Remember dudes: classical music is about a handful of greatest great people who ever wrote, they're so great. How dare anyone try and write classical music now? Disgusting.
@mrfishbowls Is this sarcasm? Is this what you think Mr. Fry is saying? Because you're wrong in every possible interpretation of your poorly written thoughts.
One day, people will leave comments in response to the video instead of the dumb shit everyone keeps writing. I can't wait to not have to read one small point mentioned in a video proven wrong with one small instance and X number of people the comment. You know the point he's trying to make, just enjoy a well formulated speech and argument instead of your childish antics.
Think Stephen sorely misses the point about the motivation for dance being solely for "sex and getting off your tits". Dance also has a deeper spiritual and esthetic dimension for the individual and can also generate a sense of community and social bonding.
"Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave"? OMG, not even Fry is immune from hogwash such as this! Mozart was not buried in a pauper's grave, for such a grave would have been free, whereas Mozart's cost a rather high amount of money!
@MrGufidaun I'm not sure sure exactly what your definiation of a paupers grave is however this sounds a lot like it...
"Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December." Grove Online
@MrGufidaun You are wrong. Mozart was buried in a mass grave alongside the poorest of the poor. Do not assume that just because someone is famous and celebrated, it makes them an aristocrat. Mozart earned a lot of money which he had no idea how to control and thus he died a pauper.
He's right.People reject what they don't immediately understand.Music for most people means entertainment,decorum.It takes effort to trying to understand.I'm not a scientist and I don't understand astronomy and the mathematics involved,but I can feel the passion of these people.That passion evokes a mistery behind it,which is interesting,even if you don't understand it,you respect it.
People should have that attitude towards classical music too.
Lady Gaga never attended Juilliard - she was accepted to the school at the age of 11 and chose to go to a Catholic school instead. But this, of course, doesn't begin to matter the moment you hear the authoritative tone of Fry's voice.
I love the video and I'm not attacking Fry - it's amazing how keen I am to trust him, even if he's wrong. That's very real power that many a politician is ought to be jealous of.
YOU CAN SOOO DANCE TO BEETHOVEN!!!! *hums 3rd movement from violin concerto in D (rather erratically) and prances inelegantly around the room, destroying several fragile ornaments of varying value* :p
have you any knowledge of what we refer to today as 'contemporary classical music'?
History's greats would have seen through the limitations of Cubase etc. and composition today doesn't solely rely on these alternatives. Try listening to George Benjamin or Birtwhistle...
I hope this motion was made only for the sake of argument. I am soon 23 years old and since I was about 7-8 years old I have dedicated much of my life to classical music (always by my own choice). I also try to introduce it to those who don't know classical music and I get amazing reactions when I use the organ to play something people know from a movies. People like what they know, sadly that's not classical music. Try my channel and I think you'll like the organ, because you know what it is.
If any classical composer was a live today , I can 100% guarantee they would be dance/electronic musicians. (note: dance music is not all boom boom boom) They would absolutely love all the toys we have today. Music is dictated by the instruments thats is played on. If they had things like Cubase, Omnisphere, Stylus,,FM8 etc back then, they would of been in creative heaven. Plus I would of love to hear the ideas they come up with!
@ProjectLonely I'm a classical composer, and I DON'T write dance music. I know pro-tools, logic, and reason like the back of my hand, but I DON'T use them in a mindless copy and paste way like most popular music musicians do. There are literally thousands of classical composers living today, and maybe only Mason Bates and a handful of others write electronic dance music. You're right to say technology influences the music, but not in the way you are thinking. Look up Stockhausen.
@enjoyyourworries : Is he saying that love, triumph etc. are expressed in their purest form by classical music? It seems like he's just arguing that classical music rewards anyone's attention - anyone's - which is definitively anti-elitist. As for snobbery, if people look down on anything without having enough experience/knowledge to know what they're on about, then they are snobs. Many, many people who say they don't like opera have never been to one, for example.
