fromthemouthofmoi

In this small two part series I will discuss classical and country & western music. I have chosen these two genres in hopes that I can shed light on two types of music that I most often hear people say they either don't like or don't understand. One of the things that I encourage people to do who are learning about music, whether it be trying to expand an already existing collection, or venture out into an entirely new genre is to expose themselves to as many renditions of a particular piece of music as possible. With this advice I would add that it will help considerably for one to learn what the song is about, who is singing it and what the historical context may be, if any, specifically with music that is not in your language. Thirty odd years ago I began searching Internet radio stations around the world in an attempt to find new sounds that would reanimate my ears. I had tired of Top 40 and imagined myself screaming if I had to listen to another American pop tune...

A couple of weeks back I saw that a concert was to be given by The International String Quartet of Yucatan. My friend Ben and I went, and honestly, I was not expecting much of anything. I had, earlier in the year, gone to the Merida City Ballet and that proved to be such a disaster that I simply found myself skeptical concerning things referred to as 'classical' in Merida. The ballet was so profoundly disappointing that at one point during the performance I found myself looking around the theatre to see if anyone else was laughing. It was a real Candid Camera type of performance. Ballerinas falling on stage, male dance partners spinning ballerinas around so violently that I held my breath half expecting them to be flung offstage...ballerinas being spun because they weren't able to pirouette on their own. It was really spectacularly awful. All the rows in my near vicinity were occupied by people with smart phones filming the performance; not one thought turing off thei...