--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> Sorry, way of judging music by it's ethnic
> background and complexity is 
> absurd.

Let's follow your reasoning...

Great!  Then I'm just as good a player as Paul
O'Dette!  Who cares if he plays cleaner, has a finer
touch, etc?  I'm after different goals (largely I am)
so we can't possibly say that either of us is
"better," can we?  As a matter of fact, then, all
non-musicians are inherently better players than any
of us since they are not clouded by the complexities
that we must confront in learning an instrument.  As
John Cage might argue, they can make their music
directly by vocal utterances, feet stamping, and
driving cars.  That's just as good as Bach, afterall.

Seriously, the absurdity lies in saying that since we
often times can't seperate the music from its
historical/cultural/social contexts there's no use in
making any distinction.  This like saying that my
house is just as good as the Duomo in Florence.

This is not an open invitation to rate each and every
piece of music, however!

Note that this has nothing at all to do with likes and
dislikes.  (I personally would not like to live in the
Duomo.)  I will concede, for example, that John
Coltrane probably produced "better" music than Led
Zeppelin, but I personally prefer Zep most of the
time.  But then I prefer Dowland to Zeppelin...

Chris
  

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