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"The most insolent monstrosity ever perpetrated in the
history of music." That's what one critic called Bolero. Beethoven's
Symphony No. 9, was greeted with, "...stupid and hopelessly vulgar
music!" by another. Yes, he
was writing about one of music's most creative and revolutionarily
innovative composers of all time!
How could they be so wrong? How could the music critics
I just quoted make such classical asses of themselves? Better yet, what can we learn from
the man who wrote that Beethoven, "lacked the sense of
beauty"?
For one thing, most critics would jump at the chance to be
even a third-rate composer
if they had half a brain. Actually, the critics I've quoted here used only half
of their brains--the wrong half.
Because if they had simply listened to the music with the right side
of their brains, each would have had heard an entirely different composition.
Certain people in positions of power mouth nonsense that
far too many people swallow as if it were some godly decree from the holy
mountain. You don't have
to visit the words of some politicians, scientists, or critics for very long
to uncover utter nonsense. I've devoted an
entire page of quotes to the stupidity
of so-called of eminent experts making complete
asses of themselves.
But don't just enjoy laughing at my collection
of famous follies. Let their stupidity serve as fair warning: Before you take the blue pencil to a freshly written report, before you start
shaking your head at your secretary's suggestion, before you shoot
down your ad agency's next presentation, consider the critic who wrote, "... it will
soon fall into disuse," about Beethoven's Heroic Symphony. |