Thread: How Patriotic?
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Old 08-06-2004, 15:32   #55
Acrylic-bob
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Re: How Patriotic?

I remember the quote but, alas, not the person who made it. I suppose I could find out if you really wanted to know. It comes from the second half of the ninteenth century. Tallis and Byrd were not well known then and indeed were regarded as unfashionable here too. Handel was German and so didn't count. I have the impression that at the time the comment was made because so much 'English' music was based on folk music and foreign imports from france italy and Austria/Germany. It does not appear to strike them as contradictory that Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, all took their influences from France and Italy. Or that Beethoven held the British National Anthem to be an exemplar of it's kind. or indeed that Schubert,Schumann and Mahler based much of their output on folk tunes.

you see there are loads of sticks to beat the germans with, if that is what you want to do, most of them helpfully provided by the Germans themselves. The problem with arrogance is that it makes you blind.
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