# Musical Quiisine



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Pop Music = Fast Food . Classical Music= Slow Food . What do you think of this comparison ?

I don't want to sound snobbish in this comparison . I don't mind eating fast food at all once in a while,
just not too often, because it's not very good for you . I prefer Burger King to McDonalds .
But listening to Beethoven, Wagner, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius, Nielsen, Prokofiev, Shostakovich etc,
is more like dining in style at a world-class gourmet restaurant .


----------



## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Cuisine?

I've never thought of this before, interesting comparison. But some music by 20th and 21st century composers don't seem to fit into a particular cuisine.


----------



## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

Without copyright law, would today's pop song be tomorrow's folk song?


----------



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I'm not so sure - a meaty KFC burger drives right to the heart of our animal instincts to consume delicious fatty products, and a Brahms symphony fills my emotional arteries more directly and thickly than anything else.


----------



## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

I had to google KFC Burger.


----------



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

Cnote11 said:


> I had to google KFC Burger.


KFC is the best fast food there is! Well, that's if you prefer chicken over other meat like I do. Obviously, all fast food products are lower in quality compared to gourmet, but anyone who gets chicken from McDonald's is a moron who likes chewing on plastic. :tiphat:


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

A lot of people listen to classical music in order to cultivate a certain image. What is the food that those people would eat to cultivate a similar image? In the US, perhaps sushi, tofu, caviar, European wine and not American beer. Or, as the OP suggested, an expensive French restaurant.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Polednice said:


> KFC is the best fast food there is! Well, that's if you prefer chicken over other meat like I do. Obviously, all fast food products are lower in quality compared to gourmet, but anyone who gets chicken from McDonald's is a moron who likes chewing on plastic. :tiphat:


The best thing to eat at McDonald's is the quarter-pounder. Somehow a hint of beef survives the processing, so you have some idea what you're chewing on. Without cheese, there's even enough beef taste to make you suspect, at moments, that you're eating a real hamburger.

I can't speculate as to the musical equivalent, because I'm not up on the pop music of today. Actually, maybe the best comparison would be something from the early '80s that has a hint of quality to it, in spite of everything. I'll go with Eurythmics.


----------



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Cuisine?
> 
> I've never thought of this before, interesting comparison. But some music by 20th and 21st century composers don't seem to fit into a particular cuisine.


I'd say Ligeti tastes like candy with razors in it, and Cage tastes like rubbing charged batteries against your tongue.

@science: By the way, Eurythmics is supposed to be listened to while drinking 8 oz. vodka, 8 oz. honey, and 10 oz. beefeater gin (according to drinkify). Strange coincidence, right?


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Lukecash12 said:


> I'd say Ligeti tastes like candy with razors in it, and Cage tastes like rubbing charged batteries against your tongue.


No way. Ligeti is grass fed beef Carpaccio, Cage is local-food tofu.


----------



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

science said:


> No way. Ligeti is grass fed beef Carpaccio, Cage is local-food tofu.


Hmmm... I think I'd rather rub batteries against my tongue than eat local-food tofu.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Lukecash12 said:


> Hmmm... I think I'd rather rub batteries against my tongue than eat local-food tofu.


Well, I won't defend Cage any further, but fresh warm tofu just out of the vat is a great and glorious thing. Splash some soy sauce on there and prepare to discover one more reason to praise the Creator.


----------



## Lukecash12 (Sep 21, 2009)

science said:


> Well, I won't defend Cage any further, but fresh warm tofu just out of the vat is a great and glorious thing. Splash some soy sauce on there and prepare to discover one more reason to praise the Creator.


Yeah, but you live in Seoul. I have to eat crappy tofu made by hippies if I want it local. No thanks, I'll just get myself some decent tofu.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Lukecash12 said:


> Yeah, but you live in Seoul. I have to eat crappy tofu made by hippies if I want it local. No thanks, I'll just get myself some decent tofu.


Those hippies like John Cage.


----------



## Basimah (Apr 16, 2012)

Hello everyone, I am new here, please a lot of attention.


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Basimah said:


> Hello everyone, I am new here, please a lot of attention.
> View attachment 4493


As you wish.


----------



## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

science said:


> European wine and not American beer.


I can't say I blame people for not wanting to drink American beer, but given the choice between that watered down trash and wine I think I'd become a teetotaller.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Wagner is like a 20 course meal, waaaaaay too much. Would rather have a hamburger than that for sure, no matter how fine it is. Reminds me of that scene with the guy blowing up in that Monty Python film (warning, this is will turn you off your dinner). It's overkill inviting indigestion and bloating.

Similar with Bruckner's and Mahler's gigantic edifices, I like them way more but I take them seldomly.

Some dieticians say that, apart from eating healthy food, you should eat maybe 5 or 6 meals a day, but small ones (not the traditional 3 big meals). So with that in mind, we can think of our own musical equivalents. I have been listening to some piano miniatures and short songs lately, which kind of fit this bill.

Anyway, Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin did an album to chef Kylie Kwong's recipes, called Slow Food. Not heard or read it, but I like this composer in general. There, the description of slow food is likened to slow music (not necessarily classical, and indeed, Kats-Chernin's music includes many influences beyond classical strictly, from ragtime to rock, jazz and cabaret).


----------



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

So I'm eating re-heated soft-shell tacos from Taco Bell. What is the musical equivalent?

My first instinct is Karl Jenkins.

Second instinct is "Yes."


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^No, it's Rachmaninov's_ The Bells _in an arrangement for microwave ovens that are heating your tacos. This arrangment was originally done by John Cage, as a whimsical comment on fast food (he was quite a gourmand, I understand, and I doubt he would have used a microwave). Oh my, this is a very lame _joke_.


----------



## karenpat (Jan 16, 2009)

I can definitely see the fast food vs slow food comparison - pop music and fast food (esp McDonalds etc) are part of the same culture/phenomenon, as can be said about classical music/slow food in a sense. So that would be merely stating a fact and not have anything to do with snobbery IMO.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Funny thing is, many of the great composers, or a fair number of them, would not have had gourmet food, but their era's equivalent of _cheap and cheerful _food. As is known, Beethoven didn't care for anything much than music, his diet would have consisted of whatever he could get his hands on in between composing his latest symphony or sonata. Brahms came from a poor background, the habits stuck, even in his older years he ate things like tinned fish. Shostakovich as a student was starving, fed in good part by his teacher, Glazunov. His poor diet continued in his life and undermined his health. Satie was also similar, not rich at all, playing piano in cafes-cabarets of Paris.

So I think this connection is snobbery or something like it. For this and other reasons. Peter Sculthorpe, Aussie composer, even wrote a symphonic rock song in the 1970's. He said he admired how non-classical musicians were unfettered by the various conventions of classical tradition, which many post 1945 composers like him were trying to un-learn to get beyond the stale cliches.

But whatever. Many classical listeners today don't come from poverty like Brahms did (he was not typical in that way, but very down to earth, composing waltzes - the pop music of his day - & admiring those of J. Strauss II). Anyway, for relatively well off listeners today, they maybe do not know the feeling of not knowing where your next meal comes from (starvation), and to be happy for anything filling your stomach.


----------

