Before I even post the video, I have to note a couple of disclaimers:
1. I think James Joyce was one of the worst fiction writers ever to gain a readership.
2. IMO, This is the most unsingable thing Samuel Barber ever wrote. As music, I dislike it as intensely as I dislike James Joyce’s pretentious bullshit passing as storytelling in his novels*.
Those disclaimers aside, I sang
*I’ll admit that Joyce’s poetry, such as it is, is no better or worse than much of 20th Century “poetry”.
I’d have to put this one in the “forgettable” stack.
TF, I keep wishing I could forget it. *sigh*
Fits, not even John Cleese could save this piece.
Kept waiting for John Cleese to arrive and save the day.
Okay, Barber is a pretentious hack, but Joyce only went astray when he went to novel-length — and at that, even Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is pretty decent most of the way.
For my money, the stories collected inThe Dubliners are among the best ever written in English — and his novella “The Dead” might be the world’s best piece of fiction at that length.
But at all costs avoid Ulysses and Finnegans Wake!
“But at all costs avoid Ulysses and Finnegans Wake!”
Alas! Too late! *heh*
Yeh, I made specific reference to his novels as crap. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man succumbed Joycean hackery sooner than the halfway point, IMO, but I can respect your view that it made it better than halfway. I still dislike his “poetry” about as much as I dislike most 20th century crap posing as poetry. That is to say, not intensely, but just enough to avoid it when possible.
Barber, OTOH, had a much higher “good stuff to crap” ratio, IMO. I’m not fond of a lot of his stuff written for voices, but more than a few of his instrumental pieces are enjoyable to both listen to or play. This one? An example of Barber at his worst, IMO.
And it’s haunting me. Perhaps I can lessen its dreadful impact on my inner ear by spreading the misery. *heh*
Long rabbit trail…
I have a theory about the success of such people as James Joyce that derives from frequent exposure over the years to English professors who’ve never gotten past their sophomore year in college. I think the success of such people has been driven by pretentious pseudo-intellectual dumbasses in Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakery “English” departments (and the pretentious pseudo-intellectual critics, etc., they spawn) like the “English” department head (of a well-respected East coast university) I had an email exchange with wherein he asked me if my reference to an argument being little but “sound and fury, signifying nothing” was a reference to Faulkner. Faulkner! What a maroon! As the correspondence unfolded, it turned out that he had no idea that Faulkner’s title was a reference to The Scottish Play.
Sadly, I’ve found that to be the case in more “English” professors (Academia Nut Fruitcakes) than not: a serious lack of exposure even to many of the really well-written classics of English literature.
That’s what a sophomoric fascination with post-modern deconstructivism seems to have accomplished: subliterate “literature” professors (deconstructivism=a particularly–and massively stupid–aggressive, confrontational approach of some, then most post-modern deconstructionists that goes far beyond even the stupidity of once normative–among stupid, sophomoric pseudo-intellectuals–deconstructionism). But what do I know? I shook the dust of academia from my feet decades ago, labeled my degrees “dung” and began thinking for myself instead of following the herd of Academia Nut Fruitcakes.
(No, not claiming “intellectual” status. Just removing myself from the self-blinded herd of pseudo-intellectual dumbasses in the so-called “liberal” and “fine” arts. A choice I have yet to find cause to regret.)
*LOL* I just had a flashback (to a couple of weeks ago, but a flashback’s a flashback, right? :-)) to a very recent secondhand exposure to yet another in a long line of subliterate morons from Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries. My Wonder Woman’s finishing yet another degree (part of the certification madness that’s swept employment circles–spend a few thousand dollars, get tens of thousands in advancement, for getting certification of what one already knows or can do from an Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakery *sigh*) and finding that dealing with Academia Nut Fruitcakes hasn’t improved since her last (certification-driven) degree. Broadcast email from professor to class about grammar, spelling and punctuation errors in assignments submitted and the penalties for such things in a grad program.
The email was littered with grammar, spelling and punctuation errors… as have been the various communiques spelling out assignments, the syllabus, etc. (And this doesn’t even count the lectures where he mispronounces–leaving out TWO WHOLE SYLLABLES–the name of the author of one of the primary references for the course!)
And the subliterate goon just keeps on missing the plank in his own eye, of course.
All too typical in my experience of such folks.
(Of course, I can go back over this comment and redline a number of “errors”. So? This comment–and for that matter my blog as a whole–is not formal or academic writing where exact grammar and punctuation are de rigueur. I do challenge anyone to find words that are misused, though. Seriously. I’d appreciate knowing any time I have done such a thing so that I could then amend my usage.)
No worries. You ain’t got no problems with usin wrong words.
mm, ok, i did take a deep breath and ‘dare’ to click the ‘play’ button. mm, was a ‘stage manager’ , once a long time ago ..
ERK! WHERE’S THE HOOK?
“ERK! WHERE’S THE HOOK?”
I see I ought to have tapped you to write this post, Davo. You summed up my thesis pretty succinctly.
(Of course, I can go back over this comment and redline a number of “errors”. So? This comment–and for that matter my blog as a whole–is not formal or academic writing where exact grammar and punctuation are de rigueur. I do challenge anyone to find words that are misused, though. Seriously. I’d appreciate knowing any time I have done such a thing so that I could then amend my usage.)
wot? looks like a thesis in there somewhere.
(that’s cheating. You’ve re-arranged the comments. And yep, i also do that on rare occasions).
Nope, not so. It’s called “threading” Davo, and it’s done automatically whenever the software works correctly so that replies to specific comments show up below those comments. Blogger doesn’t have that ability w/o some pretty heavy template hacking but WordPress is supposed to be able to do it natively, whenever the capability is enabled.