This Blog Will Change the World

The Concertina Brow Manifesto on Nov 5, 2009 in neon arrows concertina brow 1. The Concertina Brow acknowledges his mission as a subset of the general war on Neon Arrows.2. The Concertina Brow reserves the right to enjoy any artistic product, activity, food, beverage, or cultural artefact of any kind, with no regard for the...

The browbeaten masses on Nov 4, 2009 in neon arrows aesthetics modernism concertina brow A terrific post at The Transcontinental on the recent musoc.org dustup, and the overwhelming dominance of a "middlebrow consensus" in the classical music community:To be clear - I am not saying high culture is better than mass culture. What I am sayi...

A free thought on Nov 2, 2009 in church music It's not so much that bad prose ruins the effect of good music precisely, although even that is closer to the truth than most people suppose. Rather, there is something profoundly pathetic about seeing the noble charger Gregorian Chant harnessed to t...

Career tips for young musicians on Oct 31, 2009 in Bartholomew Ansidine church music Want a satisfying, low-stress job with decent pay and benefits? Then don't become a church musician, says CNN. "Music ministry director" is fifth on CNN Money's list of "Stressful jobs that pay badly," following hot on the heels of "reporter" and "pr...

Pitch-class set class 3-3 is like a journey on Oct 29, 2009 in Bartholomew Ansidine books modernism The staff of TBWCTW has lately been provided with much hilarity by Sigmund Spaeth's Great Symphonies: How to Recognize and Remember Them. Published in 1936, Spaeth's book sets lyrics to the principal themes of the most frequently performed symphonies...

The history of subjectivity on Oct 24, 2009 in historiography church militant relativism scholasticism modernism Part V of an occasional series.In a series of posts over the life of this blog, I've attempted to come to grips with the way we write about music history, and why it's usually so awful. One is forced to choose between two versions of Whig historiogra...

Two reasons to be a musician on Oct 18, 2009 in Bartholomew Ansidine church music But when intemperance and disease multiply in a State, halls of justice and medicine are always being opened; and the arts of the doctor and lawyer give themselves airs, finding how keen is the interest which not only the slaves but the freemen of th...