A Little Music From the Broke Period

I've been contemplating writing a fairly seething post about a recent California Appeals Court ruling--one which has sent shockwaves through the California homeschooling community, and which already has some homeschoolers contemplating leaving the state, should things fall out wrong from here on out. I want to be less angry though, and to learn a little more about the case, before I fire off. For an initial impression of the case, there are some links in the most recent Carnival of Homeschooling.

Instead, I'll present you something I saw recently at Chris' site, A Mountain Homeschool.



(Note: a mild language warning applies.)

This is so funny because it's so true. The fact is, Baroque music did use a lot of the same chord progressions over and over again. It's part of the genius of these guys that it doesn't get boring; there's so much variation in melody, tempo, chord texture, and so forth that it's not always easy to tell they're using yet another manifestation of the Circle of Fifths, or of some other standard progression. And I wonder how the cello or bass players feel when they're playing something like Bach's Goldberg variations--the same ground line repeated over, and over, and over....

And yes, for all the alleged "transgressiveness" of modern music, it uses a lot of the same chord structures and other conventions--often without the musicians even realizing it. They think they're being new and original; in reality, they're merely speaking this same musical language Pachelbel, Bach, Vivaldi, and others developed three hundred years ago, just in a slightly different accent.

Anyway, this gave me a good laugh. I hope you enjoy it too. Maybe it'll help me be not so mad, so I can write something a little more coherent about that court case tomorrow.


Update: While further fooling around on youtube, I came across the following, which I figured I'd throw on for the fun of it. It's entitled "Pachelbel's Loose Canon".