Does anyone else find this to be despicably elitist? He's basically saying "I like your type of music, but you don't like mine so you are an ignorant snob". I appreciate that he's advocating the acceptance of all kinds of music, but the implication that "love, hope, triumph and magnificence" exists in its purest form in classical music is a matter of opinion, and dare I say, snobbery.
@enjoyyourworries He doesn't say that love hope, etc. exist in their purest form in classical music, he says that they're apparent in classical music. There is a huge difference!
@enjoyyourworries I find it funny how people like you would have no problem saying that Miley Cyrus cannot express the deep emotions that you get from whatever music you are into. And you are correct in saying that. But if someone were to say to you that Bach's b minor mass has more depth and "love, hope, triumph and magnificence" than whatever band/musician you like, you'd call them snobbish. Bach is deeper, more creative and more meaningful than The Black Eyed Peas. Sorry.
@saladshootavvv I think Miley Cyrus can absolutely express emotions deeply, she wouldn't have sold millions of records if she couldn't. It's a totally different kind of expression to Bach's masses or any classical music, one that resonates far better with the youth of today. I'm not questioning Bach's compositions, I just don't think you can blame the youth of today for not 'getting' him, because it's so utterly different to the songs they already love.
@enjoyyourworries Oh please, by your mentality Kinkade is more beautiful than Monet, Tom Clancy has more artistic worth than Thoreau, and Transformers 3 was a brilliant movie because it made millions. The populist argument is a cop-out and it avoids any real discussion by disregarding the art and only looking at the popular consumption of it. Schubert was hardly known in his time, so to you Rihanna would be a more valuable artist. Fuck off, I find this mentality offensive.
@saladshootavvv I don't believe 'artistic worth' to be a linear entity, upon which all artists are placed. Yes, the great composers have more artistic worth, in the classical vein, than today's songwriters, but they are using different vocabularies altogether, so comparing them is a little misguided.
In my opinion, popular artists are popular because they make their art (and/or themselves) more relatable to the average consumer (emphasis on 'average consumer') in fresh and interesting ways.
@saladshootavvv Another example, just for fun, Van Gogh. Nobody liked his work while he was alive, maybe one or two people. I agree with you, going for how much a piece of work makes or is made for is a bad argument, and only refuses to acknowledge what the work was about, instead focusing on who liked it.
27-year-old woman here who loves classical music! Beethoven? That's some good shit! Do yourselves a favour and go see an opera or something sometime. The musicians all work super hard to make your evening enjoyable, and I don't ever see any snobbery, just enthusiastic people enjoying a good show.
I agree with him totally...You can dance to Messiaen aswell........listen to my boys playing The Turangalila Twist!..........etc..........etc! K Corlux
who won the motion?
andashark 2 weeks ago
I don't think Gaga went to Juilliard.
sumusetta 1 month ago
did anyone else search concertos in youtube after this?
tomb2402 1 month ago
He likes Lady Gaga? How disappointing.
patrick112590 1 month ago
I think the great irony of this video is the fact that they are talking about snobbery in music inside of Cambridge University.
Twilleh 1 month ago
Dvorak's Cello Concerto blew my mind. I must say, I rather like this speech.
troublesomecorsair 1 month ago
Remember dudes: classical music is about a handful of greatest great people who ever wrote, they're so great. How dare anyone try and write classical music now? Disgusting.
mrfishbowls 1 month ago
@mrfishbowls Is this sarcasm? Is this what you think Mr. Fry is saying? Because you're wrong in every possible interpretation of your poorly written thoughts.
saladshootavvv 1 month ago
@saladshootavvv No. I seriously hate anything not written by Beethoven, Bach, handel, or Mozart. Shubert. MAYBE. When I'm willing to settle.
mrfishbowls 1 month ago
@mrfishbowls Now THAT is snobbish.
uiruu 3 weeks ago
@saladshootavvv Actually, forget I said handel.
mrfishbowls 1 month ago
@mrfishbowls oh, I guess that's why you favorite and like Berio and Webern videos......troll
saladshootavvv 1 month ago
@saladshootavvv I favorited them ironically... you know no one likes that stuff, right?
mrfishbowls 1 month ago
@mrfishbowls Grow up... take off the kid glasses: no one likes that stuff.
mrfishbowls 1 month ago
@mrfishbowls Watch the video, man.
uiruu 3 weeks ago
@mrfishbowls "Favorited them ironically," now that has to be one of the snobbiest things I've ever read.
