[r-t] Yorkshire Surprise Minor, etc

[Ian Partridge]

On 18 March 2017 at 18:19, Phillip Barnes <phil at piltdown.org.uk> wrote:
> HERESY ALERT
>
> All of which begs the question - why the obsession with classification rather than
> description? We have a descriptive technique - i.e. place notation. Do our attempts
> to classify by anything apart from treble course have anything other than an arbitrary
> basis?

Hear, hear.

Do dancers have a definitive catalogue of moves, and argue about
whether a specific dance is a allowed to be called a "jig" or not?  Do
orchestral musicians have a definitive catalogue of symphonic music,
and argue about whether a composer is allowed to call their new piece
a "symphony" or not?

No.

Ringing is a performance folk art and would be richer for eliminating
all the pointless arguments about categorisation. Let people call
their methods what they want.

-- 
Ian Partridge