"I am a classical music lover - not necessarily the contemporary stuff, but the old stuff"
About this Quote
There is a quiet, almost apologetic gate being built inside this sentence: Weber claims “classical music lover” status, then immediately polices the borders of what that’s allowed to mean. The dash does the social work. It anticipates a raised eyebrow from anyone ready to pounce on the word “classical” as either snobbery or vagueness, and it preemptively clarifies his allegiance: not the thornier modernist wing, but the canon.
As a musician speaking, this isn’t just taste; it’s a positioning move. Weber spent his life in the porous zone between jazz, composition, and European concert tradition. In that world, “contemporary classical” can signal a whole ecosystem of institutions, grants, festivals, and reputational politics. Saying “not necessarily” is tact: he avoids declaring war on living composers while still signaling that his ear is drawn to melody, tonal gravity, and inherited forms rather than the more abrasive or concept-driven currents that came to define parts of 20th-century concert music.
The phrase “the old stuff” is the deftest part. It punctures any whiff of elitism with casualness, as if he’s talking about records in a crate, not a sacred lineage. That downshift matters culturally: it frames canonical music as lived-in pleasure, not a museum badge. The subtext is a musician insisting that history is not homework. It’s a source of nourishment - and he’s not going to pretend that every new development feels nourishing just because it’s new.
As a musician speaking, this isn’t just taste; it’s a positioning move. Weber spent his life in the porous zone between jazz, composition, and European concert tradition. In that world, “contemporary classical” can signal a whole ecosystem of institutions, grants, festivals, and reputational politics. Saying “not necessarily” is tact: he avoids declaring war on living composers while still signaling that his ear is drawn to melody, tonal gravity, and inherited forms rather than the more abrasive or concept-driven currents that came to define parts of 20th-century concert music.
The phrase “the old stuff” is the deftest part. It punctures any whiff of elitism with casualness, as if he’s talking about records in a crate, not a sacred lineage. That downshift matters culturally: it frames canonical music as lived-in pleasure, not a museum badge. The subtext is a musician insisting that history is not homework. It’s a source of nourishment - and he’s not going to pretend that every new development feels nourishing just because it’s new.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
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