Peeing in someone's cherrios

Pardon the graphic expression, but wow. I really managed to stoke someone's ire. I shouldn't laugh at someone getting so worked up over this, but this is kindof amusing to see someone take something so inconsequential so seriously. I mean, it's one thing to get riled up over the mistreatment of POWs or the injustices of the world, but all I did was ask whether Eric Satie's music was considered classical. Some time ago, I posted this query on FB's PCME group.

Now I have to admit that I don't know much about this guy, but one day, one of my local radio stations was having a Satie-fest. I tried listening to the first piece and didn't care for it much. Listened to the second piece, but eventually, it got relegated to background music. Turned off radio. Thirty minutes later, without knowing who was on, I turned it back on and I hear more new-agey stuff that sounds similar to the stuff I tried listening to earlier. Shut off radio again.

I am probably going to get flamed as I did in this group for making oversweeping generalizations without giving him a more thorough listen, probably, but the few pieces I've heard of his (Gymnopedie 1, 2, 3?) don't sound terribly complex. It sounds like the vapid tuneful stuff that our classical music radio station might play.

If people like his stuff, that is totally fine by me. Personally, I'd much prefer to listen to Bach, Beethoven, Nielsen, Messiaen or Janacek or heck, even that dreaded canon that everyone so dislikes. De gustibus non disputandum est, right?

I was told that perhaps I don't appreciate his music because I didn't know that Satie owned 20 of the exact same outfit. Ok, fair enough. As I write this post, I'm trying to relisten to the Gymnopedie sets again, imagining a wardrobe of 20 of the same things to see if I appreciate him more.

Um, I don't mean to sound like a philistine, but I'd still prefer to listen to Bach over this, as pretty as I'm sure it sounds. And knowing that he owns 20 identical suits doesn't quite help me realize why this one is any more worth listening to than the earlier one.

Anyway, this Satie fan got a tad bit peeved by my lack of appreciation for Satie, and wrote thus:

Dear _____, what's the opposite of love? No silly, it's not hate it's indifference. Love and hate are strong emotions and indifference is their opposite. Do I have to walk you through it again or can I continue? Satie's music clearly brings out strong emotions in your like and there is a good reason for this. It is a matter of comprehension. A matter of having the artistic sensibilities to understand his music. I will paraphrase Schoenberg - 'if you don't understand some music, you don't TRULY understand ALL music'. Therefore the strong emotion you feel for Satie's music comes from the fact that his music presents a challenge to you that you fail. You 'love' to see yourself as an elitist in the field of classical music and base too much of your self esteem on this and so good old Satie annoys you by separating the wheat from the chaff, and the true elitists from the likes of you. PS 'ennui' is in the head of the beholder!

Admittedly you aren't helped by the fact that most of the recordings of Satie's music do not capture the art that exists therein. (I'm thinking particularly of Ciccolini's efforts.) You should try the versions by John McCabe, Reinbert De Leeuw or Poulenc/ Fevrier. If you still don't get it (as I suspect you won't) you just have to accept that classical music 'elitism' is not for you and instead you could cultivate some other more appropriate area of life eg stamp collecting, Harry Potter books etc where your own unique gifts will no doubt be more suited. Sorry _____, I know the truth sometimes hurts. I feel for you. One love.

I think I'm supposed to be riled by this, but it's so poorly written, I'm not sure what exactly I'm supposed to respond to. First, I can't figure out his use of quotes. Second, I don't remember ever saying that I "hated" his music or that it evoked strong emotions out of me. Au contraire, actually. Apathy is a better word to describe how I feel towards Satie's music on an initial listen. Third, I am in a group that calls itself "pretentious", but mostly because many of the other classical music discussion groups on FB are quite inane.
(To wit: comapare and contrast most recent discussion threads:
This "Classical music" group has no recent discussions.
I'm a fermata; hold me: some stupid instrument game where you add a point to your favorite instrument and deduct a point for your least favorite. (No thanks.)
PCME: An expedition into just intonation, with someone posting about his explorations of this tuning system.)

I would never in a zillion years think of myself as an elitist, much less "love to see myself as an 'elitist'", considering I'm still working on appreciating Mahler and long Bruckner symphonies, but I find the elitists' discussions (usually) much more interesting.

But other than those quibbles, I mostly agree with what he has to say. I'm not sure how to refute his arguments.

By blogging about this, I've already given this more attention than it deserves (ah, such is the irony of blogging about things we think are "trivial" or "stupid". . .), but it just reinforces my belief that we take our inconsequential internet lives/personas way too seriously.

I now understand why Facebook's net worth is valuated higher than the GDP of Bolivia or Jordan.