Re: An Israelite Odyssey - Review of Koby Israelite's "Dance of

[R.A.S. <richards...>]

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 04/05/2003 at 20:47 Ari Davidow wrote:

>At 05:44 PM 5/4/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>>Of course there are, but one needs to recognize that what goes into each
one
>>depends on someone's arbitrary opinion. But just for fun, let's play a
>>little game. Genre-classify the following five artists:
>>Salim Halali
>>The Klezmatics
>>Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)
>>Miles Davis (make sure you include the years1969-1975)
>>Leonard Bernstein
>>
>>See what I mean?
>
>Some things =are= hard to categorize (which I think is where RAS started,
in this particular case). But people do think in categories. I don't think
it hurts to try to provide a context in which the reader can hear your
review. Sometimes that means eschewing categories because they don't help.
Sometimes, the grounding can help. Sometimes it also depends on your
audience. 
>
>Perhaps we need to say that mindless categorization, like other foolish
consistencies, is the hobgoblin of small minds. 

No doubt there... ;-)

>But we would also need to agree that not all categorization is foolish
;-).

Absolutely, it's got its uses. It's only when one tries to squeeze the
music itself, or the artist, into a narrow "pigeon coop" when clearly it is
far too great and far too big-minded to be confined thus, that
categorisation becomes, err... "silly".


Richard
"Renaissance Man"


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