[ExI] for classical music lovers only

Fri Oct 30 19:29:57 UTC 2020

Does Nutcracker count as a classical opera?  That's my go-to example of a
stage play where there are no lyrics one must understand to understand
what's happening: the plot is presented through costumes, or sometimes
through programs explicitly handed out to the audience so they can follow
along.

On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 12:17 PM Adrian Tymes <atymes at gmail.com> wrote:

> As I noted, you originally limited it to the past 20 years.  I take it as
> obvious that "classical" is mutually contradictory with such a recent time
> frame, so I thought you were seeking to step out of strictly classical
> stuff.
>
> Ironic that you note your experience with opera.  I have much the same
> problem - but in my case, I perceive that one is meant to understand and
> enjoy the words as the primary thing, with the tonal presentation merely
> being an enhancement.  If I can not understand the words, then I can not
> understand what people are doing on stage - and they're usually not
> dancing, or otherwise visually presenting in a way that would go along with
> audio where voice is more of a musical instrument than a conveyor of
> meaning.  For this reason, I tend to shun classical opera, as I can not
> enjoy it.  (Where the voice is just an instrument, I can enjoy that.  Where
> the words are clear, I can enjoy that.  But not where there are words that
> are supposed to be understood - and where this is more important than the
> music, if any - but the vocals are incomprehensible.  This does not seem to
> be due to any identifiable hearing deficit, which leaves me wondering if
> people who claim to enjoy classical opera are able to understand the lyrics
> as sung - or perhaps if they have cheats, such as printouts or prior
> knowledge of the lyrics, which they forget to mention because "any true fan
> should already know these things", which is a type of barrier to entry that
> I have seen in multiple other fandoms.)
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tAbhrDUrqM is an example of "has voice
> but only as an instrument, not words" that I listen to sometimes.  (Partly
> since I have a minor personal connection to the game this is part of the
> soundtrack of.)
>
> I sometimes listen to classical purely instrumental music, but only for
> "good + purely instrumental", not caring about "classical".
>
> On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 11:13 AM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>> Adrian -I listened. Classical??  You listen to this sort of thing on a
>> daily basis?  Have you ever been in therapy? This is music that is
>> primarily about the words.  The music was probably made up when the band
>> got together to put words to music, much like commercials and Nashville
>> country music.  My hearing deficit does not permit me, usually, to even
>> understand the words, regardless of volume.  So it's like opera music sung
>> in Italian:  I really don't care what is being said.  It's mostly soap
>> opera anyway.  The joy is in the sound of the voice and accompanying music
>> -using the voice as just another instrument which could even be singing
>> lalalalala.  bill w
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 11:56 AM Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat <
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>
>>> Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was a notable production within that
>>> timespan, that conveyed a lot but not all of its plot through its songs.
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp_hlaXcniY&list=PL78B0B3p_qZQPO8VVNTRf6wSDP9ebIoTQ
>>> has the playlist (plus two non-song entries, which you can ignore for this
>>> exercise).
>>>
>>> The second LEGO Movie might be interesting to do this exercise with
>>> too.  Soundtrack at
>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUEbWo1uIrg&list=PL5uTL9oHnU9gbfDveKd1kVKcXwydBb-1i
>>> .
>>>
>>> Granted, neither of these is particularly "old", but you limited it to
>>> the past 20 years.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 30, 2020 at 9:42 AM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat <
>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> You  know, I have had this thought:  what if we heard the movie music
>>>> before we saw the movie?  After seeing the movie, we will have visual
>>>> images to go with most of the music, memory allowing.  ("I go to the
>>>> hills....."  Julie Andrews in an Alpine meadow)  The questions are:  can
>>>> the music stand alone?  Will your like or dislike of the scenes the music
>>>> accompanies influence your liking or disliking of the music?  I suppose a
>>>> test could be listening to old movie music whose movie you have not seen.
>>>> Or maybe someone in the group can tell me a movie they liked, and I can
>>>> listen to the score - or part of it, at least, should be on Youtube - an
>>>> invaluable resource.
>>>>
>>>> I have seen practically nothing in the last 20 years or so, so
>>>> please recommend a score.  (thanks Stuart)
>>>>
>>>> bill w
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 7:56 PM Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat <
>>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Bill Wallace wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 3:36 PM William Flynn Wallace via extropy-chat
>>>>> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>>>>> > I am at the point where I think I know just about every piece up
>>>>> until
>>>>> > about 1900 or maybe 1930 that I like.  So after that I am looking for
>>>>> > new music to buy.  I get the American Record Guide and buy CDs
>>>>> > based on reviews and have a success rate of maybe 10%.  The
>>>>> > others I give away.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > So, I am interested in finding out from other classical music lovers
>>>>> > who, since 1900, has become a favorite whose music I might like.  If
>>>>> > a composer is famous I very likely know all I need to know about
>>>>> > him or her.
>>>>>
>>>>> I would get the musical scores from the Star Wars movies performed by
>>>>> the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In so far as classical music can be
>>>>> considered a genre instead of a musical period ending in the 1800s,
>>>>> then John Williams is one of the best modern classical music
>>>>> composers. He is why the Star Wars movies are "space opera" instead
>>>>> of
>>>>> "space theater" or "space story".
>>>>>
>>>>> Stuart LaForge
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> extropy-chat mailing list
>>>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>>>>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> extropy-chat mailing list
>>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>>>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> extropy-chat mailing list
>>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20201030/f51d8826/attachment.htm>