Posted by Ian Easton on July 02, 2001 at 08:38:55:
In Reply to: Pops... posted by Charles D. Ortega on July 01, 2001 at 02:53:18:
A few disjointed thoughts, to add to a thought provoking thread:
I disagree that 'Pops' music was once 'serious' music (1812, etc, excepting).
Unless we have a different definition of pops music in Australia, pops (meaning popular, or, to use a controvercial term, music of the 'commoner') music through history would have been played in much the same venues as now: only the rich could afford concert hall tickets. Was Sousa's music ever designed for the musical elete, or the top echelons of society?
Unless I'm mistaken, Barber's Adagio for Strings was used in the sound track for the film Gallipoli (a pretty big event in Australian History), and is quite well known, so it classifies as pops here. John Williams' music, however, is universal, so counts as pops on any continent!
My personal definition of a worst concert season is pops pieces arranged by someone who added the tuba part as an afterthought: Oom pas, ad infinitum, or demonstrating a lack of knowledge of the instrument's capabilities, or a lack of care in the part writing (tuba doubling 2500 Watts of slapped electric bass, anyone?).
2 cents worth, late at night:
Ian (what _is_ serious music anyway?) Easton