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Comment by wbl | Hacker News Reader

Very little rhythm and emotion?

First emotion https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JzFi-7H9TKs

https://youtu.be/rVw6NRXSDhM?si=wchNK9I3RO_XJxeG

Rythym: let's start with the most infamous percussion sequence of all time https://youtu.be/wZtWAqc3qyk?si=B47DQZ1auKx53OaD

Unless you're listening to extremely niche heavy metal, electronica, or the kind of jazz that they don't play on the radio you aren't listen to anything with the skill and complexity of classical. And the people who do also show up to new music.

I don't think there is any video game that comes close in depth to the Ring Cycle.

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I’d add to that that classical music was made at a time recording and listening whatever you want, whenever and wherever, wasn’t a thing.

Many pieces were intended as a whole, and optimised for specific settings.

I’ve long thought I wasn’t an opera person. I listened to pieces of some on my iPod, or on the tv in music class in school. Then, years later, some friend told me he had extra tickets for the opera.

It hit very, very differently. It is likely the experiences I had gone through since school helped the opera’s theme and songs resonate with me. But I’m pretty sure listening and witnessing it, from beginning to end, in a room carefully crafted for this specific purpose and left little room for distractions contributed immensely.

I thought you were going to link to the incessant ominous col legno (hitting the strings with the stick of the bow) at the start of Holst's Mars for rhythm, so please allow me to add that one to the list.

https://youtu.be/cXOanvv4plU?si=WrIuBfmofTo6szRa

And as for emotion, this version of the 1812 Overture always sends chills up my spine.

https://youtu.be/uYnCCWsfx3c?si=OQEA5_JYpWn1kHFj

All of this is immensely subjective. The pieces presented were utterly bland to me, bordering on the unlistenable. This is obviously not due to a lack of quality for they have plenty, but they register as little more than noise to my brain; to which i prefer silence...

That said, I do enjoy some classical music. For instance, I deeply enjoy this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1lvxx9lzAg&list=RDz1lvxx9lz...

You didn't correctly read my comment.

> Art has no objective measure.

That would be emotion to _you_, not to me. You've also missed this point:

> compared to the other, more modern music I listen to.

Additionally, complexity is not an accurate measure of how "good" art is. But if you want to argue about complexity - and this would mean total complexity, not just sheer storytelling complexity, an easy refute to your point is GTA V, which is arguably one of the most complex pieces of art ever made.

I guess anything is arguable, but I think it would be pretty difficult to make a very good argument that GTA V is one of the most complex pieces of art ever made. I mean, first we’d have to define a piece of art, then we’d have to define what it “complexity” means in that context…

Eh, he’s right though. You could get sidetracked quibbling about the edges of the definitions, or you could just use their centers and see that there obviously are some modern works of art that are immense team efforts and substantially justify the label of “one of the most complex pieces of art ever”.

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