Friday, January 24, 2014

Ready, Aim,

Duck!

A writer named Mark Vanhoenacker wrote some really stupid things in Slate.  What's so dumb? Well, asserting that classical music is dead, relying on selective quotations, failing to do his own research (or thinking), and an overreliance on unsupported assertions from Greg Sandow.

Andy Doe had a few things to say to him in response (boy, howdy!).  So does Adam Sliwinski, percussionist of the not-dead-any-time-soon So Percussion. Read and enjoy!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Incredible the furious indignation over this Slate piece.

The furious don't seem to realize they're responding to a PURPOSELY sensationalistic headline, not the piece which piece is just dandy and largely spot-on.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Uh, spot on? Read Andy Doe's rebuttal. The Slate piece is ignorant bullshit.

John Marcher said...

Am I the only person who thinks Sandow should shut up already and find something new to write about? The last time I read anything postive from him was when he was getting highly excited about Lara Downes' album cover. The Slate piece was silly, especially the part discussing figures pertaining to recording sales because the entire recording industry has been in an upheaval for years, yet there was no mention of that or placing the numbers withing that context, to name just one of the many egregious misrepresentations (the failure to mention the recent history of NYCO prior to its demise is another).

Lisa Hirsch said...

I believe that everyone I know who read and responded to Greg around 2004-06 has stopped reading and responding, which amounts to thinking he should stop, already.

Jon Silpayamanant has, in the last couple of years, analyzed the heck out of Greg's analysis and statistics and found them wanting. I know Matthew Guerrieri also wrote some great counter-analysis.

Anonymous said...

There have been numerous responses to Mark's slate piece--some of them hilarious (especially the Classical Music is Undead ones). I've listed a few of them (at the bottom of the post) in my tangential response.

http://silpayamanant.wordpress.com/2014/01/26/choral-music-the-forgotten-classical-music/

Lisa Hirsch said...

Thanks, Jon! And here is a clickable version of your link.