j&r

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  Vinst

  17 apr 21

  Long live Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach

   

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  tonysoprano

  20 jul 16

  Hello, I want to greet you as debaser suggests. One thing I've never understood: I often notice you criticize progressive rock. Could you kindly explain the reason, without necessarily telling me to fuck off like you would with someone else (since I have never openly criticized you)?

   

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    j&r

    21 jul 16

    I find progressive music highly artificial, unnatural, and overly cerebral, as if emotion were a flaw to be banished, a wrong to be avoided at all costs. For this reason, I find the artistic approach of progressive music lacking, as it is devoid of the main characteristic of any form of art. I’m talking about the emotion one feels when listening to Bach's Mass in B minor, Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, or Beethoven's Third Symphony. Powerful emotions that move and shake the depths of the human soul: all of this is absent in progressive music for me. In "rock" music, I find a more intense and rich authentic pathos in Badlands by Bruce Springsteen, for example... and when I mention a phrase of that sort, usually the progressive enthusiast in front of me looks at me with pity, labeling me as superficial and ignorant, incapable of understanding the complexity, refinement, and technical virtuosity of progressive music. And then, having made a fool of myself for listening to Springsteen, ignorant, crude, following the tastes of the messy masses, I start asking the progressive expert some questions about classical music: if he has ever listened, for example, to Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10, if he has ever heard Stravinsky's Firebird, if he has ever experienced Sibelius's Symphony No. 2, and so on... and there it is, as often happens, he ends up making a fool of himself. As for me, a song like Badlands, an anthem, means much more, even if it might be a fourth-hand tune, but it sends shivers down your spine when sung loudly at attention, than 20 minutes of technical showmanship for its own sake. Finally, if I want to listen to great virtuosic music, I certainly don’t turn to progressive, but rather Vivaldi's Estro Armonico, for example. Anyway, I do not understand why progressive enthusiasts are so haughty, arrogant, elitist, and, in my opinion, narrow-minded. I have met many of them and have almost always encountered this annoying smugness.
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    tonysoprano

    21 jul 16

    I agree 30%. Sometimes progressive tends to be monotonous and can get tiresome, as is the case with Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer. However, it's impossible for Van Der Graaf Generator, Soft Machine, and King Crimson not to convey anything. I also find it illogical to bring classical music into the conversation and compare it with progressive. For example, I am a fan of progressive, but I recognize that genres like jazz or classical are definitely better.
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    tonysoprano

    21 jul 16

    Then I, who know very little about classical music, am biased.
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    tonysoprano

    21 jul 16

    I recommend this album by Niemen, endowed with great expressiveness and remarkable vocal skills, if you are not familiar with it.