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]
Article comments
1 - The Theory
I think they're afraid it'll turn all of their children into rampantly charismatic Christians!
2 - Eric Olsen
Yeah, they'll all start speaking in tongues and baptizing each other in the tub and whatnot.
3 - The Theory
*snicker*... oh man, that's too funny...
4 - Taloran
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?
5 - Jim Carruthers
The pirate speaks,"It's becauseo't'section where t'choir sin's "We like sheep"."
6 - The Theory
oooo! that's right... today is international speak like a pirate day! arrr!
7 - Eric Olsen
I believe "aargh" is the official pirate motto.
8 - The Theory
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...
9 - Eric Olsen
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"
10 - The Theory
...I don't know. That hawiian shirt you wear (from that picture on the Cleve-blog info page) is very pirate-like.
11 - Eric Olsen
Fie I say! Hawaiian shirts bespeak affable lassitude and cheerful rakishness, not the pernicious plundering of ships and shorts!
12 - The Theory
*The Theory... thinks that pirates these days would wear hawaiian shirts*
13 - Phillip Winn
Based on last night's Survivor premiere, the "pirate" did in fact wear a stylin' shirt as TT thought.
Arrrgh!
14 - The Theory
PW! For shame! watching that evil survivor show!
15 - Mark Saleski
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