On Monday, July 1, 2013 7:13:24 PM UTC+1, Graham Easterling wrote:


A rather depressing number of patronising posts in this thread, everyone's entitled to their own taste. Classical music is not inherently superior, though fans of it seem to consder it such.

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Agreed, and it's equally depressing that the point has to be made. It's not like one cannot appreciate all sorts of music, and kinds of genres therein..

I love classical but it depends on which. I love all kinds of folk, blues (especially delta blues), bluegrass, swing, rock and even the dreaded 'pop' - including house and trip hop, for example - but by no means all. It depends what it is. And different music is appropriate at different times and in different places. I'd rather not pigeon-hole myself or anybody else.

Possibly my favourite (although I hate appending that word) piece of music (and it had dam' well be played at my funeral) is Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It never fails to move and exalt, to send shivers up the spine and pump adrenalin through every organ. Neither does Mozart's Requiem in D Minor, nor Barber's Adagio for Strings nor Allegri's Miserere.

But these also move me, to highlight just a few of the more well-known tunes in my 'favourites' list, from every decade since the 60s: 'And I Love Her' by the Beatles; Daavid Bowie's 'Heroes'; 'Love and Affection' by Joan Armatrading; 'Fast Car' by Tracy Chapman; Snow Patrol's 'Chasing Cars'; 'Crows in Snow' by Mike Rosenberg.

I'd far rather listen to any of those than, say, Stockhausen or John Cage's 4'33''.

Sod all to do with weather, mind you.

Stephen.