[ARSCLIST] fwd: What did the composer say to the cream of British pop?

[David Lennick <dlennick@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From Timesoline:

     What did the composer say to the cream of British pop?
     By Adam Sherwin



     THE music of Sir Harrison Birtwistle is often described as atonal. But
there was no mistaking his tone when he took the stage at an awards
     ceremony yesterday to deliver a crescendo of criticism against pop music.
     Sir Harrison, 71, had been invited to the Ivor Novello Awards for
composers and songwriters to receive the classical music accolade for his
     contribution to contemporary British composing.



     But it was all too much for him, mainly because he had to listen to the
Kaiser Chiefs, K T Tunstall, X-Factor reality TV show winners and,
     worst of all, James Blunt, performer of You're Beautiful, voted
international hit of the year and the first British song in nine years to top
the
     US charts.

     Taking the stage to accept his own award, Sir Harrison chose the moment to
compose some particularly discordant phrases. "Why is your
     music so effing loud?" he asked the predominantly pop-orientated audience.
"You must all be brain-dead. Maybe you are. I didn't know so
     many clichés existed until the last half-hour. Have fun. Goodbye." It was
one of his shorter works.

     The composer, the doyen of British modernism, explained that he was not
opposed to pop music as such. "I've just discovered Roy Orbison -
     he's a real singer," he said.

     Among many music-lovers, the ballads of Blunt have a capacity to irritate
just as much as a snatch of Birtwistle, but Sir Harrison is the first
     to say so in such a public way.

     Amanda Ghost, who won two Novello awards for transforming Blunt's original
song idea into a global hit, conceded that the composer might
     have a point. "Pop songs are disposable, like McDonald's, whereas Sir
Harrison is producing a bouillabaise by comparison. I listen to a lot of
     Wagner, Mahler and Beethoven and that influences my chord progressions."

     Ms Ghost, a singer-songwriter in her own right, added: "People probably
told Salieri that he was composing brain-dead music. It's a bit lazy
     to dismiss a whole genre of music."

     Other noise creators sprang to the defence of pop. Guy Chambers, co-writer
of the Robbie Williams hit Angels, said: "The great thing about
     the Novellos is that someone like Sir Harrison can come and express his
opinions. But I don't think all pop songs are clichés. Sometimes 'I
     love you' is the simplest thing to say, and the right thing."


(I reach for the off switch or run out of the room whenever Mr. Blunt's
so-called crooning assaults my eardrums..dl)