Listening Project

Like all trolls, she's probably just a sad and lonely old eccentric with a chip on her shoulder.

Craig, what I'm "teaching" is not music; it's about music.

Bazza, I'm impressed if I managed to create in you such an impression: "she" (!), "sad, "lonely", "old", "eccentric" and "with a chip on her (!) shoulder". You are wrong on all counts! At least I can assure you I am "he", but, anyway, here (in an anonymous forum) it does not really matter who or what we are. You may believe whatever you wish. Fortunately, I'm not dealing with the posters, whoever and whatever they might be, but with their posts.

Jane, you have reached 8 posts so far, all of them in this thread and all dealing with me. Impressive indeed!..

Chris, Cavalli's Salve Regina is a wonderful work to get into it; Schnittke's Fourth String Quartet is intriguing, but maybe not that worthwhile. Definitely, better suggestions for a "listening project".

Parla

Bazza, every forum I know of is moderated, including this one. It depends on when the moderators deem it necessary to intervene. Judging the message and not the poster, they may see something pertinent in a post of someone, whom some members call as "troll", and something irrelevant in a post of a supposed innocent "non-troll".

The good thing about this forum is that it is not only "nicely formed, witty and elegant", but also, like music itself, passionate, free in expression, exciting and true to the essence of the message of Classical Music.

I believe that, by allowing some room for an in depth, sometimes spirited and heated debate, we have touched some very important or interesting issues of Classical Music, sometimes at the detriment (sometimes only temporary) of the relations of certain members' relations but for the benefit of reaching valuable aspects of the truth of the matter.

Parla

Jan - Parla has done again what he always does: he sees a thread where there is reasonable activity and then tries to hi-jack it entirely so that he becomes its centre of focus. Typically egocentric behaviour on his part, which is all the more annoying because the contributions he makes barely make any sense whatsoever.

As I've said before, the only way to stop this destructive behaviour is simply to ignore him.

Yup, don't feed the troll and it will soon die.

Jane, 9 posts about Parla and the new one addressed directly to me. I'm really..."honoured".

So, let's see: This is a potentially good thread indeed, with a very nice idea at the heart of it, provided it is not handled in abstracto (choosing works at random, with no sequence or connection to each other).

I didn't "rubbish them and their ideas"; I questioned them. I announce I won't take part under the particular circumstances. I implied that, before we try to indulge in an extremely unknown, almost minor work of contemporary music, we might be sure whether we really know some "relatively known" (to use the  terminology of Brumas) works by composers of the "core repertory". I didn't "rubbish their choice of pieces"; I contested them on specific grounds, while some others actually rubbish them (check a bit more carefully some other members' posts on Koppel and Nyman).

There is no reason to initiate a new thread to comment on this one. This is the right place to make any comment, if anyone wishes, on any aspect of it.

For those who can easily resort to calling another co-member a...troll, his behaviour...typically egocentric and urge other members not to "feed" it, so that it will soon die, I have to inform them I am simply a shadow (as the lack of any picture under my user name aptly implies) in this net forum, a complete anonymous stranger with no identity whatsoever. Therefore, shadows cannot be egocentric, do not need any "food" and they don't die; they simply...vanish...when the time comes.

Anyhow, dear Jane, there is nothing to fear about my presence here. Instead of calling names and use constructive words like "poison" and some more, there is still room to have a more constructive, fruitful thread, if it is not to be focused only on the most obscure works of modern, contemporary composers, unless it has to become a thread of the very few. You see the initiator of this thread had the very bright idea during the Christmas week to ask us to indulge in Scelsi's Aion! He didn't even borrow the excellent idea of Chris for Cavalli's Salve Regina.

Finally, one of the wrong foundations of the "project" is the fact that the whatever judgement/comments/views on the works under examination is based on Youtube. I have to say that, without any previous knowledge of the work, without linear notes or any material on it and with the limitations in the sound reproduction of a computer based sound system, any statement for the work in question would not be accurate and eventually fair.

Parla

Chris, your brain may be ageing but it seems in excellent working order to me! When you here the Rota your brain will not be pummelled by a demanding new work. Just sit back, relax and enjoy the music.

I like grappling with demanding works as the rewards are usually great. However life is stressful enough and sometimes it is good to listen to works that are tuneful and written out of joy to entertain. A lack of depth is not always a bad thing.

Cheers

Graham