Thesis

These writings are not about criticizing compositions or performances. Such tasks are better left to those who have expended study and experience and have been professionally involved with the subject. While I reserve the right to express my preferences, I gladly leave the details to the experts although I also reserve the right to disagree with them.

At its core this discussion is about music in relation to how we live, rather than what performances we attend or recordings we purchase. Since today’s media provide a constant, simultaneous experience with home life that did not exist one hundred years ago, the experiences of living and being entertained—for many—tend now to be much the same thing.

Granting this reality, it is my contrary thesis that there ought to be a clear difference between entertainment instigated by the mediocre products of mass culture and the enrichment that comes from exposure to the best minds, whose musical products exemplify refined technique. These latter sources need not be only classical artists but principally those who adhere to a valid heritage of quality, whether in the classical, jazz, folk, or country genres.

Also, as a means of establishing an intellectual perspective, I wish to emphasize how valid technique stems from historical understanding and instruction and is not invented by marketing departments, recording industry entrepreneurs, or Simon Cowell.

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