CasualPr0ductions 3 weeks ago
@mrfishbowls Philip Glass, you fool.
CasualPr0ductions 3 weeks ago
@mrfishbowls Philip Glass, you fool.
CasualPr0ductions 3 weeks ago
A little closer and you can get the entirety of his conk, cameraman...
wolfvsmoon 1 month ago
typical - the applause is louder than the speaker.
nomusician 1 month ago
This is what needs to be said. Please, go and listen to classical music. You don't know what you're missing.
Kitsua 1 month ago 3
Stephen Fry is the man. I thoroughly enjoyed this.
sarpedon1080 1 month ago
One day, people will leave comments in response to the video instead of the dumb shit everyone keeps writing. I can't wait to not have to read one small point mentioned in a video proven wrong with one small instance and X number of people the comment. You know the point he's trying to make, just enjoy a well formulated speech and argument instead of your childish antics.
Sklerrrrrr 1 month ago
I went to cambridge. it was shut. went home
robbyduffy1 1 month ago
mozart died in a grave? what the hell was he doing there?
robbyduffy1 1 month ago 3
Think Stephen sorely misses the point about the motivation for dance being solely for "sex and getting off your tits". Dance also has a deeper spiritual and esthetic dimension for the individual and can also generate a sense of community and social bonding.
TheNorsemann 1 month ago
I can't get enough of this man!
zimmawoman 1 month ago
"Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave"? OMG, not even Fry is immune from hogwash such as this! Mozart was not buried in a pauper's grave, for such a grave would have been free, whereas Mozart's cost a rather high amount of money!
MrGufidaun 1 month ago
@MrGufidaun I'm not sure sure exactly what your definiation of a paupers grave is however this sounds a lot like it...
"Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December." Grove Online
Puppy131991 1 month ago
@MrGufidaun You are wrong. Mozart was buried in a mass grave alongside the poorest of the poor. Do not assume that just because someone is famous and celebrated, it makes them an aristocrat. Mozart earned a lot of money which he had no idea how to control and thus he died a pauper.
jaffacakes307 1 month ago
This needs to be shown to everyone at my school. Too much musical snobbery.
andytom2495 2 months ago
I have a great spectrum of liked music indeed.
krapptacular 2 months ago
wait...HOW DO YOU DANCE TO DUBSTEP?!?!?!
curiositygun93 2 months ago
@curiositygun93 sorcery.
bhomer2 2 months ago
"For the purpose of getting off your tits, and having sex." Ah Stephen, no one in the world could have said this as brilliantly as you lol.
ExaggeratedCool 2 months ago 9
idc \, i LOVE classical music, and im 14.
CamoShield 2 months ago
Fuck he's awesome.
perrym6 2 months ago
@perrym6 HAHA YEAH I'LL SAY
weare182 2 months ago
He's right.People reject what they don't immediately understand.Music for most people means entertainment,decorum.It takes effort to trying to understand.I'm not a scientist and I don't understand astronomy and the mathematics involved,but I can feel the passion of these people.That passion evokes a mistery behind it,which is interesting,even if you don't understand it,you respect it.
People should have that attitude towards classical music too.
burntskin561 3 months ago
he's my favourite Englishman in the world!
philippe3000 3 months ago
Oh my, that is a fantastic speech :D What great humour there is too!!
theflyingmusician1 3 months ago
darling Stephen :)
starry4sky 4 months ago
Lady Gaga never attended Juilliard - she was accepted to the school at the age of 11 and chose to go to a Catholic school instead. But this, of course, doesn't begin to matter the moment you hear the authoritative tone of Fry's voice.
I love the video and I'm not attacking Fry - it's amazing how keen I am to trust him, even if he's wrong. That's very real power that many a politician is ought to be jealous of.
MarioColbert 4 months ago
I agree with him, but he didn't talk much about the music tbh. Not as convincing as it could have been, had he played some great bits of music.
