> As a complete newbie, I've been a bit puzzled by some of the invective, but > then I make a habit of occasionally contributing to the BBC 'Great Debate', > just for the fun of it, and what goes on here, what little I've read of it, > appears harmless in comparison. By and large, the lute list seems a superb > institution, most contributors charming people, and I enjoy looking through > the > e-mails every day. > > My own speciality in the days when I was an academic was 12-tone, serial > music, and what goes on in those circles puts any spats here in the shade. The > battles that were, and still are fought, over Boulez and co. (my side of the > fence) versus Shostakovitch, Vaughan Williams (in the UK), and the rest of the > musical world that wants to stick its head on the musical sand and pretend the > 20th century hasn't happened, were awesome to behold. A few lutenists > scrapping > over (as far as I can make out) facsimiles) is nothing to what has been going > on since my far-off student days in Oxford. > > And I still stick to my guns all these years later. I won't have > Shostakovitch in the house, nor any of the other 10th rate pretenders, while > Boulez, > Messiaen, Henze, Stockhausen and the rest of them rule the roost, at least > till it > gets too much for my wife and I have to turn the CD player down. Well, well, well...... This means that the life on the lute list will finally attain the liveliness it deserves, it will be a true microcosm. Boulez bashing is one of my favorite things to do. We also have a Morton Feldman acolyte on the list, but he hasn't been heard from in months. RT (who is diligently working to fill 13-lute with Shostakovich's spirit)
______________ Roman M. Turovsky http://turovsky.org http://polyhymnion.org
