I hope you feel better after that. Firstly, I am not going to defend every contribution everyone here has ever made to a discussion. With relatively few exceptions, however, most people are expressing views held that stem from a deep love of music. Much of it, though by no means exclusively, rooted in the "classical" genre.I fear you mistake some of the contributions as being nastier than they are or were ever intended to be. Noone here would, for example, ever discourage someone from playing the Liszt Trancendental Etudes. They may try and dissuade them from attempting to do so without the sort of techniocal and musical experience neccessary to play them. This is because of the very real possibility of injury, of disillusionment or simply because learning pieces before one is "ready" can lead to difficulties in ever being able to play them. These are voices of concern and experience. They are not always expressed as gently as you may wish, but internet fora generally suffer from this.I find that giving people the benefit of the doubt, and recognising that people here speak from passion, not from snobbery or vindictiveness, greatly assists. I note that you have not had many opportunities to discuss classical music with others who also love the genre and are knowledgable about it. I can assure you that, as with any subject matter people feel passionately abvout, opinions are deeply held and debate can be very "colourful". This is not exclusive to the people here, nor to internet fora. I have had the pleasure of long and very heated disagreements with many people over many years in person. I find it one of the great joys of life.
..didnt get that troll yet did you.
He's being shipped to a certain library in the Melbourne are as we speak. Hasn't eaten in a week. Be very very careful.
@j_menz Very well put and I could not agree with you more. I guess if I could elaborate, my plea goes out more to the completely new people out there. As the biggest learning medium nowadays is the internet, I just feel as if the environment for exposure to this genre is more hostile towards newcomers than it is welcoming. I see this "if you don't know anything about it, you shouldn't be here" attitude in a lot of places; and being a proponent to expand the learner/listener-base, I think such manners prove to be aversive for new people. I may be over-thinking the matter; it's just that I would love to see some out-of-the box people discovering/exploring classical. I've blogged a ton about it on facebook amongst friends, and have gotten people who've never set their hands on an instrument checking out classical. I know this may sound like a very futile thought, but a warmer response from people passionate/knowledgeable would be beneficial.
I'll have to pick up some of this -