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Re: Schubert at 200
Frank wrote:
>This is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Franz Seraph Peter
>Schubert. Let me indulge in some dubious metaphysics [...] it is a fact that
>the value of his music exceeds that of
>the combined artistic productions of all non-Western civilizations.
Hmm. First of all, I would ask why would one want to *prove* that Schubert
is more important than the "combined artistic productions of all
non-Western civilisations"? It sounds to me as if that is the route to (and
I use this example because it's the only one I can think of, rather than to
be deliberately provocative) book-burning, censorship, the National Union
of Culture. I mean, it can't be done: it's an exercise not only in futility
but also, to quote GG, "...competition...which I happen to believe is the
root of all evil...".
What you say may be anthropologically true (but I'm no expert nor want to
be), but I still feel uncomfortable with theories that need to exclude
verything else in order to prove a point about a particular chosen thing.
What I am saying, I suppose, is that I feel uncomfortable with absolutism
in all its forms. Schubert, dead or alive, is a bonus -- if you happen to
like Schubert, if you happen to identify with his outlook, his sensibility.
Surely, that is sufficient?
I guess this one will run for a while...
Regards, Alun
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| ...[it is my] sober conviction that no piano need feel duty-bound |
| to always sound like a piano. - Glenn Gould
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