Sanjay Subrahmanyan Retweeted Steven Isserlis
A wonderful definition of classicism in music - every emotion expressed, but always within beauty - by Mozart (d otd 1791) :
"Music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.”
Mozart on music
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arasi
- Posts: 16787
- Joined: 22 Jun 2006, 09:30
Re: Mozart on music
Aesthetics paTRi appOlerundu pEsikkiTTirukkuRAnga! They have been talking about it for ages!
And rightfully so!
The good word in tamizh amaippu comes to mind. It conjures up order, beauty and form--all together!
And rightfully so!
The good word in tamizh amaippu comes to mind. It conjures up order, beauty and form--all together!
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shankarank
- Posts: 4062
- Joined: 15 Jun 2009, 07:16
Re: Mozart on music
It is back to the paper by Dr Ramanathan and Smt. Hema Ramanathan. Music is what is pleasurable to the ear - kaRNa aTaka sangeetham. There is no science in it simply because what is enjoyed is what is whimsically pleasurable to people! But Mridangam is NOT music. We will need to study all of world music to get an average computed to find what is music.
But as a natural phenomena , it can be studied scientifically just like any other natural phenomena - he said Science AND music - not science in music.
The above presumes that every generation starts from first principles and from scratch and has absolute whimsical freedom to define it's music.
I think it ignores a condition placed on it by human cultures themselves. That it is considered sacred. That is important for it to be passed on. A teacher cannot whimsically and arbitrarily condition a student. I think I am not just bringing in accepted notions and philosophies in India. I think if we see across the world, all of music that preserves its character across generations , the sense of sacredness will be evident.
That has nothing to do with environs of musical practice like a Church or a Temple. It has nothing to do with faith. It could do with , let me say it in generic cross cultural terms , the innocence of a kid that places its trust on a Grand father/ Grand Mother figure to transmit something from his/her era to the Kid. I am trying to find a Third person description to the sense called sacred! I conjured up a situation. But it is not just that one. It is a plethora of many such.
Even if the musical forms undergo transformations, the sacred transmission of music, preserves some underlying, what I would call meta-physical qualities.
There are whimsical forms of art around. As human communications undergo a change with new media and market, art can become a victim of its own success. Such art looks like it is something that harvested and digested from cultures and made a new predator species! Human cultures, especially traditional cultures are rendered powerless to taken on such an onslaught , and the marketer especially gains more power to deal with individuals directly.
We live in an era of Individual rights and a legal system that may punish you at its ways and means - having a mind of its own. But there is not much in between - like cultures that place expectations and obligations called duties! The same has impact on art and it's enjoyment.
But still I don't know that people who enjoy art, have that much power to define the art consciously. They can make a choice may be out of the available. So it is a market that selects then. That is an invisible statistical force - that agglomerates individuals who have no other common underlying cultural connection or background.
We then hear proclamations like "Music has no other human barriers - like region, language , nationality etc.'.
But as a natural phenomena , it can be studied scientifically just like any other natural phenomena - he said Science AND music - not science in music.
The above presumes that every generation starts from first principles and from scratch and has absolute whimsical freedom to define it's music.
I think it ignores a condition placed on it by human cultures themselves. That it is considered sacred. That is important for it to be passed on. A teacher cannot whimsically and arbitrarily condition a student. I think I am not just bringing in accepted notions and philosophies in India. I think if we see across the world, all of music that preserves its character across generations , the sense of sacredness will be evident.
That has nothing to do with environs of musical practice like a Church or a Temple. It has nothing to do with faith. It could do with , let me say it in generic cross cultural terms , the innocence of a kid that places its trust on a Grand father/ Grand Mother figure to transmit something from his/her era to the Kid. I am trying to find a Third person description to the sense called sacred! I conjured up a situation. But it is not just that one. It is a plethora of many such.
Even if the musical forms undergo transformations, the sacred transmission of music, preserves some underlying, what I would call meta-physical qualities.
There are whimsical forms of art around. As human communications undergo a change with new media and market, art can become a victim of its own success. Such art looks like it is something that harvested and digested from cultures and made a new predator species! Human cultures, especially traditional cultures are rendered powerless to taken on such an onslaught , and the marketer especially gains more power to deal with individuals directly.
We live in an era of Individual rights and a legal system that may punish you at its ways and means - having a mind of its own. But there is not much in between - like cultures that place expectations and obligations called duties! The same has impact on art and it's enjoyment.
But still I don't know that people who enjoy art, have that much power to define the art consciously. They can make a choice may be out of the available. So it is a market that selects then. That is an invisible statistical force - that agglomerates individuals who have no other common underlying cultural connection or background.
We then hear proclamations like "Music has no other human barriers - like region, language , nationality etc.'.