Classical Music

New York Times Demands Orchestras Be Bigoted

Published by Papa Giorgio

Dennis Prager discusses New York Times chief music writer’s article titled, “To Make Orchestras More Diverse, End Blind Auditions”.

An excellent article discussing the reasoning for these blind auditions and the benefits of “breaking ‘the old boy club’” is this article by Erich Vieth titled, “Blind Orchestra Auditions Alleged to Be Unfair Based Purely on Optics”. Here is how THAT article starts out… with a TWEET:

In the audio I include one example of this NYT’s music writer visviz Dennis Prager’s appearance on “Book TV on C-SPAN.” But here are my two other favorite examples from Dennis exemplifying not a top list, but a reshuffled “fair” list. The first is the mention by Prager of his book:

Further poisoning musical judgment is the Left-wing value of diversity. In 2011, Anthony Tommasini, music critic of the New York Times, published his list of the ten greatest composers who ever lived. Absent from the list was Haydn, who Tommasini acknowledged was the father of the symphony, father of the string quartet, and father of the piano sonata. Indeed, one of the avant-garde’s most celebrated modern composers (and a justly celebrated conductor), Pierre Boulez, “thinks Haydn a greater composer than Mozart,” and one of the greatest pianists who ever lived, Glenn Gould, thought Haydn’s piano sonatas were superior to Mozart’s. So, why did the New York Times music critic omit Haydn? Because, he wrote, “If such a list is to be at all diverse and comprehensive, how could 4 of the 10 slots go to composers—Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert—who worked in Vienna during, say, the 75 years from 1750 to 1825?” Diversity, not greatness, helped determine the New York Times list of the greatest ten composers. That is why Bartok, Debussy, and Stravinsky made the list but Haydn (and Handel) didn’t.

Dennis Prager, Still the Best Hope: Why the World Needs American Values to Triumph (New York, NY: Broadside Books, 2012), 52-53

And another favorite of mine is this audio upload of Dennis: “NYT’s Best Seller Book List = #Fakenews”

Here is my description of that audio

The New York Times best seller list really isn’t that. What it is is merely an editorial “what you should read, not what actually sells the best.”

The NYT’s even had the audacity (or the lack of self awareness in their egalitarianism aims) to publish a graph of the male and female authors by decade. It showed a clear male dominance over the women. However, as the decades progressed, the sexes got closer to being even, until, the final decade in the graph, they were very similar in books on the New York Times best seller listing.

But this graph…

…then, is merely an illusion. Since they control the list and who makes it on the list — they can control whichever factors they wish to. Like gender for instance. So they can even out the sexes on the list to give the appearance that male and female authors are writing and selling great books, equally. It does not reflect reality. Nor does this “evening-out process” have anything to say about how well something is written. It merely projects what the few editors think is important to the New York Times.

Dennis Prager Interviews Manny Laureano, of the Minnesota Orchestra

Published by Papa Giorgio

Dennis Prager had the Principal Trumpet of the Minnesota Orchestra, Manny Laureano, on to discuss the reasoning he chose to get up and leave during a show. More on this can be found over at POWERLINE. Manny’s TWITTER can be found HERE

Beethoven’s “Fur Elise,” With a Twist (End w/Music from Titanic)

Published by Papa Giorgio

Via The Blaze:

Hearing the same song over and over again can get grating. Add having to be in an airport on top of that and you might just get pushed over the edge.

But while this would likely prove to be an unpleasant experience in most cases, one musician tackled the situation in such a way that he actually provided entertainment for travelers waiting for a flight in Prague.

Maan Hamadeh might have tickled the ivories to the tune of Beethoven’s Fur Elise for more than two minutes, but he kept changing up the style, showing that the song doesn’t always have to carry its typically classic tune….

The Winner of Two Flash-Mobs Compared ~ The `Som Sabadell Flash-Mob`

Published by Papa Giorgio

Libertarian Republican compares two flash-mobs… this is the better of the two. Enjoy:

From video description:

On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.