I was listening to my local classical music station the other day and was pleased to hear the first movement from Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony. I would like to have heard the rest of the symphony, too, but the station chose to play the movement as if it were written as a stand-alone piece of music. Regardless of its length, the symphony was meant to be heard as a unified piece of music, not sliced into small portions and served as party food.
Yet increasingly, classical stations are doing exactly that. Bill Lueth, director at a radio station in San Francisco, says that with classical stations dying all over the country, something had to be done to attract new listeners. Since life is a constant rush these days, maybe the radio stations are right to take work of 40 minutes and cut it to 10, giving you time to catch a quick listen before moving on to the next big thing in your day.
It isn't only lovers of classical music who should worry about this trend, however, for what's happening on the radio only mirrors what's happening in society at large. "Speed kills." That used to refer to the dangers of driving too fast. Now it refers to the unhealthy pace at which we live our lives, compelled by modern technology into filling our waking hours with as much as we can. This isn't good for an individual's well-being. It's also counter-productive.
クラシック音楽の愛好家だけではありません。
ラジオで起きていることは、
社会で起きているより大きなことを映し出しているに過ぎないからです。
“焦り過ぎが死を招く”。
この言葉はかつて、あまりに急に水に飛び込むことの危険性を示唆したものでした。
今やこの言葉は、
我々が健康を害するほど早いペースで生活を送ることを表しています。
現代のテクノロジーは私たちが歩く時間さえも、
何かしらできることで埋め尽くしてしまいます。
これは健康にとっては良くないことですし、非生産的なことでもあります。
半分しか翻訳されていませんので。