SneverusSnapers 4 months ago
So Mozart DIED in a pauper's grave did he...?! Buried alive eh?! lol ;p ;D
SneverusSnapers 4 months ago
YOU CAN SOOO DANCE TO BEETHOVEN!!!! *hums 3rd movement from violin concerto in D (rather erratically) and prances inelegantly around the room, destroying several fragile ornaments of varying value* :p
SneverusSnapers 4 months ago 2
All about being able to appreciate any style for what it is, agree with him to be honest. :)
Ghastlia 4 months ago
What a cunning linguist.
DemanRisu 4 months ago
8:50-9:02 woman checking out his ass
kimberleyseetoes 5 months ago
@kimberleyseetoes Dat ass . . .
Frohicky1 4 months ago
such a brilliant man :)
pazlovesmgmt 5 months ago
@ProjectLonely
have you any knowledge of what we refer to today as 'contemporary classical music'?
History's greats would have seen through the limitations of Cubase etc. and composition today doesn't solely rely on these alternatives. Try listening to George Benjamin or Birtwhistle...
8figuresof8 5 months ago
I hope this motion was made only for the sake of argument. I am soon 23 years old and since I was about 7-8 years old I have dedicated much of my life to classical music (always by my own choice). I also try to introduce it to those who don't know classical music and I get amazing reactions when I use the organ to play something people know from a movies. People like what they know, sadly that's not classical music. Try my channel and I think you'll like the organ, because you know what it is.
chenrikl 5 months ago
Thank-you Stephen , Bravo ! ( from the classical music side ) Brilliant and succinct !
9VFN10EX4ME 5 months ago
If any classical composer was a live today , I can 100% guarantee they would be dance/electronic musicians. (note: dance music is not all boom boom boom) They would absolutely love all the toys we have today. Music is dictated by the instruments thats is played on. If they had things like Cubase, Omnisphere, Stylus,,FM8 etc back then, they would of been in creative heaven. Plus I would of love to hear the ideas they come up with!
ProjectLonely 6 months ago
@ProjectLonely I'm a classical composer, and I DON'T write dance music. I know pro-tools, logic, and reason like the back of my hand, but I DON'T use them in a mindless copy and paste way like most popular music musicians do. There are literally thousands of classical composers living today, and maybe only Mason Bates and a handful of others write electronic dance music. You're right to say technology influences the music, but not in the way you are thinking. Look up Stockhausen.
saladshootavvv 1 month ago
@enjoyyourworries : Is he saying that love, triumph etc. are expressed in their purest form by classical music? It seems like he's just arguing that classical music rewards anyone's attention - anyone's - which is definitively anti-elitist. As for snobbery, if people look down on anything without having enough experience/knowledge to know what they're on about, then they are snobs. Many, many people who say they don't like opera have never been to one, for example.
eirys 6 months ago 3
Does anyone else find this to be despicably elitist? He's basically saying "I like your type of music, but you don't like mine so you are an ignorant snob". I appreciate that he's advocating the acceptance of all kinds of music, but the implication that "love, hope, triumph and magnificence" exists in its purest form in classical music is a matter of opinion, and dare I say, snobbery.
enjoyyourworries 6 months ago
@enjoyyourworries He doesn't say that love hope, etc. exist in their purest form in classical music, he says that they're apparent in classical music. There is a huge difference!
chenrikl 5 months ago
@enjoyyourworries I find it funny how people like you would have no problem saying that Miley Cyrus cannot express the deep emotions that you get from whatever music you are into. And you are correct in saying that. But if someone were to say to you that Bach's b minor mass has more depth and "love, hope, triumph and magnificence" than whatever band/musician you like, you'd call them snobbish. Bach is deeper, more creative and more meaningful than The Black Eyed Peas. Sorry.
saladshootavvv 1 month ago
@saladshootavvv I think Miley Cyrus can absolutely express emotions deeply, she wouldn't have sold millions of records if she couldn't. It's a totally different kind of expression to Bach's masses or any classical music, one that resonates far better with the youth of today. I'm not questioning Bach's compositions, I just don't think you can blame the youth of today for not 'getting' him, because it's so utterly different to the songs they already love.
