Tags for this video have been changed from 'Cherubinos Aria, Adya and Geisha, Le Nozze di Figaro' to 'Cherubinos Aria, Adya and Geisha, Le Nozze di Figaro, mozart, kitsch, 2011' - edited by Eklek

>> ^Skeeve:

Agreed, for the most part.
He obviously has talent, but to be a great artist one tends to need life experience (often of a darker nature) and that is something he doesn't have.
It should come with time though.
As for why we haven't seen a Mozart, etc. in hundreds of years, maybe its because the great artists of our time aren't composing classical music (which tends to cultivate the misbelief that it is somehow superior). Now, I'm a fan of classical music, but listen to While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Gimme Shelter, or All Along the Watchtower and tell me you don't feel as moved as when listening to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, or The Marriage of Figaro.
>> ^TheFreak:
Bullshit.
Try listening to Jay Greenbergs Symphony no 5. It's horrible.
It's an unorganized cacophany. One moment it sounds every bit like an action movie score then immediately it swings the other way and you'd think you were listening to the music from a 30's cartoon. There's no rhyme or reason behind any of the sounds you hear, no progression, no building of emotion, no story being told, no subtlety or purpose...just great big sloppy swipes of an oversized lyrical paintbrush.
That 60 Minutes segment describes Jay's early and enduring interest in writing music. I believe that's about the only element of the story that's not pure hyperbole. From listening to his music you can tell that he has obviously learned a great deal at a young age about arranging orchestral music. He has knowledge. What he lacks is everything else necessary to create great music.
Boys his age do one thing with great expertise and skill....masturbate. And that's what "Blue Bird" is doing with his music...masturbating all up in your ear holes.
Jay Greenergs interest and dedication to study clasical music composition, as well as the encouragement he's received, has brought him a long way. The real shame is the uncritical feedback he's getting from the people around him. Without anyone to tell him that his music is ham fisted and clumsy there's every likelyhood that his narcisistic self appraisal will lead him to nothing.
Jay Greenberg has demonstrated an impressive ability to learn how to compose in a classical style. It remains to be seen if he can turn that technical skill into artistic achievement.



Brilliantly said. If you really listen to some music of "recent" times, it can be amazing. Gimme Shelter is a perfect example. Listening for the voice cracks when the lyric is being yelled "rape! murder!".. I could reel off an entire bunch of pink floyd songs that i think are on par with classical music.

I think that the reason there were "more musical genius" around back then is for several reasons - what else was there for an intelligent and interested young person to do then? Let's face it, the most interesting thing around back then was a piano. We have more instruments now, the world is more connected, we can sample each other's music and combine it. There's too many reasons. And you died by the time you were 40, so when else were you gonna do your burst of creativity if not from a young age?

I'd say that's more an indictment of the schooling he's received than a statement of his abilities as a composer. (Symphony No. 5, to me at least, is more or less indistinguishable from some of the symphonies written by the "great" composers of the last century or so.)

Sadly, the classically harmonious qualities (including the "progression," the "building of emotion," the storytelling) that many of us appreciate in, say, Mozart or Beethoven or Chopin are no longer in vogue (and haven't been for quite some time). Contemporary composition—and the same could be said of most contemporary painting, sculpture, writing, et cetera—aims more for fragmentation, disruption, and discord. The audience isn't meant to feel harmony; we're meant to be dislodged.

This could become a pretty serious rant, I guess, but I'll hold back. I will say, though, that the brief clips of his early compositions (5:52–6:12) sounded quite pleasing to me, if a little imitative. And the part where he inverted the Beethoven sonata was pretty darn cool. (It reminded me, in a roundabout way, of the scene in Amadeus where Mozart plays the piano while lying upside down.)
>> ^TheFreak:
Try listening to Jay Greenbergs Symphony no 5. It's horrible.
It's an unorganized cacophany. One moment it sounds every bit like an action movie score then immediately it swings the other way and you'd think you were listening to the music from a 30's cartoon. There's no rhyme or reason behind any of the sounds you hear, no progression, no building of emotion, no story being told, no subtlety or purpose...just great big sloppy swipes of an oversized lyrical paintbrush.

it's a particular style of music, and it's not too popular today. there are insane composers out there, but composing for an orchestra is a difficult thing.... for starters, most composers don't have an orchestra. secondly, there is very little funk in an orchestra, and that rules out a great many talents.

but really, it's kind of like saying "there haven't been any shakespeare's lately." which is a sorta-truth. there are incredible writers everywhere, but very few are writing sonnets in old english.

>> ^RadHazG:

I've always wondered why Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and all the rest came around so long ago and are still considered some of the greatest, but for some reason since then nobody has come along to challenge them. Suppose we have a contender.

Agreed, for the most part.

He obviously has talent, but to be a great artist one tends to need life experience (often of a darker nature) and that is something he doesn't have.

It should come with time though.

