Chris: A quibble: I think you might improve your appreciation of Beethoven
by talking to more knowledgeable persons than I (am). But you enjoy
Beethoven or not, I would say. You have a taste for Beethoven or not. Could
a musicologist get me to enjoy Mozart or Cosi Fan Tutti. Nope. Do I need a
musicologist to enjoy/have a taste for Steve Reich? Nope.
Geoff C
From: "Chris Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: recognition of skill
Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:46:43 GMT
No, William, I'm not presenting myself as the king of good taste -- I'm
just
an idealist who is proposing the existence of such a kingdom.
Does it really exist? If we're going to be skeptics like Cheerskep--- no
---
it doesn't really exist -- and neither does anything else.
But want it to exist because it's a notion that helps us improve ourselves
and our environment -- and should be the foundation on which is built an
education in the imaginative arts: literature, music, painting etc.
Do I have a problem with Geoff preferring Paganini to Beethoven ? Yes - to
the
extent that I would not expect to improve my taste in music by talking
about
those composers with him. But Geoff wouldn't expect that either, would he?
Like many people regarding the imaginative arts, he likes what he likes
regardless of the opinions of others, authoritative or otherwise --which I
think is far, far preferable to those who try to model their taste after
established norms -- and stand up to clap at concerts of classical music
because that is what they are supposed to do.
I admire Geoff for his self direction - as I admire Cheerskep for his
stubborn
refusal to recognize any special value in the plays of Samuel Beckett --
which
I'm sure makes him appear somewhat backward to his sophisticated theater
friends.
BTW -- thankyou, Cheerskep for copy editing my last post -- I neglected to
insert the word "kind of" -- so the statement should read:
"I don't think an aesthetic *kind of* experience is different from any
other
kind except to the degree that we enjoy and get involved with it."
In every kind of experience, aesthetic or otherwise -- sometimes we just
get
something wrong --misinterpreting a gesture, a word, a movement, whatever.
I'm not saying that there is only one right way to experience something --
but
only that many mistakes can be made.
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