Musical Snobbery

I'm a musical snob. When I finally scratched together enough spare change to buy, at the age of 19, my first LP, I plunked down the money for Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire. Nevertheless I enjoyed the early music of Robert Zimmerman (“Bob Dylan”) when it was sung by Joan Baez. Putting a chain-smoker's sour tongue into the sweet mouth of a soprano made a sweet-and-sour sound I couldn't resist. The same principle works for art in general – I'll spare you a million examples, but I try to apply it myself, when I can, to make bitter sweets. (3/27/2004)