James Kearney quotes John Williams thusly:

>There is the view, their view, that there is wonderful music in what has
>now become known as world music, but when all is said and done, when we're
>talking about real music - the best, the most developed, most civilised -
>it is actually European classical music.  That is the kind of dying
>attitude that underlies a lot of the classical music establishment.

I would like to see some more precise evidence that any substantial body
of the "classical music establishment" really holds this view.  Certainly,
CM fans are very proud of their favorite music, and appreciate its long
history, expressive power, and fascinating complexities, but to state
dogmatically that it is "the best music" or "the only real music"? I
suppose you can find a few people who would actually hold such views, but
obviously they are too absurd to take seriously, as has been repeatedly
pointed out by members of this list.

Mr. Williams then says:

>This has infected the whole development of European classical music to
>such a degree that internally its own development is automatically seen
>as progress, when in reality it is searching round for a language, say,
>through the avant-garde, through minimalism, to extend its lifescale.
>It has run out of a cultural language of its own.
>
>"Isn't it strange, when you think back through history and prehistory,
>actually looking for a language in which to express yourself? We take
>it for granted it's an interesting thing to do.  But it suggests
>there is something wrong, doesn't it?"

I don't see what's wrong with looking for a language to express yourself
in; I would have thought that that is what artists, including composers
and musicians, are constantly doing.  Wasn't that what Bach was doing (and
Mr. Williams is a great interpreter of Bach on the guitar, so he must
understand him well)? The idea that JSB was a card-carrying member of the
"Baroque composers" union who just had a job writing "Baroque music" is
very superficial; he did in fact create his own musical language.  So did
Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg (for
sure), and every other composer of substance.

Therefore it is nonsense to say that "there is something wrong" with
classical music because it "has run out of a cultural language of its own"
and is just trying to "extend its lifescale," when instead it ought to just
curl up and die, presumably.  I find it almost incomprehensible that such
a great musician (who, by the way, has been very active in commissioning
and playing new works by composers who are engaged in what he apparently
thinks is the futile task of "searching round for a language") would say
such things.

Jon Johanning // [log in to unmask]