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Entry: The Death of Music by the Spirit of Government Subsidies Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/the_death_of_music_from_the_spirit_of_government_subsidies#15430 Post contents: A point which nobody has mentioned is that, back ca. the eighteenth century, the words artist, artisan, and mechanic had overlapping meanings. The artist was a craftsman, not a spiritually superior demigod. The Archbishop of Salzburg didn't beg Mozart to take Mother Church's filthy lucre and write what he wished with the assurance that the Church would be falling-down grateful for whatever Wolfie cooked up. The complaint that Mozart's new madd had too many notes in it was probably because the archbishop feared that the lumpencongregation wouldn't be able to dig it enough to feel generous. Bach then the royalty, nobility, etc. who commissioned art got what they wanted, not what the artist felt like at the time. With the advent of insecure parvenu wealth the artists saw a chance to become bosses and not just hired help. The patrons shouldn't impose their pedestrian taste on those with superior gifts but should be thankful for whatever the artists chose to bestow upon their rich inferiors. This doesn't apply just to music; think of painting and architecture. The worst of it is that, since the human mind can rationalize anything, the victims have come to believe the hype. If they can imagine that there really is something marvellous in a piece of rancid tripe, they will extoll it. Sort of like the emperor's new wardrobe. Indeed some become painfully obvious snobs about it. Classical music in the nineteenth century was the height of boredom with nothing worthwhile between Beethoven and Stravinsky except maybe Bruckner!?! Oh please. Bruckner is like someone sitting in a parked Ferrari with the transmission in neutral, blipping the throttle and going vroom-vroom-vroom. Lots of energy and passion, but it doesn't go anywhere. So Brahms was just an inflated whorehouse pianist, and Dvorak a hick from Bohemia? So artistically perceptive of you to enlighten us. And maybe Ravel appreciated Sacre du Printemps, but he was a pro anc could really see into the mechanics. But it wasn't and isn't perfect. Nothing in this vale of tears is. Also I thought Bernstein's West Side Story is just vulgar mass entertainment and not Fine Art like his serious stuff. Maybe that's what makes it understandable and satisfying. Too bad Lenny had to give up what he was good at and go highbrow. Sent at: 2008 09 06