Is Dwight Eisenhower still president of the United States of America? Hmm...let me check. Nope. I've checked, and it's actually the Year of Our Lord 2012, common era.
Cell phones, internet, 13 year-olds with tongue piercings, and flabby 50-year women with bright, fiberglass-blonde hair and leg tattoos. Definitely not 1955. Definitely.
Yup. It's 2012, confirmed. So, why are we still talking about "bombast"? Bombast? Bombast? You mean the thundering Rap/Techno thumping of the car next to me? That bombast? Or, the heavy metal/post-punk/rock band playing in some 100,000 seat outdoor stadium with enough loudness to blast a rocket straight into deep space? Is that what you're talking about? Pop/rock/whatever, in general?
Bombast? What, in classical music? You're kidding, right? Oh - oh - oh - I see. Any forte for full orchestra [known as a "tutti"], any expression of emotion; anything with power or feeling at all, is bombast. Great music shouldn't have any of that. All music should sound like an imitation Chopin nocturne...taken down a notch or two. All nocturne - all the time.
Guys - come on. Get real. We live in an age of hearing-damage music, playing with inconceivable intensity. And, in the Classical world, HIP threatens to revise all classical music ever written [even if it was written yesterday]. They play Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven as if they really were playing the most insane speed-metal ever created. Insane attacca; extreme tempi. HIP Mozart sounds like some paranoid schizophrenic on a killing spree in HIP hands. So, with all of that going on, how can you seriously talk about "bombast"?
Music should have feeling. Lot's of it. All of it. Not just one shade of nocturne-pianissimo droning, but the whole range of human emotion. You can see why today's young people mostly hate classical music. In the rare instances that they're exposed to it, they get some wimpy old fart's idea of "zero-bombast" boring twaddle.
I say that the word "bombast" should be stricken forever from any musical discussion. It should be forbidden. And, anyone trying to insert the notion into a discussion of music should be immediately and harshly corrected. Talking about "bombast" in classical music's like spitting on the sidewalk and saying that it's raining. Just not true.
I realize that I'm sounding angry here. I won't apologize for it. I don't intend to offend anyone, but, I just can't stifle how I feel about the particular issue.
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Topic - Bombast - Mike Porper 09:28:11 04/26/12 (17)
- RE: Bombast - Picklesnapper 19:01:30 05/03/12 (4)
- Historically Informed Performance - Mike Porper 14:59:37 05/04/12 (0)
- What is HIP? - Chris from Lafayette 14:53:52 05/04/12 (2)
- RE: What is HIP? - Kal Rubinson 15:20:01 05/04/12 (1)
- I like that kind of HIP a lot better! [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 21:48:35 05/04/12 (0)
- How can I seriously talk about bombast? - rbolaw 08:34:12 04/27/12 (1)
- Like Romanticism, Bombast is a many splendored thing... - genungo 17:07:35 04/27/12 (0)
- RE: Bombast - RC Daniel 04:52:14 04/27/12 (0)
- What's the problem? I'm sure the classical guys used the very same word to describe... - genungo 18:05:59 04/26/12 (0)
- Sober reflection would have dulled your points, which IMHO are right on! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 17:12:10 04/26/12 (4)
- RE: Sober reflection would have dulled your points, which IMHO are right on! [nt] ;-) - genungo 18:47:37 04/26/12 (3)
- Not sure I get your point - are you referring to hair poofiness? [nt] - Chris from Lafayette 22:57:15 04/26/12 (2)
- RE: "Bombast"... - genungo 04:03:00 04/27/12 (1)
- Got it - thanks! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 09:13:27 04/27/12 (0)
- HIP? - Frihed89 12:10:57 04/26/12 (2)
- Lisa may be many things, but she's not a HIPster - Chris from Lafayette 17:15:54 04/26/12 (1)
- RE: Lisa may be many things, but she's not a HIPster - Frihed89 03:04:18 04/27/12 (0)