Festival

I have these five cassettes. I taped them off my sister. And I think she taped them off someone's vinyl. Knocking on for twenty years ago. TDK cassettes. They have been played so very many often times, in all sorts of dodgy cassette players I have owned over the years. On the box is written "Festival of Light Classical Music" Tapes that have sustained me through every aspect of my adult life.

There is no way that I can be in the slightest bit objective or dispassionate about any of the music on these, because they probably represent seven and a half of the ten hours of music with which I am more familiar than any other. And familiarity is one of the main aspects of liking music. Music that brings back memories, yet conversely, because of its ubiquity in my life, brings no specific memories and thus speaks for itself.

I thought about listing every track but how dull would that be, so I thought I would just pick out a handful of my real favourites. But then I realised that that would be at least half of the tracks. So I shall try some more general thoughts.

One of my Guilty Pleasures is Compilation Albums. I realise that these days, with the ability to burn CDs and download MP3s and all that I don't really need to buy Compilation Albums, but it's a form of retail therapy. They're also good when you don't really know what you want to listen to.

The best compilation albums feature music that has stood the test of time. Not just music that is popular because it has been used in adverts.

I always have trouble with popularity. Just because something - a piece of music - is popular doesn't mean it's good. I would say this particularly applies to something that is 'best selling' at a specific time. Conversely popularity doesn't mean it's bad. Indeed, there is an argument that a piece of music that is acclaimed by the critics, and loved by professionals and public alike over a significant time period is, by definition, good.

But then, you are left with the Bleeding Chunks Syndrome. As I write, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries has just finished. A piece known, I think, by most people with ears, even if they don't know they know it. But only a very few minutes, and not a typical few minutes, excerpted from a 16 hour work of genius. Is the Ride better than the Ring as a whole? Can that question ever be answered? But it is certainly more popular than any other piece of music that Wagner wrote. Yet one day I was playing this in Hall and someone actually came to my room and reprimanded me for my subtle anti-semitism. I was too cowed and too anxious to be 'right on' - and too ignorant - to argue the toss. I like the music. Live with it. She wasn't even on my corridor, just passing by.

I did a search on Amazon, CDDB etc for this compilation, and struck a series of blanks, so I'm not even sure whether I there is much point in blogging this. But it is such an incredibly important part of my acquiring musical knowledge. Because I had such a small collection at the time I taped these, they were played over and again and I absolutely absorbed the music into my marrow. I have recently acquired the means to digitise cassettes and I have done so with these (the bigger problem is track splitting; well, it's not difficult just tedious and time-consuming). If I took a logical approach I have just about every tune already in digital of one sort or another, but I am so fond of the compilation as well as (most) of its constituent parts.

It is an entirely intelligent compilation. I would say that every piece is well known, but actually, that's because they are my musical life's blood. For example, a few weeks ago, I was watching Weber's Frieschutz, a completely unfamiliar opera to me....and yet, I knew the overture and one of the main themes as a result of this compilation. So it wasn't difficult for Frieschutz to become immediately "I like" and, more importantly "I want to get to know better".

And in total indulgence, a whole side of a cassette is devoted to just two pieces of music - Swan Lake and Nutcracker. I mean, let's face it,they are f***ing ace pieces of music and a nice way to round off 7½ hours of glorious music.