Comments on: Of Genres and Canons

By: Michael

Michael — Wed, 17 Feb 2016 02:46:13 +0000

In truth only the next generation or two can decide what music will join the long term cannon of tunes from our time which will last.

I’d like to nominate one or two though.
Lots of the film music by John Williams is going to make the grade.
Star Wars simply doesn’t work with out the Republic theme against the Imperial theme.
Hedwig’s Theme is another which defines Harry Potter.

I suspect film scores will be the equivalent of opera for our era, rather than broadway musicals. Certain tunes by Andrew Lloyd Webber will survive, though not all!

“House of the Rising Sun” is one I hope will catch on, mostly because it is the best tune I can think of to the words of “There is a Green Hill”.

The saxophone riff of “Baker Street” gives that tune staying power, and likewise “Smoke on the Water”,”Vienna”, and “The Boxer” simply persist.

I sort of expected “Hi Ho Silver Lining” to make the grade, but it seems to be flagging.
How many tunes by The Beatles are known by the youth of today?
Of Clif Richard’s many hits, I think “Summer Holiday” will survive because it fits that niche, but the rest just are not getting the air time to survive.

“Can’t stop the cavalry” is another which will return every Christmas, along with other seasonal specials which don’t really deserve to.

Oh, and to drag Mr. Macey back in, I will never forget his initial response to encountering a discussion by Sixth Formers on the merits of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, his puzzlement at the name of the composer, and then his dismissal of it when he learned the original performers.

By: Synthetase

Synthetase — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 11:47:41 +0000

It’s interesting that a lot of prog rock histories talk about the movement as kind of lifting rock and roll out of vacuous pop and making putting it onto a pedestal with ‘real’ culture. The comparison with symphonic music is often drawn. Then, take Crowded House, a pop rock band from NZ who wrote a bunch of great 3-4 minute pop songs, using mostly simple chords that just work. I can get a similar emotional tug from listening to Better Be Home Soon as Beethoven.

By: Serdar Yegulalp

Serdar Yegulalp — Sun, 07 Feb 2016 21:11:19 +0000

The easy answer is that the only way to find out is to wait, but I suspect the stuff that will outlast everything else is the stuff that makes emotional connections with its listeners across time.

Bach’s music has a joy and a serenity that exists above and beyond any notions about music theory. Howlin’ Wolf’s raw roar says everything his own lyrics do, and then some. David Bowie’s “‘Heroes’”‘s own notes soar above and beyond the fact that it was recorded, literally and figuratively, in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. The chords at the heart of Miles Davis’s “Kind of Blue”‘ speak to the heart as directly and transparently now as they did when they were first captured by a three-track recorder. All the episodes of “CSI” and bad car commercials in the world can’t make The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” or “Eminence Front” any the less spine-tingling for me.

They don’t need footnotes, explanation, or even context; in the words of E.M.Forster, they only connect.