Telos and Propriety

“Superior music is inferior in some settings. Inferior music is inferior in some settings. Music that is poorly done within the constraints of each genre is bad music and shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere. Thus, we have good and bad superior music and good and bad inferior music. And surrounding all such distinctions we have the category ‘appropriate music’ . . . Blue jeans are better than good clothes if you are chopping wood. Failure to recognize this can result in serious weirdness. I recall a training film in the Navy which had some machinist mate working on a diesel engine in his dress blues. The music of Bach and Mozart are the musical equivalents of a great cathedral. And we can all recognize the vast architectural superiority of such a catheddral over the typical suburban house. But it would be a drag to have to make your breakfast or watch Monday Night Football in the cathedral. The fact that it is a superior building does not mean it is superior for every function” (Mother Kirk, p. 131).