"The best way to talk about music is to say nothing."
That, of course, was published in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, a tremendously successful and long-standing publication of music criticism founded by Schumann in April, 1834 and still publishing to this day. He goes on to qualify his statement, in order to dispel some of the inherent irony:
"Consider, however, that we have a responsibility to Chopin [and, by extension, all other composers], and that the great public, seeing our silence, rather than observing our awe of this music, would come to a somewhat different conclusion about us." (Schumann, Robert: Schriften über Musik und Musiker, Joseph Häusler, ed. Philipp Reclam jun. Stuttgart, 2009. 89-90)
Over the next few pages, he describes the greatness of the task of honoring music with speech. I suppose one could say I have been doing that already, but I think "complaining" about music is more accurate. I have decided, in short, to begin using this blog as a means of publishing music criticism, probably the only thing I know enough about to write a blog on. Unfortunately, I am no position to analyze and comment on new compositions as Schumann so deftly did, but I hope to share the musical ear I have been working for so many years to develop with all of you because when you get down to it, I believe that the current inattention to the so-called Classical Music World is due not to a lack of quality in the art being produced - on the contrary, I find it to be the genre with the highest standard of all - but because of an underdeveloped musical ear in the audience. I will share my thoughts in the form of a review and discuss how I go about listening to music to get the most enjoyment out of the finest performances on earth.
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