They have changed a bit since then (including a change of cellist, obviously):
In a survey just conducted by Classical Archives (www.classicalarchives.com), the ultimate online destination for classical music, over 20% of the respondents said they love classical music because it relaxes them and acts as a stress reliever in their hectic lives. The survey suggests that classical music, more than rock and pop, is able to calm the nerves in tough times.
Here is the full roster of results to the survey, which asked:
Why do you think you love classical music?
60.2% – It is simply the best music there is
20.3% – Relaxes me when life is stressing me out
9.0% – My parents played classical music at home growing up
7.6% – I’m a freak for culture
2.9% – It is a great aphrodisiac
I received that news in an email from Classical Archives. I think I was supposed to be thrilled.
Mostly I don’t care.
BUT … yeah, you knew there had to be one, didn’t you … it seems to me that when someone says they love classical music because it helps them de-stress they are usually the sort who use it as wallpaper. They aren’t really listening. It’s not really about the art, but it’s about the nothingness or something. Maybe I’m wrong. I wouldn’t mind being wrong!
I’d rather people use my cream of carrot soup to de-stress. Okay? Or chocolate. Milk chocolate.
I haven’t a clue what to make of this, but I love this:
The oboe. The official instrument of the International Order of Travel Agents. If the duck was a song bird, it would sound like this: nasal, desolate, the call of migratory things.
I’ve never held my oboe upside down. Not even once, as far as I know, aside from when I’m swabbing it out (and even then, after my swab weight comes through the top I put it back upright). So when I saw a picture of an oboist holding his instrument upside down I was just surprised. Curious.
Check it out. Does it catch you by surprise too, or is it just me?
Friends lend me your ears! The oboe is the worst instrument known to man. Followed by flute and then piccolo. The best is the cello.
Elsewhere in the I Ching (I can’t find the passage right now) it is mentioned that music can also be demonic. There are certain dischordant sounds and rhythms which evoke evil, madness and despair. That’s why I no longer listen to modern pop music. Something evil began to be expressed in pop music starting about 30 years ago in genres such as heavy metal and punk-rock.
And it’s not only because I’m a snob – which I freely confess I am. I also do not listen to socalled modern “classical music.” Sometime in the late 1930s, classical music composers (not all but most) started to write dischordant “music.” To be fair their music was a reflection of the horrors of the time: the rise of Communism, Fascim and Nazism and the threat of world war. But I cannot bring myself to listen to it.
