A History of Music
It's been a while. Life's caught up with me. Jobs. Conferences. Lack of sleep. Confusion with my life. I appologize to all three of you who are subscribing to my nonsense. Now that I'm good and ready, I shall begin again.
A friend of mine works works for The Economist - "More Intelligent Life", actually - and he posted a few weeks ago on the Youtube orchestra, that appeared at Carnegie Hall last month. If you have an hour, and have yet to check it out, I would. Blah blah blah, it warms my heart with the potential of the interwebs to progress peoples' lives and not just be a conduit for my word-vomiting or porn-searching. Whatever. It's amazing. Michael Tilson Thomas (or MTT as he is so affectionately known) lead the prodigies, youth, and young adults, through an hour of adaggio, rondo grosso, venti-latte, pianinissimo pieces in a way that only he, as a rockstar can do. But, I have a problem:
I think MTT is a bit of a racist, or just ignorant as hell. I was so impressed with his work (and nostalgic for NYC, that I took a trip down MTT lane. On YouTube. First item that shows up is a "mash up" - The History of Music. I, being someone who has taken a lot of music lessons and history classes, thought it would be interesting to travel down history lane and check out what he chose as pivital pieces des artes. Starts with some gregorian chants, moves to middled-aged shit, hovers in the 18th century, spatters "traditional" music with more wind, brass, and string instruments, stops for a second in the precussion world, and, somehow, skips over the nexus of human life: Africa. My person-of-color count in the video was at a whopping four, and all were on stringed instruments. MTT. Let me try and remind you, sir, that all people came from Africa. That the guitar originated in Africa (well, we know that the banjo did, I'm making an assumption that the guitar did as well. Roll with it, so I can further prove my point). That the music that has been traditionally associated with white people in the 2oth century (rock and roll) all had its origins with *gasp* those who were not clasically trained musicians. Robert Johnson sold his friggin soul to the devil to play the way he did. MTT, you just missed out on a huge chunk of history, there:
Where's Fela? He has all those instruments you love, MTT.
I'm disappointed in you, MTT. You know better.
Finally, my heart goes out to my friends from Wes. I'm sorry that something so terrible has to happen to anyone, anywhere.
A friend of mine works works for The Economist - "More Intelligent Life", actually - and he posted a few weeks ago on the Youtube orchestra, that appeared at Carnegie Hall last month. If you have an hour, and have yet to check it out, I would. Blah blah blah, it warms my heart with the potential of the interwebs to progress peoples' lives and not just be a conduit for my word-vomiting or porn-searching. Whatever. It's amazing. Michael Tilson Thomas (or MTT as he is so affectionately known) lead the prodigies, youth, and young adults, through an hour of adaggio, rondo grosso, venti-latte, pianinissimo pieces in a way that only he, as a rockstar can do. But, I have a problem:
I think MTT is a bit of a racist, or just ignorant as hell. I was so impressed with his work (and nostalgic for NYC, that I took a trip down MTT lane. On YouTube. First item that shows up is a "mash up" - The History of Music. I, being someone who has taken a lot of music lessons and history classes, thought it would be interesting to travel down history lane and check out what he chose as pivital pieces des artes. Starts with some gregorian chants, moves to middled-aged shit, hovers in the 18th century, spatters "traditional" music with more wind, brass, and string instruments, stops for a second in the precussion world, and, somehow, skips over the nexus of human life: Africa. My person-of-color count in the video was at a whopping four, and all were on stringed instruments. MTT. Let me try and remind you, sir, that all people came from Africa. That the guitar originated in Africa (well, we know that the banjo did, I'm making an assumption that the guitar did as well. Roll with it, so I can further prove my point). That the music that has been traditionally associated with white people in the 2oth century (rock and roll) all had its origins with *gasp* those who were not clasically trained musicians. Robert Johnson sold his friggin soul to the devil to play the way he did. MTT, you just missed out on a huge chunk of history, there:
Where's Fela? He has all those instruments you love, MTT.
I'm disappointed in you, MTT. You know better.
Finally, my heart goes out to my friends from Wes. I'm sorry that something so terrible has to happen to anyone, anywhere.
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