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ArishMell · 70-79, M
Many:
Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, some Contemporary (though not a lot of the avant-garde); with my favourites works and composers being in the Romantic and Modern;
Some Jazz - many styles of that,
Folk - many styles, including folk dancing as well as the singing and playing.
Some opera,
Blues and Rythmn & Blues (Real R & B, the rockier version of the Blues on real instruments, not what I call "Supermarket Arr-an-Bee" of bad singers and synthetic backing.)
1960s - 70s Pop and Progressive Rock ('twas my generation after all!). A lot of the more melodic heavy rock. Some soul music from that time, and its derivative like the "Motown Sound".
Those are styles of composition and arrangement, but crossing those, I like organ music, harp music, the Pipes (many types, not just the Highland Pipes from Scotland). Brass bands (though not the contrived racket once favoured by Hollywood family-film makers!).
.
In the last couple of months I have enjoyed two very different shows, in my local theatre:
- Puccini's Madame Butterfly, performed by the Ukrainian National Opera on a UK tour,
- The Searchers, the Mersey Sound band who have been performing for longer than the Rolling Stones ( and I think are better musicians than the Stones).
......
So with a list that long, what I don't I like?
Drum-&-Bass and its ilk, Rap; most of the more recent pop singers and so-called "girl / boy bands" (singing troupes, but not bands). All secular music in all genres in all times has been written to earn its composers' and performers' wages, but a lot of pop now seems too formulaic to be any more than to sales-executives' templates that block originality, individuality and talent.
Anything sampled and cobbled together on a computer by someone who knows a "Quaver" only as a savoury snack brand.
Those Drum-&-Glockenspiel marching-bands. They may be good musicians, but putting high-pitched, short-note glockenspiels against a deeply-toned bass drum, produces an aural battle as grotesque as the players' pseudo-military uniforms.
The American Big Band / Swing Band sound and its contemporary singing styles: a semi-formal, jazz and blues derivative genre. One of the drivers for Rock-&-Roll developing (before my time!) was that although the instrumentalists were skilled musicians, the genre had become stale: badly-arranged, unoriginal and formulaic.
A lot of the most way-out avant-garde, much of which seems to lack point, structure or direction. I have heard such works introduced by their composers describing the high-falutin' idea or concept behind the music, but the link escapes me!
Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern, some Contemporary (though not a lot of the avant-garde); with my favourites works and composers being in the Romantic and Modern;
Some Jazz - many styles of that,
Folk - many styles, including folk dancing as well as the singing and playing.
Some opera,
Blues and Rythmn & Blues (Real R & B, the rockier version of the Blues on real instruments, not what I call "Supermarket Arr-an-Bee" of bad singers and synthetic backing.)
1960s - 70s Pop and Progressive Rock ('twas my generation after all!). A lot of the more melodic heavy rock. Some soul music from that time, and its derivative like the "Motown Sound".
Those are styles of composition and arrangement, but crossing those, I like organ music, harp music, the Pipes (many types, not just the Highland Pipes from Scotland). Brass bands (though not the contrived racket once favoured by Hollywood family-film makers!).
.
In the last couple of months I have enjoyed two very different shows, in my local theatre:
- Puccini's Madame Butterfly, performed by the Ukrainian National Opera on a UK tour,
- The Searchers, the Mersey Sound band who have been performing for longer than the Rolling Stones ( and I think are better musicians than the Stones).
......
So with a list that long, what I don't I like?
Drum-&-Bass and its ilk, Rap; most of the more recent pop singers and so-called "girl / boy bands" (singing troupes, but not bands). All secular music in all genres in all times has been written to earn its composers' and performers' wages, but a lot of pop now seems too formulaic to be any more than to sales-executives' templates that block originality, individuality and talent.
Anything sampled and cobbled together on a computer by someone who knows a "Quaver" only as a savoury snack brand.
Those Drum-&-Glockenspiel marching-bands. They may be good musicians, but putting high-pitched, short-note glockenspiels against a deeply-toned bass drum, produces an aural battle as grotesque as the players' pseudo-military uniforms.
The American Big Band / Swing Band sound and its contemporary singing styles: a semi-formal, jazz and blues derivative genre. One of the drivers for Rock-&-Roll developing (before my time!) was that although the instrumentalists were skilled musicians, the genre had become stale: badly-arranged, unoriginal and formulaic.
A lot of the most way-out avant-garde, much of which seems to lack point, structure or direction. I have heard such works introduced by their composers describing the high-falutin' idea or concept behind the music, but the link escapes me!
