KPM 1193 - Classical Synthesizer (Alan Hawkshaw) and Stained Glass Windows (John Leach) - 1977

This is obviously not the "masterpiece" to which I was alluding earlier that I will be posting soon, and I say that with the requisite quotation marks not in enigmatic coyness or postmodern irony but more to protect or blanket the word in an attempt at avoiding the litigiousness and controversy demonstrated in shige's czech album post which was derided on all sides for lacking the attributes of masterpictality although given the variability of musical tastes, such an opinion can surely be defended by anyone choosing to undertake the exercise, not to mention in my blog postings I don't feel I am guilty of overhyping anything discovered by myself or others, I feel I am being honest in for ex. stating such and such a record is mediocre, or contains bad tracks, or throwaway songs, etc. -- they perhaps don't stand comparison to classic Genesis but unfortunately in a lifetime of listening to music every day all day, I can no longer enjoy those classic records anymore due to boredom or habitude though I acknowledge intellectually they are good, the emotional nausea or feeling of satiation as after one eats too many onion rings and french fries sets in & repulses me, sending me off in search of newer material (fresh fruit or vegetables) such as this record, admittedly disappointing, but worth the effort to locate and listen to once, and anyways it's not for us to determine what is or is not a "quote unquote "masterpiece" quote unquote" as when the great master shige (who I perhaps was guilty of overpraising due to my honest affection and regard for his efforts, sincerity, and extreme generosity (and for those qualities I would rather suffer the embarassment of overhyping than a reduction in our relationship),), when master shige said, that it is a masterpiece if you love it-- [notice here I remove those dread-inducing quotation marks as if running naked through a field, openly exposing myself to the laughter of witnesses, but I don't care, we are dealing with the 70s here, when streaking was fashionable, in the time before aids people ended cocktail parties with random orgies or at least this is what I read about in playboy magazine when I was young and looking through their back copies in the corner store...] and let us all remember that for most people, records made by such artists as Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, or Kate Perry are considered masterpieces, and who is going to dare argue with the populace comprising 99.99 percent of humans? -- but perhaps I am boring you. On to the music.Like a lot of library LPs this is two separate albums on one record. The first side (subtitled "Favourite classics arranged for synth and elec. keyboards") consists of synthesizer-played classical pieces, which I dreaded to hear when I saw the titles, eg. "Elise" -- what else could it be but the overplayed Beethoven piece I learned at age 9 -- then the song called toccata synthesis -- could it be anything but the Bach Toccata that so recalls Doctor Kevorkian? Similarly with "Joy of Jesus," and "Sonata in the moonlight" ... it's hard to believe anyone is not sick of hearing these pieces, but then again, I hear "Stairway to heaven" played pretty often on the radio too and I'm sure all through Oesterreich you can still hear "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik."There is one non-throwaway song which is the sole composition by Alan Hawkshaw (who is by and large a fabulous composer) called "Rhapsodie Gentille." What a shame there is not more like it on side one.Side 2 is called "Stained Glass Windows" subtitled "Art and architecture" and I assumed it might contain some cathedral organ music, which I've mentioned before I adore (see the post on Estellet-Brun which was possibly the single most popular post ever on this blog, or any blog for that matter, including even the new york times news blog), why I thought it might have organ I don't know, but take a guess as to whether it does or not. Instead you get orchestrally pompous or perhaps grandiose music suited to a religious TV show perhaps. Oddly enough there is an entry called "Mosque" which seems out of place in those pre-multiculturalist, culturally relativist, days. And it seems John was pretty inspired by that one since it's almost the longest piece in his collection.I've said it before, the european cathedral is one of the greatest art forms humanity has ever created, and I never tire of visiting them wherever they may be. But I pray that someday our progressive music will also be considered one of the greatest achievements of human creativity and will be given the credit it deserves.