The only real classical music I know of
is the stuff I learned from watching Bugs Bunny and Merry Melody
cartoons, like the rest of my generation did. Of course, those works
of art were bastardized in order to fit with Bug's smashing Elmer
Fudd in the face with a brick, usually that's accompanied by a cymbal
crash. As I became the owner of a radio and stepped up to even more
complex electronics, I'd fly right past those NPR stations that
played Classical to 94 HJY to hear van Halen banging on his guitar.
Occasionally I'd stop on a classical
station but there's no real rhythm nor easy do-wop, do-wop to get
ahold of. It jumps around some predictable moments but they soon
disappear. There's no 4/4 in Classical like there is in rock, or
perhaps there is and I'm too uncouth, too ignorant, too 'tupid to
know it. Weird time signatures I like in rock music but for some
reason I don't quite “get it” in Classical.
Since I've rebuilt that antenna on the
roof and am pulling in stations on the New Hampshire border well
enough, I came across 99.5 WCRB which is nothing but Classical 24/7.
99% of the music they play I do not know at all. I do
remember anything that may have been included in with Porky Pig
dancing with Petunia pig though. That I can recognize.
I have been leaving that station on as
background music and found out when it's the best played, at night
time. You want to calm down? Want to decompress? Then leave it on at
quiet level and don't try to listen to it too closely. I find that it
also helps to knock me out when I get into bed. It's not creating
boredom but something else is going on. Natural L-tryptophan I'd
guess.
It's also nice to have that playing low
at 3 AM when I limp to the bathroom to take a pee and while I look
out of the window into the weird light the moon sprays the backyard
with. In some ways, the music acts like an acoustical night light to
me.
I'm an Internet junkie. I read
everything that catches my eye. I used to one of those kids who could
leaf through an encyclopedia as entertainment, looking at ghastly
woodcuts from the 1500's depicting the slaughter of thousands of
French Protestants. When you're eight and you see a grainy picture of
this, you tend to stop and read the story behind it. Weirdly enough,
the stuff finds it's way into my brain and some of it stuck. Other
things would pop onto my eye and I read about that too. The things
that actually did happen in history are far more bizarre than most of
today's entertainment.
I finally Googled classical music and
my God, you need to set aside a few hours to read up on it. It's that
vast. Baroque? I thought that was a painting/architectural style. I
found out it was the precursor to the stuff we think is classical
music today. Bassoons (what a great name for an instrument, only
superseded by the Didgeridoo), violas, violins (male and female!) and
“woodwinds” are all there to hear. I suppose if I really wanted
to learn it, I'd read it all, but even I have a “My God is this
getting dull” threshold. It's enough just to scan it.
The only time I've attended a symphony
was when I was in third grade. I guess the Pawtucket School system
thought nice if we were exposed to High Brow art. I sat there, in the
auditorium, with about 1,000 other kids from other schools, watching
from the nose bleed seats while the RI Philharmonic played. Since
there really was no movement on the stage, the lighting
subdued...there wasn't much to grab my eight year old mind with. I
did watch as Mrs Keough threaten to smack Billy N. upside the head
for not shutting up and staying in his seat. That movement caught my
attention more so than the orchestra that was 300 feet away.
After that we all piled onto the bus,
being thusly inoculated with the Musical Arts. I felt no change in me
whatsoever. I suppose that day, when I did flick on my radio, I
hopped around trying to catch the latest Three Dog Night songs
instead of stopping by one of the NPR stations.
I still love deep, bassy, hard,
raw-amperage guitar. I like the trippy sounds and songs of Pink
Floyd. I even like some country, but there's not much room for
Classical in my head. Perhaps that'll change.
Don't get me started on Jazz music,
that's more incomprehensible than Classical. I'll devote a few pages
on that mysterious stuff later, if I feel that much confused by it to
tell you all. I'm not talking about that chippy, California Lite-Jazz
that came out during the 70's either. I'm talking about that stuff
that makes NO sense but to only another jazz musician. Or, perhaps
I'm that dense...and jazz has a real hard time finding it's way into
my brain. It's probably a bit of both.
Now, for your entertainment, I expose
you to some High Brow art of a period of history that did happen. Rome
and the shit they pulled. Here Emperor Augustus finds out his
daughter Julia is a total slut. He did really banish her for her
being such a pig. This clip gets rough to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment