The Kingdom of Noise

"Music and silence - how I detest them both! How thankful we should
be that ever since Our Father entered Hell ... no square inch of infernal space
and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable
forces, but all has been occupied by Noise - Noise, that grand dynamism, the
audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile - Noise which
alone defends us from silly qualms, despairing scruples and impossible desires.
We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great
strides in this direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of
Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough,
or anywhere like it."

I've said it on previous occasions. The Novus Ordo Mass is, quite simply and objectively, inferior to the Traditional Rite. It could hardly help being so, considering its origins. The NO is to the Traditional/Gregorian/Tridentine/Classical Rite, what Duran Duran is to Allegri's Miserere.

You can like Duran Duran. I like the Clash. But I'm not going to swan about the world trying to make people say that London Calling is on an equal musical footing to the B Minor Mass.

I recall that someone in the commbox of Shea's latest surge of blither said he did not trust the "personal preference" dodge some (lilly-livered) Trads put forward as the reason for driving fifty miles a week to get to the MOAT. He said something along the lines of "Well, can prove to us that your so-called 'personal preference' is not just a disguised way of saying the Traditional Mass is superior to the Novus Ordo?" Ah yes, the familiar whimper: "You elitists are just trying to prove you're better than us".

He's quite right about one thing though. It is a cowardly dodge to simper and say "Well, I just prefer it, that's all". Yet another form of the Stockholm Syndrome displayed in our times by those who cannot bring themselves to square their shoulders and manfully own up to being superior. The Mania of Nice, in which Betters must apologise for being Betters, that has taken hold of our entire culture and tries so desperately to say that all things are equal.

All things are not equal. Neither are all men.

Just as all religions and philosophies are not true, all music and all art are also not equal.

I woke this morning when the BBC Radio 3 came on at 7:30 and had the pleasure of listening to some barbarian, who works in aquisitions for the Tat Modern, (whose directors should simply rename it "Miniart" and have done with it) tell us that anyone who does not look upon a urinal or an unmade bed and fall into swoons of rapture over these "great works of modern art" are simply philistines who have an "outdated" attachment to the concept of art as "craftsmanship". We who look upon these things as jokes in bad taste and insults to our intelligence, were soundly chastised for our primitive narrowmindedness.

On Radio 3.

Nice.

The snivelling desire to be nice, to be liked by everyone and apologise for having convictions: Stockholm Syndrome.

"Well, of course, the English Reformation was a crime against humanity, but of course, we need to point out that not all Anglicans are nasty people and perpetrators of this crime...and some of our best friends are Anglicans..."

"Well, of course, abortion is a terrible thing, but I couldn't bring myself to judge others when they choose..."

"Well, of course, I go to the Traditional Mass as often as I can, but I wouldn't dream of saying it is superior to the Novus Ordo...it's just that I happen to prefer it..."

The other day I joined a thing called the Friends of Radio 3, a group of people who are trying to make a stand against the flood waters of toadying mediocrity. Having seen what the trendy egalitarian Visigoths did to CBC 2, I don't hold out much hope, but I thought I'd join and throw in my tuppence.

I see that there are still a few of us out there. Robert Reilly does a little shoulder-squaring on Inside Catholic:

Classical music is the greatest music. This assertion is not based upon my preference or opinion; it is as much a fact as the statement that the noble is higher than the base, or the beautiful than the ugly. I say this because there exists a hierarchy in the nature of reality, including in the world of sound, which is metaphysical. Noise occupies the lowest rung in this hierarchy; it is an undifferentiated mass of sound in which no distinction exists. The lowest kind of music -- rock -- comes closest to noise. Classical music exists at the highest rung, because it is the apprehension of reality in sound in the most highly differentiated way possible. It is the farthest from noise.