Re: GG listeners

["sistersunshine@twistedvillage.com" <twistvillage@earthlink.net>]

My only background involves having collected a roomful of pop records,
and I read sheet music like Carmen Miranda reads the menu in an Iqaluit
shellfish shoppe... so I suppose I qualify here.  
	Like I imagine it is for most people, my initial interest in GG was
sparked by well-documented things like crisp rhythm, separation of
contrapuntal lines, ability to imprint an overall formal structure to
extreme and exacting detail, etc.  As I'm sure everybody knows, these
same goals are often sought after by both listeners and musicians in the
world of popular music/record collecting.  But they're generally glossed
with far more economy and far less articulation (e.g.- penetrating
critical analysis often consists of stating whether "it rocks." or "you
can hear the ideas.").
	Now certainly, as a novice it's nice to have the GG Reader around to
help you sort out your tritones from your tempi perfectum (-your
fermatas from your Furtwanglers? -would you believe your Hindemiths from
your Hochmeisters?).  And you can bet the favors made of silk nighties
smothered with Jock Carroll reprints instigated a riot of bemused
blushes at my most recent Boston Ladies' Bridge & Tea party.  
	Of more relevance to the original line of questioning however... 
Although GG's aesthetic stance (and its many implications for what's
kosher re: performance & composition) is obviously "unorthodox" in the
classical music world, it's the proverbial witch's pickle everywhere
else.  And now that we're here at the end of the twentieth century
watered-down versions of GG's perspective have become more the rule than
the exception.  That is to say, for those who have thought long and deep
about why they like their Phil Spector records, GG is the one classical
musician whose perspective makes familiar sense.
	 What's more, if it's agreed that GG was more interested in being a
Capital 'C' communicator than in being a starched-up version of
Liberace, there might be such a thing as apprehending the details that
delineate his point of view that would not be quite the same thing as
apprehending his cult of personality.  Which is of course, not to say
that his point of view doesn't have a very charming personality to it.

others wrote:
I want to ask if anyone on the list is a non musician (I mean in the
extreme sense: barely able or unable to read music etc. not in the
profesional sense).

and:
He enjoyed sharing enthusiasms with people who were interested in ideas
and not questions of technique or performance style.

and:
Let's just face it -- we're a cult!

-- 
-Hockey
Twisted Village Records
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