"The Family All Together"
Boston Pops Orchestra, 1955
Arthur
Fiedler and the Boston Pops have a long history of making classic music
that is easily accessible to the masses in hopes of enriching the lives
it touches. Sometime, as in this case, they try a bit to hard. The
Family All Together, both by the album cover (the strangely perfect
1950's family) and the essay on the back, try to pass itself off as a panacea
to all the ills of modern life. The selections, which range from Ravel's
"Bolero" to "Pop Goes the Weasel," seem almost inconsequential to the loftier
goals that Fielder and company created. The text on the back of the album
proves the oddest testament to the power of classical music in keeping
the American nuclear family together: "Most of us know that music is one
of the lovelier and surer common languages of the vast human family. Parents
and children often love the same musical compositions. Age differences
don't make a difference. A toddler and a teen can enjoy the same tunes.
Those two in the family who disagree on almost any known topic can find
brief agreement while listening to music. More than just a peace-maker,
music is downright sociable...like Canasta or dancing or talking,
it belongs in a group of people enjoying it more because they are
a group. Like conversation, music adapts itself to you and the occasion.
You can give it your full attention--or you can treat it as a gracious
but not demanding visitor. However you use it, music proved its power to
create unity, to bring a time of pleasure and beauty simultaneously
to people of all ages, both sexes..."
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