In message <199505241934.AA28075@mail1.access.digex.net> H-Net British and
Irish History List writes:
> Date: Thu, 25 May 1995 01:13:31 +1000 (EST)
> From: Ann Verna Beedell <A.Beedell@hum.gu.edu.au>
>
> But Bach did manage to write secular music in quite different styles to
> his church music and you could argue that his 'provincial' church music
> transcended its own function as well as its place of origin. Perhaps
> English 'art' music (for want of a better word), whether religious or
> secular was always 'church' music in its creative origins, and never
> managed to transcend its function or its place. Who knows though, maybe
> one day they might.
Surely you'd have to admit that Henry Purcell's works have transcended
their "function" and "place", as have those of Edward Elgar, Ralph Vaughan
Williams, Gustav Holst, Frederick Delius, Benjamin Britten, and Arthur
Sullivan in his guise as WS Gilbert's partner. I'd even go so far as to say
John Dowland and Thomas Moreley's madrigal writing transcended their function
and place, at least in so far as any other country's madrigal composers' works
did.
Could you please provide some concrete examples of the kinds of provincial and
"churchy" composers and works on which you are basing your assertions? Without
such examples, it is difficult to understand your intent, unless you truly do
intend to cast baseless aspersions on an entire culture's music.
Karen Mercedes
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| The English patient was discussing the unfortunate |
| life of Lorenz Hart. Some of his best lyrics to |
| "Manhattan", he claimed, had been changed and he now |
| broke into those verses: |
| "We'll bathe at Brighton; / The fish we'll frighten |
| When we're in. / Your bathing suit so thin |
| Will make the shellfish grin / Fin to fin." |
| "Splendid lines, and erotic, but Richard Rodgers, |
| one suspects, wanted more dignity." |
| -- Michael Ondaatje, THE ENGLISH PATIENT |
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