Posted by Neil MacQuarrie on August 31, 2002 at 20:42:34:
In Reply to: Re: Baseball-A Music Related Commentary posted by Mark Wiseman on August 31, 2002 at 10:52:53:
I'm not convinced that the Canadian Brass and John Williams are the best examples to use in this discussion. Both employ so many extra-musical aspects in their performances that it would seem hard to determine the musical performances' actual merit. As an example, is JW's Summon the Heroes played so often for it's intrinsic worth, or because it is a familiar theme from a world wide (televised!) event.
A more interesting quest would be to examine what it is about other events (sports, movies....all of which, interestingly enough, would be lost without music) that makes them able to distract so many people from music and the other arts.
Example: A piano-playing friend (!) of mine spent some time in Russia, and was absolutely amazed at how prominent music, theatre and dance were in their society. He told stories of every day folk discussing Rachmaninov in the streets, and how companieswould send their employees and families to the ballet instead of the skating rink at Christmas time.
Hmmmmm.......
Neil