Klarinet Archive - Posting 000937.txt from 2001/10

From: "Lacy Schroeder" <LacyS@-----.org>
Subj: RE: [kl] Yes We Have No Bananas vs. Beethoven 9
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 18:10:36 -0500

I think there is definitely a diferent way. Believe it or not, there are
individuals out there who have never heard the 9th. I just think that
music appreciation is subjective, and to say that one piece has a
superiority over another is purely a matter of opinion. To state your
opinion as a gospel fact, however, is pompous and absurd. It takes away
the right of another person to have a difering opinion, because in the
pompous one's eyes, the other can never be right unless he agrees.=20

I know that there are some works that I do like much better than others.
Of course, now that I'm being made to think of it (I don't normally
categorize things like this, which is why I said that I didn't think of
one being better than the other, but I see your point), I do think
Beethoven's 9th is on a higher level than the banana song. But I state
that as my opinion and not as a fact. But Dan's point is valid, I think.
We could make similar arguments about almost anything using the proper
reasoning.=20

Does that answer the question? Sorry if I came off defensive.

Lacy

Tony Pay wrote:
> I really wasn't intending to put words in your mouth.
>=20
> I was just asking a question, and I don't know whether you think you
> answered it, above. The question was:
>=20
> > > So, apart from the fact that you can't stand a musical=20
> snob, and that
> > > you disagree with his assessment of Beethoven IX as the=20
> single best
> > > composition ever written; d'ya really think that "Yes, we have no
> > > bananas" is superior or equal to Beethoven IX?
>=20
> I just think that that's an interesting question. Why I asked it is
> that it's a question that occurs to me, in various forms, quite often,
> and what it speaks to is the background against which we ask such
> things.
>=20
> I love "Across the Universe" too, and even, "Every breath you take".
>=20
> But, what *do* we want to say about Beethoven 9 and those=20
> pieces? That
> they're all equally 'good'? How about the relationship between "She
> loves me" and "A day in the Life"? Or between Bruckner 7 and Bruckner
> 9?
> =20
> > > Or is there some other way to think about it?
>=20
> That's what I wanted to get at.
>=20
> Tony
>=20

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