The new WGBH lineup

[lglavin@mail.com]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Dan.Strassberg <dan.strassberg@att.net>
>To: Bob Nelson <raccoonradio@mail.com>; BostonRadio Mailing List <boston-radio-interest@rolinin.bostonradio.org>
>Sent: Tue, Nov 17, 2009 9:59 pm
>Subject: Re: The new WGBH lineup


>As for the classical on 99.5, if the promos they have been running on 
>TV are any indication of the music selection, I think Mr Glavin is 
>going to be seriously disappointed. I've heard nothing but familar 
>orchestral works--none of the opera or atonal crap that are so dear to 
>his heart. If 99.5 under WGBH ownership stays mainstram classical as 
>it was for several decades under both Charles River and Nassau 
>ownership, we can look for the rhetoric of the curmudgeon of Methuen 
>to scale new heights of invective;>( 
 
>-----

Once again, Mr. Strassberg has imputed an opinion to me that I have never stated or even implied and have 
denied several times after a DS post.  The timing is interesting:  I've had a busy early fall concert-going 
season that has encompassed one-half of the complete Beethoven string quartets of Beethoven, operas by
such avant-garde composers as Handel and Rossini, and on this coming Sunday I expect to go to an all-choral
concert of music by Mendelssohn.  But, I have to admit I did in fact go to a performance of a truly atonal
work, at the South Mountain Concerts in Pittsfield over the Columbus Day weekend...the "Dissonance" Quartet 
by that despised, room-clearing composer Mozart.  Thanks to Wikipedia, it's possible to display the opening
passage of the piece here:   http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/String_Quartet_No._19_(Mozart)

Observe:  there is no key signature in music example 1, the opening of the first movement.   Technically, that would 
usually mean C-major (another possibility A-minor) a key with no sharps or flats, unless indicated by markings 
called 'accidentals'...and that's what actually happens.   The mnenomic for the treble or G-cleft lines is
Every Good Boy Does Fine,  and the First Violin's fourth note is an F-sharp and the ninth note is D-flat.
The second violin's very first note is an E-flat leading to a C-sharp art the start of the second measure,.
The mnenomic for bass-clef instruments  is Great Big Dogs From Africa;
thus the 'C' that the 'cello plays is on the second space and is played natural for two measures.
Violas have their own clef with middle C on the third line, so the first note is an A-flat as the Wikipedia
article says.   I know of examples by Haydn and Beethoven where they depart from expected places for 
instruments and singers to place themselves, and thus could also be described as 'atonal'.  And don't get
me started on Wagner!  All of this is to let you know (to paraphrase 'Hamlet') that there's a lot more 
outside-the-box music that's much-beloved and frequently-performed than is dreamt of in your philosopy.