Easily Influenced

Now listening with much enjoyment to some music I downloaded the other day by Malcolm Arnold. The selection mixes three of the symphonies with a number of other compositions, like the English Dances and other bits and pieces. A lot of zestfully tuneful bits but plenty of other more introspective moments.

This is the first music I've purchased this year having made a minor vow, now majorly broken, not to buy anything new until I'd done justice to what I already owned, especially the 'classical' stuff. But I don't feel too bad about betraying myself since I did last out for almost three quarters of the year without dipping into my pockets, and I think I've discovered a composer who deserves one more fan. It will be to my benefit not his, I'm sure.

Actually I blame the chap who maintains the excellent and dangerously informative On An Overgrown Path. I often come away from reading his entries with a keen desire to listen to whatever it is he's got an enthusiasm for since it's invariably exactly on my wavelength. To be honest, I've always been a bit embarrassed about my susceptibility to the enthusiasms of others. It speaks to a certain immaturity, I must confess. But, then, I've gained so much from following blindly in directions that others point that I can't be over regretful. I pretty much made myself like Messiaen since people I suspected knew what they were talking about said I should, and it turned out they were right.