enjoyyourworries 1 month ago
@enjoyyourworries Oh please, by your mentality Kinkade is more beautiful than Monet, Tom Clancy has more artistic worth than Thoreau, and Transformers 3 was a brilliant movie because it made millions. The populist argument is a cop-out and it avoids any real discussion by disregarding the art and only looking at the popular consumption of it. Schubert was hardly known in his time, so to you Rihanna would be a more valuable artist. Fuck off, I find this mentality offensive.
saladshootavvv 1 month ago 7
@saladshootavvv I don't believe 'artistic worth' to be a linear entity, upon which all artists are placed. Yes, the great composers have more artistic worth, in the classical vein, than today's songwriters, but they are using different vocabularies altogether, so comparing them is a little misguided.
In my opinion, popular artists are popular because they make their art (and/or themselves) more relatable to the average consumer (emphasis on 'average consumer') in fresh and interesting ways.
enjoyyourworries 1 month ago
@enjoyyourworries Is the different vocabulary perhaps one of greater quality and artistic worth?
1AdrianR 4 weeks ago
@saladshootavvv Another example, just for fun, Van Gogh. Nobody liked his work while he was alive, maybe one or two people. I agree with you, going for how much a piece of work makes or is made for is a bad argument, and only refuses to acknowledge what the work was about, instead focusing on who liked it.
CasualPr0ductions 3 weeks ago
Hey Prudence Never Pays: "And everything she wants costs money." :-) Just for that I shall give thee a like.
JensGall02 6 months ago 2
27-year-old woman here who loves classical music! Beethoven? That's some good shit! Do yourselves a favour and go see an opera or something sometime. The musicians all work super hard to make your evening enjoyable, and I don't ever see any snobbery, just enthusiastic people enjoying a good show.
MichelleZB 6 months ago 2
i listen to classical......
deadmau5FAN54675435 6 months ago
On what Stephen said about concertos. Look up "Beethoven's 5th argument." It's not a concerto but amusing video nonetheless.
nikanj 7 months ago
@nikanj There´s a 5th pianoconcerto...
triggerfishes 5 months ago
@triggerfishes
Yes there is.
nikanj 5 months ago
Can one ever run out of reasons to adore Mr Fry?
glamourmansk 7 months ago 4
What the hell is wrong with the camera man!?
AlanAnthonyDoyle 7 months ago 103
@AlanAnthonyDoyle Camera op obviously thinks Stephen's face is more interesting than his words.
taffynay 4 months ago
@AlanAnthonyDoyle nothing, he's in love with Stephen
FernandoSotomayorV 2 months ago
@AlanAnthonyDoyle Its not the camera, its the man.
thepdw 1 month ago
Like a boss
anand308 7 months ago 2
I agree with him totally...You can dance to Messiaen aswell........listen to my boys playing The Turangalila Twist!..........etc..........etc! K Corlux
kcorclux 8 months ago 3
@kcorclux You have no idea how happy I am after reading this!
unitednerdsbeproud 2 months ago
@kcorclux Nah.
DannyDaWriter 1 month ago
I love listening to Stephen and it's very easy to get carried away in his rhetoric but I feel he doesn't really get to the bones of the issue.
Verseis 8 months ago
i love him
dangeloso 9 months ago
oh, and you CAN dance to beethoven - think of the minuet in g, or the 12 german dances!
makerofjam 9 months ago 24
@makerofjam - His 7th symphony was called "the apotheosis of dance" by Wagner. It's totally dance-able!
maestro1286 4 months ago
@maestro1286 I know! Its probably my favourite of his symphonies. After the 6th of course.
makerofjam 4 months ago
@maestro1286 dude i would kill to see you dance to Beethovens 7th
goodday306 3 months ago
this inspires me to continue trying to get other people to blow the dust off the wigs
makerofjam 9 months ago
LLOOOVVEEE IT! Man this guy is good at speech.
squrrilboy 9 months ago
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
LadyKeane27 9 months ago