Sunday, November 11, 2007

Bach is Saved by the Blogs

After a few heartwarming days of playing Piano Teacher again, I awoke this morning to the whisper of rain in my ear (bed's in a loft) and an irresistable urge to see if Mr. Jeremy at think denk had added any new entries to his insufferably entertaining blog. (Check out No Time for Barney's.) Far better a read than the Sunday funnies. I'd swear the guy is Laurence Sterne reincarnate. I haven't laughed so hard at any writer's stratospheric flights of verbal virtuosity since the day I turned a page in Tristram Shandy, to find that its author had rudely erupted into Greek.

But so MUCH there is to learn, now! I found Denk through a piece by Alex Ross in The New Yorker (Oct.22, 2007) and from there-on-out it's been a veritable orgy of discovery via weblogs unearthed. Prior to discovering Ross & Denk, I had developed a severe reaction even to typing the word 'music' for any searches relating to music. 'Music,' like 'marriage,' has now been redifined. It has become a techno-toy, assessed for value by its decibel capacity, technological gimmickry, packaging, and marketability to various hearing-impaired constituencies. Under "Classical" you can find things like Wagner's Ring, "The World's Most Beautiful Classics," and possibly Jerry Lee Lewis.

Once, while trying to take an online survey, I made the mistake of clicking 'yes' when asked if I had bought any music during the past week. The next screen wanted to know what music I had bought, and gave a list of selections from which to choose. The only selections offered were CDs, DVDs, downloads etc., so I flunked out and got kicked off. Printed scores weren't even considered to be 'music' by the survey company.

Thus the relief of Ross, Denk & Co. Thank you, gentlemen. You do the World of the Still Hearing a truly great service.

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