keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan) (02/09/84)
----------------------------
Rich Rosen (pyuxn!rlr), in his argument against subgroups of net.music,
mentioned casually, in describing Bernstein as a "popular" composer, that he
wrote a rock opera. Rich, would you (or anyone else who knows what Rich is
referring to) care to elaborate on this? I'm familiar with most of Bernstein's
musical output, and I can't think of anything that I would characterize as
either rock or an opera. The closest I can come is his Mass, which uses some
rock elements in it, but it's by no stretch of the imagination an opera.
--
Morris M. Keesan
{decvax,linus,wjh12}!bbncca!keesan
keesan @ BBN-UNIX.ARPArlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (02/10/84)
re: Mass isn't really a rock opera Of course it isn't. That's the point. Some classification-happy bozo could choose to "classify" it in any number of ways. So where will Mass get discussed? Net.music.gdead?? -- Pardon me for breathing... Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr
abm@whuxj.UUCP (MYERS) (02/10/84)
To assert that Bernstein wrote a rock opera is as outrageous to assert that the Who wrote a rock opera (Tommy). Mass is as far (perhaps farther) from rock as Tommy is from opera! Andy Myers whuxj!abm
ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) (02/11/84)
What about West Side Story? Didn't he write that? or just conduct it? That comes pretty darn close to rock opera, if you ask me. Ariel Shattan
rlr@pyuxn.UUCP (Rich Rosen) (02/14/84)
What's really interesting about this "debate" is that in my original article I never identified "Mass" as the piece in question, yet everyone who pounced knew exactly which piece I was referring to. Again, the point was not whether or not "Mass" was a rock opera, but rather the fact that some bozo could easily pigeonhole a piece of music into any category he/she desires. I guess we'd have to continue this discussion in three or four newsgroups if some people had their way. Next week: Aaron Copland's music discussed in net.music.country -- Pardon me for breathing... Rich Rosen pyuxn!rlr