VIEWS ON MUSIC
Brunell, Frank Octave
REVIEWS VIEWS ON MUSIC By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. The churning waves of dissent washing America are leaving a sediment of bitterness which might cause us to reflect on the nuances and...
...Disagreement liberalizes...
...Brunell tells it like it was at the Royal Philharmonic Concert: The Royal Philharmonic came to Indiana University tonight, January 10, for its first performance since Sir Thomas Beecham in 1950...
...Like Boorstin we must, as conscious thinking persons, review today's inevasible "Rhapsody on a Theme of Dissent...
...Conductor Vaclav Neuman, who took over this tour after Sir Malcom Sargent's death, is a controlled and staid student of the Vienna classical school of conducting but seemed almost detached from the proceedings...
...8. Here the orchestra had warmed to the conductor and displayed improved tone, brilliant horn playing, and lush string sounds...
...dissenters follow monomanias...
...Uneven entrances by various sections of the orchestra combined with uncoordinated brass and tympani chords to spoil inspired playing by the horns...
...Unanswered Question by Charles Ives rang true and captured the audience's interest...
...Dissent fractures society, enthralling it in chaos, and leading to totalitarian government legitimatized by the machine gun...
...The thalidomide intellectuals who proclaim dissent golden are alchemizing garbage...
...University of Chicago Professor Daniel J. Boorstin thinks not...
...By analyzing the performance, reviewers should evoke an other than neutral response from readers...
...Extirpating it as a destructive parasite, we must place it beyond the law's protection and mutatis mutandis, we will have insured the valuable right of disagreement...
...He draws a crucial distinction between dissent and disagreement, appraising the latter a strengthener of democracy and the former a foul embolus capable of destroying it...
...In their self-righteous crusading fervor, today's dissenters are the "New Puritans," as petrifying to the growth of ideas as their New England ancestors...
...One could not complain of his technique and knowledge, though one might hope for more fervor and involvement in music like Dvorak's frankly romantic Symphony No...
...While subtle though crucial and inapparent yet consummate, Boorstin's distinction merits reflection, for dissent has recently set off tremors which may fault the foundations of our democracy...
...Below Mr...
...Manifesting a bemused interest in music and an evanescent critical sense, the DAILY STUDENT'S reviews qualify as little more than the most eloquent of program blurbs...
...dissent subverts, causing revolution...
...Like Thucydides' Athens, democracy in America could become so delicately refined it will wither or so calloused as to become insensitive...
...The churning waves of dissent washing America are leaving a sediment of bitterness which might cause us to reflect on the nuances and consequences of dissent as publicly hosannaed by the high priests of American democracy...
...Yet there was something lacking — the spirit of the work was lost somewhere, leaving listeners with an empty feeling...
...dissent constricts...
...Sadly, this has not been the case tonight...
...This famous orchestra's credentials are well known and one could only anticipate an outstanding evening of music...
...on more careful review, we discover dissent corrosive to democracy, abiding by Confuscius' ancient injunction, "See to it that things are called by their right name" we must label dissent subversion...
...The healthy meaning of dissent has changed with the growing abrasiveness of today's primitive dissenters and we must understand this change and dissolve our exalted illusions of dissent...
...Long revered in jurisprudence, dissent today suggests something far more divisive than was ever intended by Supreme Court justices...
...As distinguished from the intellectual stagnation of dissent, disagreement invigorates society and is too flexible to fracture it...
...One can only hope for more performances from Mr...
...Pianist Menahem Pressler (I.U...
...School of Music) brightened things in performing Prokofiev's Concerto No...
...Such philosophy only cripples progressive society...
...3. Not a great piece of music, but a beautiful performance by Pressler...
...And, if By Frank Octave Brunell A concert review should distinguish itself from the blurb on concert programs...
...Those choosing to disagree ventilate fresh ideas...
...Pressler is a major American soloist by any standard, and he entranced the audience...
...Pressler...
...He was in complete command with flawless technique resulting in a unique combination of poetry and power...
...Coeval dissenters insulate themselves from mainstream society, grow in self-consciousness until their goals evolve into obsessions, become still more isolated, more extreme, and less pliant...
...Unlike dissent, disagreement spawns "the loyal opposition...
...Those who disagree seek alternatives...
...They are docile and willing to compromise...
...Does "dissent" bestow the sanctifying grace those enraptured with it proclaim...
...Dissent now is redolent of the "turn on, tune in, and drop out" philosophy of those expansive American geniuses Leary and Ginsberg...
...A ragged and muddled performance of Strauss's Don Juan enveloped listeners who responded likwise...
...Unfortunately the DAILY STUDENT'S reviews evoke only the most neutral response...
...Though denotatively similar, dissent and disagreement carry such dissimilar connotations as to render their common denotations trivial...
Vol. 1 • January 1968 • No. 4
