I don’t know what to think about this

[javadog]

So I ran across an article today. Somebody I’ve never heard of played James Madison’s 1813 Crystal flute in a concert the other day.

First, I didn’t know James Madison had a flute, let alone a crystal one. I’ve never heard of crystal flutes but, then again, I’m not a flute player. It turns out the library of Congress owns the flute and further reading told me that they own the worlds largest flute collection. Who knew?

So I figured this person was a famous flute player and googled her name. Turns out, she’s a hip-hop artist. Well, maybe she plays the flute on the side. So I watched a brief clip of her flute performance at her concert and no, she doesn’t appear to be a flute player. At least not a good one, judging from that brief performance. I could have played what she squeaked out, given five minutes practice. Maybe not even that much. It was literally, almost nothing.

So then I’m wondering why she bothered to play this flute, because she’s apparently not any sort of classical flute player and it has nothing to do with her concert. Next question was, why on earth would the library of Congress loan her this flute for this stupid little stunt? I would imagine that, apart from its extreme rarity and historical interest, it’s also probably pretty damn fragile.

At the conclusion of her few seconds of flute playing, she commented:

“ B,***h, I just twerked and played James Madison's crystal flute from the 1800s."

How did we get here to this place, that I clearly do not understand?

Google “Lizzo flute” and you come up with endless coverage of the event. Here’s one, picked at random:

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/09/28/entertainment/lizzo-plays-james-madison-crystal-flute-cec/index.html

[Bill Douglas]

I was a bit surprised by that too. At least someone handed it to her then carefully received it back. So Lizzo didn't get the chance to accidently sit on it.

[stevej37]

NBC Morning News had the story about it this morning.
Yeah...she's a plus size.

[masraum]

I skipped the concert, but this is more than I could belt out after 5 mins.



This may be a better demonstration of her ability

[Sooner or later]

Should have been Ian Anderson.

[dw1]

While I know that Lizzo is a talented classically trained flute player, and for a black woman to play this specific instrument is an interesting historical note (as James Madison was a slave owner), my preference would have been for one of more of these people to play it:

Heck, maybe some of them did.

James Galway
Jeanne Baxtresser
Herbie Mann
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Ian Anderson
Bobbi Humphrey
Theobald Boehm (although he is long gone, he could have played it "back in the day")
Yusef Lateef
Emmanuel Pahud
Jasmine Choi

And since several people who posted here seem to have (quite surprisingly) never heard of Lizzo, here is some background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzo

[craigster59]

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by javadog

How did we get here to this place, that I clearly do not understand?

James Madison had a famous quote you may have missed.

“Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of twerking.”

Me, personally, big Tim Weisberg fan.

[flatbutt]

Plus size?

To this day I suspect that Ian Anderson had more than one tongue!

If I was ever offered a chance to play a Stradivarius cello I'd be nervous as hell.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

I skipped the concert, but this is more than I could belt out after 5 mins.

Well, after she sorted out where her fingers would go, she blew one note. Then, more finger sorting, followed by approximately three seconds of trilling a couple notes.

That was it, that was the entire flute performance.

I didn’t even notice the twerking, not that I was looking for that. I think twerking is perhaps the dumbest thing ever invented and why you would do that while playing the flute to achieve some sort of notoriety, I just don’t get.

If that’s where the music is headed, I don’t want to go there.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by dw1

And since several people who posted here seem to have (quite surprisingly) never heard of Lizzo, here is some background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzo

Nope, never heard of her before this thread.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by javadog

Well, after she sorted out where her fingers would go, she blew one note. Then, more finger sorting, followed by approximately three seconds of trilling a couple notes.

That was it, that was the entire flute performance.

I didn’t even notice the twerking, not that I was looking for that. I think twerking is perhaps the dumbest thing ever invented and why you would do that while playing the flute to achieve some sort of notoriety, I just don’t get.

If that’s where the music is headed, I don’t want to go there.

I think you missed the beginning of the video that I posted which was her in what I assume was the library of congress playing the flute in a large room that was full of marble and old white folks. She seemed to do a bit more in that instance, and the video picked up as she was mid-song, I guess.

[herr_oberst]

Originally Posted by dw1

James Galway
Jeanne Baxtresser
Herbie Mann
Jean-Pierre Rampal
Ian Anderson
Bobbi Humphrey
Theobald Boehm (although he is long gone, he could have played it "back in the day")
Yusef Lateef
Emmanuel Pahud
Jasmine Choi

You forgot Zamfir! Master of the Pan Flute!

[Eric 951]

Originally Posted by javadog

Next question was, why on earth would the library of Congress loan her this flute for this stupid little stunt? ]

maybe it was the same decision makers who let the world's richest porn star wear Marilyn Monroe's sequenced dress(I know it's not from the library of Congress, but still)

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Eric 951

maybe it was the same decision makers who let the world's richest porn star wear Marilyn Monroe's sequenced dress(I know it's not from the library of Congress, but still)

I feel like I probably don't want to know what this is in reference to. It doesn't sound like a good idea.

[javadog]

Originally Posted by masraum

I think you missed the beginning of the video that I posted which was her in what I assume was the library of congress playing the flute in a large room that was full of marble and old white folks. She seemed to do a bit more in that instance, and the video picked up as she was mid-song, I guess.

Yeah, I watched a bit of that but that wasn’t the performance I was referring to.

I think that was something earlier in the day; the main performance was the roughly 5 seconds that is included in the video that you can watch on any of the links that you pick when you Google it.

From what I gathered about her concert, she just did it so that she could have a few seconds of making some noise and twerking at the same time. It seems to be irrelevant to her music, which apparently is hip-hop.

When I first read the article, I had no idea who she was, I just assumed they would loan up to it like that out to a classical flutist who would play at least an entire song with it, if not an entire concert.

But no, this was a circus stunt, at best.

I would really like to know what the thinking was and why the library of Congress even got involved in this crap. The library of Congress is a pretty serious institution, last I checked.

[Crowbob]

I’ve never hear of her before. Not any more, unfortunately.

[gregpark]

She didn't just blow a couple notes, she can obviously play the flute. But why would James Madison's flute be considered a national treasure?

[Tobra]

Because he was the President, back when that meant something.

I would like to know who's idea this was and why they thought it was reasonable.

Originally Posted by masraum

I feel like I probably don't want to know what this is in reference to. It doesn't sound like a good idea.

Someone wore Ms Monroe's dress to the academy awards or something, Kim Kardashian maybe, does she count as a porn star?

[Esel Mann]

Originally Posted by flatbutt

Plus size?

That's no plus size, that's a death star!