Handel Masterpiece Gets 'Explicit' Label
Published September 19, 2003
Miscreant Handel busted by iTunes:
George Frideric Handel has at least one thing in common with Eminem and other modern artists: his music was slapped with an "explicit" warning at Apple Computer Inc.'s online iTunes Music Store.The baroque composer's 1742 masterpiece, "The Messiah," was marked with the red warning that indicates the content might not be appropriate for young children or others with sensitive tastes. It's on a recording by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Alldis.
The warning, which appeared when the album's tracks were made available Tuesday but disappeared late Tuesday, was most likely a technical mix-up, though "The Messiah" does touch on love, violence and death - in a more profound way than, say, most music produced 260 years later.
"Obviously, there's been some sort of error," said Lara Vacante, an Apple spokeswoman. She said technicians were looking into why it was mislabeled. Other juicy classics, like Giacomo Puccini's murder-and-suicide opera "Tosca," don't carry the advisory.
The online music store, which is now available only to owners of Macintosh computers, has been criticized in some circles for focusing more on pop music than classical or operatic fare. It's often difficult, also, to find out who is conducting a piece or the names of soloists.
Apple recently introduced a friendlier classical home page that breaks down albums by periods such as early music, baroque, romantic and modern. It also has a category for opera. [AP]
- Handel Masterpiece Gets 'Explicit' Label
- Published: September 19, 2003
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- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Classical, Music: News
- Writer: Taloran
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Yeah, they'll all start speaking in tongues and baptizing each other in the tub and whatnot.
*snicker*... oh man, that's too funny...
Ain't that a peach? It's a bit late for them to warn me off - I've heard it. Then again, my eleven-year-old hasn't. Wonder if he'd like it as much as Linkin Park?
The pirate speaks,"It's becauseo't'section where t'choir sin's "We like sheep"."
oooo! that's right... today is international speak like a pirate day! arrr!
I believe "aargh" is the official pirate motto.
and i believe you can just shove it! unless you are a pirate. then you'd be "in the know"... i wouldn't put piracy past you. hmmmm...
Whoa, frisky! NO, I am not a pirate, they are all sodomists, but I did play one in a production of Peter Pan and I enjoyed Disney's "Blackbeard's Ghost"
...I don't know. That hawiian shirt you wear (from that picture on the Cleve-blog info page) is very pirate-like.
Fie I say! Hawaiian shirts bespeak affable lassitude and cheerful rakishness, not the pernicious plundering of ships and shorts!
*The Theory... thinks that pirates these days would wear hawaiian shirts*
Based on last night's Survivor premiere, the "pirate" did in fact wear a stylin' shirt as TT thought.
Arrrgh!
PW! For shame! watching that evil survivor show!
they had a segment with dave barry about the pirate thing on npr today...it ended with this very funny pirate/rap tune...i gotta find it somewhere
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I think they're afraid it'll turn all of their children into rampantly charismatic Christians!