict the inevitable victory in the Great Patriotic War. Americans and Brits were more than delighted to have Russian composers on the programs.

In a 4T, people harvest the past for examples of heroism and for ideals to be preserved against the threat to ravage everything precious. By the 4T, few people have any memory of the prior 4T but plentiful contempt for the decadent times that preceded the Crisis. Decadence is seen as an ally of the Enemy. I can imagine American leadership using folk music, songs of Stephen Foster, Negro spirituals, jazz, Sousa marches, Broadway show tunes, Big Band music, and classical music (not necessarily American, but it is too powerful to be ignored) -- but definitely not punk rock or gangsta rap, cultural expressions of unrelieved decadence.

Gustav Mahler's powerful, wide-ranging expression (that, this is hard to believe, rivals Beethoven) would have well fit World War II needs... except that he was too German for the Americans and British -- and as a Jew, his music was off limits to the Nazis.

What do you all think of Shostakovich? I find some of his music less accessible than I'd like. OTH (seasonally appropriate) I do like Bach's Fugue in D Minor.

Originally Posted by The Grey Badger

What do you all think of Shostakovich? I find some of his music less accessible than I'd like. OTH (seasonally appropriate) I do like Bach's Fugue in D Minor.

Shostakovich? A master in all but his symphonies (political influence corrupting his art at times, and latent rebellion coming to the fore in the others wrecking his judgment) and even in them, #1, #5, and #10 are masterpieces. His best works are, in my opinion, his sting quartets, works far less public than his other. I'd put those on par with those of Bela Bartok... which is a tough standard.

He represents a prime example of the danger of a totalitarian regime requiring its artists, authors, and composers trying to use them to glorify themselves.