And Number One on Today's Top 90 Repetitive Radio Classical Countdown is...
Tonight I had one of the rare homeward commutes where I listen to the radio's music instead of packing my own, and I learned that WETA -- D.C.'s only classical-only station -- is taking votes for a top-90 countdown around Thanksgiving.
It turns out that you can't get to their list of preselected candidates (you can also fill in your own) once you've voted and they have your IP address on file, so I can't say much specific, except that this list pretty well defines what drives me nuts about the programming on major classical radio stations. I don't object to any of the individual pieces on their checklist but rather to the fact that it entirely encapsulates the range and style of music they program during their drivetime blocks. (I didn't see anything edgier than Stravinksy's "Petrouchka", or darker in attitude than Mozart's clarinet concerto or Brahms' fourth symphony.)
More than that, the repetition bothers me; you hear so many of those pieces over and over again. I remember a mildly revelatory experience on a Boy Scout trip, being in a van in some rural someplace between Pittsburgh and Ontario with a local (I think) Sunday-evening oldies show on the radio. And it was remarkable to me how much better that show sounded than the daytime rotation from a big, commercial oldies station -- not because those particular 1950s and '60s pop rock selections were any better but because they deviated from the day-and-a-half's worth of stuff that resurfaced every day or two on the commercial playlist. I understand the desire to supply mellow, very agreeable music during the stressful parts of their listeners' workday but it always saddens me that you just get Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" over and over again, given the extremely deep bench that recorded classical music has.
At any rate, my three too-hot-for-commuting write-in nominees were:
It turns out that you can't get to their list of preselected candidates (you can also fill in your own) once you've voted and they have your IP address on file, so I can't say much specific, except that this list pretty well defines what drives me nuts about the programming on major classical radio stations. I don't object to any of the individual pieces on their checklist but rather to the fact that it entirely encapsulates the range and style of music they program during their drivetime blocks. (I didn't see anything edgier than Stravinksy's "Petrouchka", or darker in attitude than Mozart's clarinet concerto or Brahms' fourth symphony.)
More than that, the repetition bothers me; you hear so many of those pieces over and over again. I remember a mildly revelatory experience on a Boy Scout trip, being in a van in some rural someplace between Pittsburgh and Ontario with a local (I think) Sunday-evening oldies show on the radio. And it was remarkable to me how much better that show sounded than the daytime rotation from a big, commercial oldies station -- not because those particular 1950s and '60s pop rock selections were any better but because they deviated from the day-and-a-half's worth of stuff that resurfaced every day or two on the commercial playlist. I understand the desire to supply mellow, very agreeable music during the stressful parts of their listeners' workday but it always saddens me that you just get Rimsky-Korsakov's "Capriccio Espagnol" over and over again, given the extremely deep bench that recorded classical music has.
At any rate, my three too-hot-for-commuting write-in nominees were:
- John Adams: Harmonielehre, Part III ("Meister Eckhardt and Quackie")
- Shostakovich: String Quartet #13
- Gyorgy Ligeti: Violin Concerto
4 Comments:
Are the 3 pieces you mentioned exactly what you voted for? All of us who read the blog each have access to a few machines; we should be able to get a dozen votes for your write ins even without commissioning friends & family to join in the fun. Wouldn't it be neat to get the Ligety voted as the most popular piece of classical music? Let's use the power of the internet.
Yeah, except we use "The Power of the Internet" kind of the way those little bobbing drinky birds use "The Power of Physics."
What you need is a nerd up at MIT to program something that'll keep voting constantly. I'm pretty sure this is how they vote for hockey all-stars now.
And it should be said that in any case, a number of votes for the same semi-obscure write-ins is going to scream either "fraud" or "guy with too much free time", depending on volume.
Well, for what it's worth, I went ahead and wrote in "Ligeti: Violin Concerto" for you, Nate. (And also wrote in Sibelius Symphony #7 and Berio Sinfonia while I was there).
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