Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Composer's Lounge Imagine if John Lennon never wrote anything down

I sometimes wonder about music that I'll never
hear that could be far beyond anything that
is written now ...due to being created in
a time where it was unrecorded.
They say Jenny Lind had one of the most
amazing voices ever heard. I wonder if we'd
think the same today....would it be as powerful
as Celine Dion or Barbra Streisand?
I think about the jungle cultures where
drums and sounds may never be heard by a typical
westerner, but that there may be profoundly
beautiful music that goes unappreciated because
of its isolation.
Its almost like the question in philosophy
class...if a tree falls in the forest and no
one hears it, does it make a sound?
We are so blessed to have easy access to
recording devices these days. At least if we
do something special, it is easily replicable.

Here in Southwestern Missouri, I have had the priviledge to hear a lot of local Ozark Mountain Folk music, my favorite being fiddle music most of it past down from generations never being written down. I often wonder if a lot has been or more so will be lost as the younger and future generations may not share the same interest in keeping it past down. A lot has been recorded fortunately but it would be nice for more music to be kept alive. This music is some wonderful sounding stuff. If I could learn to play the fiddle, I'd learn some of it myself.

A lot of music that I learned as a kid that I don't hear much anymore I have been considering writing out all the tunes and words of everything I can think of into a compilation so that I can pass the hard copies down to my kids and future generations.

It would have been a real shame if John Lennon had never wrote anything down, but I certainly would not regret it if there had been no music by Celine Dion or Barbara Streisand, as there is much more substance in the music of Lennon than in the other two, who's music I find anything but powerful. Much closer to artificial and superficial, but I still think they both have amazing voices. Just have gone to waste. Then again, this is simply just preference in musical style.

hanna2222, You would have gotten along good with most of my old college professors in the music dept. They all came out of the 60's philosophies. I always attributed a lot of the way they teach and ideas due to them coming out of the 60's era. Sorry for the stereo-typing. I'm not saying it in a bad way. Just kind of humorous sometimes how strong of bent they had toward it.

The head of the composition dept. who taught our theory classes was a huge Beatles and John Lennon fan. He even made us analyze the score from "Yesterday" and gave a whole lecture on how smart musicianship-wise the Beatles were as far as really knowing the theory behind the music and not just blindly writing from what sounds good.

If "writing down" is extended to include recordings then it probably doesn't matter very much in relation to the original question. There are plenty of people capable of transcribing very complicated music so I don't imagine popular tunes would present any difficulty.

I graduated High School in l966. Loved the
Beatles like all the girls did. Could have
seen them in Seattle for $5 but we didn't have
the money.
I'd love to see any stuff that ended up
in Beethoven's waste basket.
I'd like to hear the music by David the
Shepherd in the old testament.
I'd like to hear the angels who sang
on the first Christmas night.
Probably crazy...but I wonder what beautiful
sounds I've missed by being born in the wrong
century!
Smile.
Each of you have made interesting points to
this question. Thanks!

I always wonder what future gems John Lennon would have composed if it weren't for his tragic death.

Even more so with Gershwin.

John