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Both take western music too seriously

Reader comment on item: You Need Beethoven to Modernize

Submitted by Steve Meikle (New Zealand), Dec 24, 2005 at 12:59

Both Mr Pipes and the Muslim fundamentalists take classical music too seriously.

The passions it stirs are overrated.

I do not speak as a philistine but as a former professional classical musician who once, in my youth, lived for classical music.

But music, though it may be an oblging servant, is a tyrant of a master.

As such music is only entertainment, to seek more from it is to abuse it. And this abuse leads to boredom with it just as an addict needs stronger poison to get his highs.

The West is saturated in music, but where is justice?

I pity the barrenness of those lives that feel bereft without art.

Are they deaf to birdsong and blind to a tree in leaf, or blind to a sunrise?

And as the West is dismantling the rule of Law in enthusiastic emulation of George W Bush, the West is itself over rated and is likely doomed. Even if they are singing Bethoven or Eric Clapton while it goes down.
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Reader comments (15) on this item

Title Commenter Date Thread
Inconsistency of Music [144 words]M ToveyDec 17, 2020 13:13262232
1For the first time, I disagree with you [46 words]SidNov 13, 2009 17:11164544
Chapeau! [50 words]Cynthia FarahatFeb 7, 2010 11:54164544
Beethoven's pigmentation [444 words]DannyApr 16, 2009 11:20153969
Music banned since Islamic Revolution [21 words]Death to IslamSep 30, 2007 11:32109963
3The man that hath no music in himself... [47 words]Steve MullanyDec 29, 2005 19:5230753
Both take western music too seriously [161 words]Steve MeikleDec 24, 2005 12:5930500
Beethoven & MidEast Success [274 words]H. ShamirDec 24, 2005 12:0530493
Western High and Low Culture [186 words]Samuel SchwartzDec 28, 2005 08:4530493
Polyphony and synchronization [166 words]Edward ChristieDec 20, 2005 09:1330238
Yep! [64 words]Bilbo BagginsMar 15, 2004 21:1314201
Discredited [54 words]AnonymousFeb 6, 2010 11:5614201
Western Music not really necessary for Modernity [687 words]Linas KondratasNov 27, 2002 04:424270
The key ingredient for modernity [209 words]AnonymousFeb 6, 2010 11:494270
psychological aspects of western art music, and a historical response to the 'free enterprise" nonsense [550 words]frankJun 6, 2011 15:054270

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