OT: Rush

[Jon Jarrett]

On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 DASLUD at AOL.COM wrote:

> In a message dated 12/8/00 7:56:47 AM, paul-mitchell at KEECO-UK.DEMON.CO.UK
> writes:
>
> << Not me! Technical skill is the ONLY thing in music that has anything
> even remotely to do with an objective point of view - everything else is
> opinion and therefore equally valid/invalid.
> ==
> did i understand correctly?
>
> technical skill equals/defines objectivity?
>
> nah, i havent had enough coffee and i gotta go to work.

        I think what was being got at is that technical skill is one of
the few aspects of musical appreciation where there is actually a fixed
scale to argue on. Feeling, mood, tone, song structure, whether you *like*
it or not, all these things are subjective, but a certain amount of skill
can be assessed objectively. Well know of course that this is not the
whole story - witness Yngwie Malmsteen - but Paul's point was I think that
to dismiss technical skill in a musical appraisal is to do away with the
only fixed yardstick.

        And this is of course very well but it doesn't help us much does
it? Because Malmsteen's still awful and Steven Wilson isn't :-) Yours,

Jon

--
     Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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        "There's nothin' more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."