The Neglected Sense
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 14 April 2006
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This year's lecturer is Daniel Barenboim, who has become known as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. His skill as a conductor and a musician has led him to world recognition and the appointment as Chief Conductor for Life by the Staatskapelle Berlin. He has also won a Grammy for his recording of Wagner's Tannhäuser and received the Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize for his work with the Staatskapelle Berlin.
In his second lecture, delivered from Chicago, Daniel Barenboim argues that we rarely listen to the music of our choosing and that too often we hear music which we have no control over. He argues that this unwelcome 'muzak' is largely responsible for encouraging people not just to neglect the ear but to repress it.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures. |
| 0:04.4 | This lecture in the series, In the Beginning, was sound, given by Daniel Barrenboeim, was originally broadcast in 2006. |
| 0:12.7 | Hello and welcome to Chicago for the second in Daniel Barronboeim series of Reith Lectures. |
| 0:18.1 | For the past 17 years, he's been music director of this city's |
| 0:22.4 | great orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, a job which he said when inheriting it from George |
| 0:27.4 | Schulte was a dream, I had never dared to dream. In fact, his link with this city goes back |
| 0:33.8 | much further to the 1950s when he first appeared here as a 16-year-old pianist. |
| 0:39.6 | Chicago has always been faithful to Daniel Barron Boym, so it's fitting that he should deliver |
| 0:45.1 | one of his five wreath lectures here in its symphony centre. History, however, does not mean |
| 0:51.5 | that he only has praise for this place and his players. |
| 0:56.0 | Chicago is one of the most strikingly visual cities in the world. |
| 1:01.1 | It was home to the great architect's Frank Lloyd Wright and Meese Fanderrawer. |
| 1:05.1 | If architecture, as Gertes said, is frozen music, then Chicago is a natural place for a lecture which addresses the nature |
| 1:12.4 | and power of musical sound. But even here in this city that has worked hard to look right, |
| 1:20.0 | much happens, argues Daniel Barron Boyne, that prevents it from sounding right. Well, some of Chicago's |
| 1:26.7 | current leading architects are with us in the audience today, |
| 1:29.8 | as are jazz, blues, and classical musicians, filmmakers, |
| 1:33.6 | writers, students, and philosophers. |
| 1:36.1 | They'll be exploring the subject matter of the lecture later through their questions. |
| 1:39.9 | Its title is The Neglected Sense. |
| 1:43.2 | Its author, Daniel Barrenboy. |
| 1:55.8 | Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. |
... |
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