So what would happen if..


.. the likes of Mozart and Bach were alive today rather than a few hundred years ago?

Would the music they wrote still be relevant to us in 300 years, like it is today? In that respect, would today's composers in various genres hold everlasting significance in similar amounts of time? Can a Morrissey hold his own against Handel? Or perhaps Elton John over Faure?

More interestingly, would their music today have catered to the Church - at the time the foremost patron of music, intent on eulogizing virgins (of perhaps dubious character?) and bright shiny stars over random cities in Israel.. but today a sickly mess of an organization, widely inveighed against for all the baggage it has collected over bygone centuries? OR would they have catered their stuff to the clubs, the all-night-rave-scenes with fast paced techno-trance pumped chock full of dried and withered leaves in a heady mix of their psychotropic glory?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For outsider things always seem to be sub-normal, but that’s the natural trend. After an era of enormous popularity the numbers settle down so, if it has survived till now, it will in future too. Moreover, it's the patrons who die, not the music...!

TS said...

Just came back from *you don't want to know where*

The train journey was a cakewalk thanks to Mozart and The Who (Tommy).

Thought you should know.

Something to Say said...

well Mozart and Bach - in their times catered to the biggest patrons of music - the church. if they were here today - i guess they would have been on one of these talent shows - waiting to sell their talent to record companies.
Suddenly that thought is soooo chilling!

That Armchair Philosopher said...

@albert - i'm not sure I understand. outsiders? from what?

@ts - hehe, now i DO want to know where :)

Gosh, I LOVE tommy. I have the entire album as one of those gapless playback thingies on my ipod. Brilliant stuff. Their guitar riffs are amazing - Pinball Wizard, specifically!

@STS - hehe isn't it? Can you imagine the equivalent of an american idol and bach shows up, to be ridiculed by a dozen "judges"? tsk tsk