Music for all

We had a very splendid evening out with the Solloways and Catherills tonight at the Derngate in Northampton. We saw the Northampton Symphony Orchestra perform "Music from the Films" including the Dambusters (twice) and the Indiana Jones March - it was all stirring stuff - with only six John Williams numbers...

The host did comment about the fact that orchestral music is often regarded as "high brow" although many millions of people go to the cinema every week and enjoy high quality original music.

He's got a point of course.

Composers have always had to work for a living and have often produced their most creative work to order. Once upon a time the church paid - so we got music for the mass. Music has always been a comercial product and cinema music is merely the latest form of paid work - it's that or adverts.

All forms of music have a "high brow" form, whether that's orchestral music, thrash metal or rap. There are certain pieces of music that you can only appreciate if you know the conventions, rules and culture of the genre.

There's nothing wrong with "high brow" or "popular" music of any kind - snobbery is a waste of time - so bring on the dambusters for one more flight.... wings out... goggles on... and away we go! Na, na, na, na na-na-na, na....