As for why we haven't seen a Mozart, etc. in hundreds of years, maybe its because the great artists of our time aren't composing classical music (which tends to cultivate the misbelief that it is somehow superior). Now, I'm a fan of classical music, but listen to While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Gimme Shelter, or All Along the Watchtower and tell me you don't feel as moved as when listening to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, or The Marriage of Figaro.
>> ^TheFreak:

Bullshit.
Try listening to Jay Greenbergs Symphony no 5. It's horrible.
It's an unorganized cacophany. One moment it sounds every bit like an action movie score then immediately it swings the other way and you'd think you were listening to the music from a 30's cartoon. There's no rhyme or reason behind any of the sounds you hear, no progression, no building of emotion, no story being told, no subtlety or purpose...just great big sloppy swipes of an oversized lyrical paintbrush.
That 60 Minutes segment describes Jay's early and enduring interest in writing music. I believe that's about the only element of the story that's not pure hyperbole. From listening to his music you can tell that he has obviously learned a great deal at a young age about arranging orchestral music. He has knowledge. What he lacks is everything else necessary to create great music.
Boys his age do one thing with great expertise and skill....masturbate. And that's what "Blue Bird" is doing with his music...masturbating all up in your ear holes.
Jay Greenergs interest and dedication to study clasical music composition, as well as the encouragement he's received, has brought him a long way. The real shame is the uncritical feedback he's getting from the people around him. Without anyone to tell him that his music is ham fisted and clumsy there's every likelyhood that his narcisistic self appraisal will lead him to nothing.
Jay Greenberg has demonstrated an impressive ability to learn how to compose in a classical style. It remains to be seen if he can turn that technical skill into artistic achievement.

>> ^RadHazG:

I've always wondered why Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and all the rest came around so long ago and are still considered some of the greatest, but for some reason since then nobody has come along to challenge them. Suppose we have a contender.


A bit unfair since Hall and Oates played a different genre of music.

>> ^RadHazG:

I've always wondered why Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and all the rest came around so long ago and are still considered some of the greatest, but for some reason since then nobody has come along to challenge them. Suppose we have a contender.


Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and all the rest have been fucked into the ground by greater talents again and again and again. They're still considered some of the greatest thanks to sentimentality and received wisdom.

I've always wondered why Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and all the rest came around so long ago and are still considered some of the greatest, but for some reason since then nobody has come along to challenge them. Suppose we have a contender.

I hope the kid keeps up like this. Such talent can only mature and improve with age. It's about time we get another Mozart.

With all due respect to Mozart.

What an identity changing moment. I would love to see her first hear Bach or Mozart ... or some early Kool and the Gang.

And to think .. she lived a GaGa free live up until now.

*dead -- "'Elegant Music - Mozart Pian...' This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker. Sorry about that."

Mozart is /facepalming in his grave.

A. Octave B. 5th C. Tritone

Whenever you hear a pitch, there are also a number of much softer, sympathetic pitches that sound. These are called overtones. (Here is a graphic of the overtone series: http://www.deandrummond.com/oton1.jpg) Overtones are very soft, and usually only the first few are (barely) detectable to the ear - although factors like instrument construction, peculiarities of the performance space and other notes sounding at the same time can affect the production of overtones. The first two in the overtone series are an octave and a 5th, so when ^ Karen Cheng plays the octave and the 5th, the overtone series is reinforcing those pitches, which gives those intervals a very 'pure' sound.

The tritone is the 10th overtone in the series, and occurs 3 and 1/2 octaves above it's root pitch, which means that it is not only very soft, but more often than not, out of the range of human hearing. Although a naked tritone is odd sounding by itself, it is used to create many beautiful, lush and complicated harmonies. Hundreds of years ago, the tritone was considered the interval of the devil by the church and it's use was forbidden. That quickly faded away as western music began to come into its own as an art form. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and almost every other notable western composer have used the tritone often in various harmonic contexts.

The oft used chord progression she uses at the end is I V vi IV, which is similar to the Pachabel cannon progression used in a similar video (I V vi iii IV I IV V).

(/theory lesson)

Methinks, that some people 'methink' too hard about a video. We and you know why it got upvotes.

If you have the inside scoop to save-the-Universe™ then you should: get a job as a librarian and start shooshing the hell out of people even if they whisper (it says NO NOISE; except the loud shooshing of course), and then destroy some kids mp3 player while they're playing b-ball that was playing vulgar rap, and then pull out a ghetto blaster and pop in some Mozart. That's the way it should be.

This video to me needs no "I'm sorry I didn't immediately come to the conclusion that it could be meant for something else!" or "Jeez, I just thought it was a straightforward media screw up. I'm sorry I didn't notice in time, send me to the Gulag...".

Perception "preceptions".

Remember: Clowns see a balloon and think of ways to tie it into knots for children. Scientists see a balloon and wonder how it can blow up without popping, and then why and how it does pop.

Why is this "perception injunction" getting more popular on Videosift? Then people feel a need (or inclined) to apologize? It's one thing to point it out, it's another to demand (nearly) that all that made no such distinction, on a video from the Internet with no pre-context found to be amusing out of context, demands a "morale force brigade" to harangue anyone involved in this obvious malfeasance by the "Sifties" of the Videosift upvoting public.

Shame on us. Shame on us !

(*goes back to watching "Whose Line Is It" clips...*)