Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics Ain't This America Instilling Patriotism the American Way

Would the Chinese people know anything about this music?
Apparently yes.

Ling

The difference in what I presented was that Turandot was done as a joint effort. It started in 1996 and was finished in 1998. Many tried to get the Met out of China as the leaders were afraid of not only Italian influence but American. The Met arranged for the Chinese to be completely involved in the production and making them an offer they could not refuse, it worked. This DVD is found at Netflix if anyone is interested.

"Fifty million Chinese children are now studying a classical instrument," says Long. "In 20 years, I believe China will be one of the biggest countries in the world for music."

Interestingly, America has seen a wave of classical string players coming out of Korea and Vietnam. They are winning most of the American awards for young violinists. China is just getting warmed up. It takes an "ideal" American student to compare as many do not have the compassion to practice and rehearse. I was a part of the San Luis Obispo Youth Symphony and our villages and towns were fairly remote from downtown San Luis Obispo and we got television cable in the mid 1980s which gave us a hell of a head start with the kids.

Many parents did not have a background in classical music and for string players, Bach is essential. I had a radio gig where before any of our younger musicians were going to perform I did a show discussing what they were playing. I grew up with Bach in my ear. When I moved to Arizona, there was no interest in this.

My world is dying in America. I have become a complete hermit with my satellite radio which picks up the N.Y. Met Opera productions around the clock. I have a collection of DVDs and books written about the music and composers that takes up an entire wall of my new home.

Between my music and the NFL, I am a happy camper. I even found a time where I can have the swimming pool to myself. With the temperatures here from 100 to 114 degrees, I am the only one who can swim at noon. I never worry about being sunburned. I found a use for my funny colored skin.

i find it amusing in that ironic sort of way. of course a woman who is chinese american would naturally have a different view. oh, and numan, given your track record, how can you expect anything different?

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I expected some reaction to my posting from Xinhua, but after all my decades of immersion in American "culture" I still manage to be surprised by the almost pathological humorlessness that it so characteristic of it.

The stereotype in the quote is one that has been so often applied to China, that I thought it would be entertaining--and illuminating--to reverse it and see it applied to ourselves.

Am I really the only person here to find it amusing?

It's even worse than that, Sandune. The ultimate American culture was in the past. Now we are in the process of devolution---becoming more and more barbaric with every passing year.

Thank you for the compliment. It's nice to know that my attempts to raise the tone of American culture, vain though they may be, are not entirely unnoticed. · · ·

As for the pathological humorlessness of the American character, I am afraid that I do not find anything in your posting that casts doubt on the truth of that observation.

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In 1978 I was walking through a village in the Western Hills, outside of Beijing, and heard someone in an upper window playing Mozart on the violin---and playing it quite well. It was moving to know that something of beauty had survived the brutality of the so-called "Cultural Revolution."

The same year, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra came on tour to China---I think it was the first tour after the Cultural Revolution by a major western symphony orchestra.

I attended the performance in Beijing. It was a very mixed audience---tickets were still being alloted to soldiers, factory workers and the like who had no knowledge of Western music. The Toronto Symphony played a number of warhorses, and one rather long, "aggressively modern"---and very atonal---piece, which I thought was a mistake, given the circumstances. The applause through the performance was rather tepid.

As a finale, A member of the orchestra played a traditional Chinese melody on a native Chinese two-string fiddle. That was more appreciated by the audience. Then, to everyone's amazement, the full orchestra took the same melody and gave it a full orchestral treatment. It was a very powerful experience, and when they finished, the audience went wild with applause !

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Won't it be ironic if the best of Western culture is preserved by the Chinese, whilst the synthetic "culture" of American info-tainment plummets ever further into the abyss of the barbaric caterwauling of "pop" music?

I am reminded of the image I retain of a French Riviera beach, where very black Africans in business suits were selling trinkets to French nude sun-bathers.

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

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Why not? The top string players over here came from Korea. The hardest job I ever had was to promote was chamber music in N.W. Phoenix Arizona. They had trouble understanding Willie Nelson. The east coast of America is a whole different thing. The last time I was there a musician friend of mine was performing in a private College auditorium (forgot the name) and there were people waiting in line for cancellations. D.C. has a great opera company and my kids and their friends were all on their mailing list. I think Jackie Kennedy did much to promote this good music in D.C.

Numan we are not just losing musicians in America but we are losing audiences. The exception is in New YOrk City and Washsington D.C. I guess we need more television commercials who use some of the most common music.

That has to rank, if only by proxy, as one of the most effite and snobbish observations I've encountered in a long time because I seriously doubt that many of these hardworking and excellent Chinese musicians know the back story behind most of the compositions.

Why? Take Mozart, for example. He was a rebel, in fact he would have been considered a rock and roller by the standards in place in the Vienna of his day.

He was a freewheeling fun loving and yet tortured individual who had the audacity to challenge the court composer, thus were the instruments of his torture laid in place.

And yet his compositions bedeviled his contemporaries and fueled intense jealousy and envy. Few if any remember anything written by Salieri, but Mozart's revolutionary pieces live on.

And speaking of rock and roll, I doubt we'll see any Chinese virtuosos plucking out a rendition of anything in that category.

Go ahead, try and tell me rock and roll does not represent Western culture...try, please try, I want you to try.

Phil and I have attended some very nice classical music events at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. We were not only able to listen to great music(performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic), but to tour the concert hall itself. Remarkable architecture, and some very interesting art pieces make this place an enjoyable visit every time. We'll be going back in February.

Another group of friends and I frequently visit an art gallery in LA, when ever there are new art shows. My sister and I see the Opera on film at our local theater. We just saw Madame Butterfly. We plan cultural outings once a month. Next on our list are the Gamble and Greene and Greene homes in old town Pasadena, where we will view Craftsman-style homes. My friends and I are museum hounds, and Exposition Blvd provides several. It's the same when I visit Washington DC.

Everywhere I travel, I try to find something cultural, historical and also geographically interesting to explore. Not all of us Americans sit around in front of the TV and let our brains turn into mush.