Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, April 30, 2023
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24 comments
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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On a fit of what I call “weekend brain,” I’ve been wide awake since a bit before 4 in the morning.
Meantime, I’ve been wondering what’s happened to classical music (Yes, I know this is not the correct term). The answer is nothing. It’s still around, being composed and played the world over. It’s just not as popular as it once was (if it ever was that popular). A lot of it, too, is composed as the score for films and TV, and sometimes performed by orchestras the world over.
So, here’s a recent composition, Piano Concerto by Alma Deutscher, whom, BTW, you can see play the piano in her work. Remarkable young lady.
@Kathy:
I’ve been attending symphonies since I was 18, and am a regular listener to classical music. FWIW, I think what whatever has happened to classical music is due to the patrons. Years ago (the 90’s) I read that the average age of the pieces performed at the NY Philharmonic has aged one year for every year since the 1920’s. In more recent years it seems that newer pieces are played a bit more often but only ‘difficult’ ones that are not easily accessible by new audiences. And they must never, ever show any hint of influence from popular culture, unlike the pre 1950’s classical music which regularly used melodies and their rhythms from popular or peasant music, back to Beethoven and earlier. And Twice in this century a classical singer has made it big in one of this talent TV shows and the immediate and over whelming reaction from the classical patrons when confronted by enthusiasm from the hoi polloi was “oh you naive ignoramous! They are not really very good”
I’m seeing more detail from the SpaceX launch. Musk is saying everything is fine. Apparently the self destruct didn’t work right either. I looked at where their Texas launch site is. I see that here in SW Florida I’m squarely down-range. Does not give me a warm fuzzy.
@gVOR08:
My expectation is that once SpaceX sees the FAA test requirements for any sort of blast shield before they allow another launch attempt at Boca Chica, there’s going to be a quick shift from Texas to Kennedy Space Center. They have to move at some point anyway, to meet the launch tempo they’ll need for Artemis. Might as well do it now.
@MarkedMan: Say what one will about Leonard Slatkin, and many did*, during his time at the SLSO he was devoted to introducing audiences to modern classical music. I appreciated it anyway.
* a neighbor of mine was a violinist in the orchestra. She was not a fan.
Liz Harrington says that President Trump will win any debate he enters, but that he won’t take part in any Reagan Library debate because it will be rigged against him.
So what, if he’ll win it anyway?
Take a look at that mugshot and tell me you are surprised. It literally screams, “Do not let me anywhere near a gun!”
And speaking of which,
Stupid is as stupid does:
I guess they’ve got their heads so far up Fucker’s ass they can’t see the 787.5 million reasons to not do what they are doing flee the FOX News Corp coffers.
@Kathy: I got to watch my 30-year-old son receive his PhD in music composition this week. He was raised on an omnivorous musical diet. Two weeks ago, I got to hear a choral work he wrote about 4 years ago for which I had – at his request – provided the text, being sung by a 40-person chorale. We’ll see what time brings.
@Joe:
Congrats to your son.
@CSK:
That’s “Dr. your son”! 😉
‘Brothers in arms, a long way from home’: the first Australians to fight fascism overseas
A short bit about an all but forgotten part of history.
The official count of Australians who fought in the Spanish Civil Was is 66 (this article says 70) and only one fought on the side of the Fascists. As with so many of their compatriots they were dismissed as communists and unionists.
@Stormy Dragon:
In that case, you may address me as “Dr. CSK.”
@CSK:
Dr. CSK would be a cool super villain name =) Although I guess I should ask if you intend it to be C. S. K. or “Sisk”, the way I’ve been saying it in my head.
@OzarkHillbilly: I remember playing a piece that Slatkin had composed back when I was in my musician phase. It was pretty good as I recall.
@MarkedMan:
I’ve attended exactly one classical concert, and that was in the 80s (Vivaldi’s 4 Seasons performed by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra). I do like the music, but lack the focus to sit through a whole performance. I’d rather take breaks on longer pieces (it can take me six hours to listen to Beethoven’s entire 9th), or put in on background while I do something else.
So, I’m not quite in touch with what goes on in the live performance of classical music these days.
@Joe:
Congrats!
@Joe: congrats to both you and your son!
@OzarkHillbilly: Betcha they think of themselves as fiscally responsible.
Idiots.
@Stormy Dragon:
I wouldn’t mind being a supervillain, but it’s “C.S.K.”
@OzarkHillbilly: Americans who served in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade or otherwise supported the Republicans were also viewed with suspicion if they managed to survive and come home, then largely forgotten. It’s described as “prematurely anti-fascist”.
@OzarkHillbilly: I understand. In 2020 the presidential votes in their county were Trump 60,789 and Biden 30,000. This marked discrepancy with the statewide outcome certainly suggests monkey business on the part of Trump’s forces.
Following up yesterday’s discussion of money and SCOTUS, NYT today has a deep dive into the relationship between the Antonin Scalia Law School at GMU and the Supremes. (Should be paywall free.)
Chuckles Koch, Leonard Leo’s 1.6 billion dollar guardian angel Barre Seid, and the rest of the Billionaire Boys Club have put a ton of money into cultivating relationships between the school and the justices. All the justices, but mostly the Federalists. The justices sometimes teach classes for the school. Two week classes for which they’re paid the max allowed, about 30K. The article details Gorsuch doing such a class, in Padua, his choice from a menu of cities. The school set him up in an “”aristocratic” antique-filled apartment in the heart of the old town.”
Tough life.
Is all this legal? Arguably, per the rules established by the justices. Is this nonetheless buying the Court to support a particular class of people and a particular ideology? Why yes, it is.
@Slugger: I suspect that the vote totals in the counties adjacent to Shasta were similar to Shasta’s The statewide percentages reflect the LAs and SanFrans of the state.
@gVOR08: Yep. Recently read a story about a guy who was highly regarded by Phil Donilon (sorry for get his name) who went into the danger zone not just during the SCW but after Germany invaded Poland, multiple times and was still hounded by McCarthy and his ilk.
It’s a sickening tale and I hear the echos in today’s “antifa’s” cries.
Full disclosure: my wife’s grandfather was among the disappeared* and her mother was born in a Spanish prison during a bombing raid. My wife’s family survived Franco’s Spain as best they could. It is the sort of stuff people who haven’t been there, just can’t imagine, much less understand.
*from what my wife says, it was no great loss. He was an asshole.