Problems in the Definition of Musical Modernism on NG

I just had a class in the literature department today. The course title is Modern Arts and Aesthetics. And so, I looked up on New Grove, and I quote:

Modernism first took shape as a historical phenomenon between 1883 and 1914. Before the death of Wagner, the term ‘modern’ was used interchangeably with ‘new’, ‘recent’ and ‘contemporary’. In its Wagnerian usage it also denoted an embrace of a wide palette of music as a means of conveying narrative and extra-musical content, as opposed to ‘absolute’ music. 

Two composers that came to my mind is Debussy and Berlioz.

Debussy, I think, mainly demonstrates the modernist attitude of negation. He consciously attempts to negate Wagner (although numerous literature have shown Wagner in Debussy's composition), in order to create French music. A more bourgeois type of modernism can be found in Augusta Holmes.

Berlioz's pose a huge problem to the NG description of modernism. Symphonie Fantastique was written in 1830, when Wagner was 17. Symphonie Fantastique is inarguably narrative, as Berlioz explains in his program notes. So, why did Leon Botstein demarcate Wagner as the line for modernism (between modernism and, say, pre-modernism)?

It is worth noting that Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony has descriptive titles, but the logic that works there is that music evokes texts/ imagery, not the other way round. (Vivaldi's Four Seasons is of a considerably different context, and I'll skip the discussion.)

Did Botstein choose Wagner because
- Wagner pushed tonality to its boundary (and soon after him we have post-tonality)?
- Wagner focused specifically on opera (or music drama), and the opera image on stage is a concrete manifestation of the musical rhetoric? (whereas, Berlioz wrote in a variety of genres, and his operas are diverse in style than Wagner's)

The following could be a partial answer

Issues of terminology aside, Modernism, throughout the 20th century, retained its initial intellectual debt to Wagnerian ideas and conceits regarding the link between music and history. The art of music was perceived to need to anticipate and ultimately to reflect the logic of history. In Wagner’s view, the imperative of art was a dynamic originality rooted in the past but transcending it.[...]  Legitimate originality in art was inherently progressive, oppositional and critical.

Feminist Theory and Music Day 3 and Day 4

I came across quite a few student article presentations on day 3 and day 4, and had some observations:

-          The subjects are often more “docile” and less “outrageous”. They tend to work within the boundaries. Surprises do not feature often. (So are papers I wrote before, I felt.)

-          Analyses on feminism or sound sometimes are less in depth. I felt that they tend to stay in a format of quoting and explaining, but there is a lack of fluid flow from one idea to the other.

-          The subjects are, nevertheless, provocative and usually have a lot of potential for further research.

Movie and music studies, and popular music studies by different people sometimes sound monotomous. The topics of irony (although in more than half of the cases they didn’t mention it) recurs. I think more effort can be devoted to music that reflects cultural problems, and how music actively shaped the cultural problems. That will make musicology useful for other disciplines. I also felt that many papers can be presented in other non-music conferences, especially ones that are related to violence.

The two papers on Diamanda Galas, done by professors in the UK and Germany, are puzzling. They tried to describe Galas’s music as unspeakable voice and weapon, but they metaphor failed to come through (to me, at the very least). There were a lot of quotes, interviews and descriptions, but the arguments were not clear and cogent enough.

That leads me to ask (again), is musicology “describing music”? This is an overly simplistic definition.

A quick note on skype article delivery: get good connection, and read slowly. Even better, try to ask the organizer to test the connection and speaking quality before the presentation. Read the article for about 10 minutes in the test, to see if the connection is stable. Sometimes it runs well in the first 5 minutes, but then it may just turn bad for some reasons.

The final speech by Judith Tick was inspiring. Her survey of feminist theory and music was efficient, and her wish-list for future musicological ambitions are practical and, necessary for the healthy development of the field.

I felt that there is a strong bonding between the scholars in the meeting. People are so genuine! It is perhaps because they have endured a long period of time where feminist musical criticisms have been suppressed. They now have their voice heard, but the potential is clearly not totally fulfilled.

Feminist Theory and Music '11 Day 2

If I didn't come to this conference, I wouldn't have known so much about the problems in academia.
The keynote speech this morning by Julia Koza was a something between thoughtfulness and painfulness (as the Chinese saying goes, the pain of cutting your skin). It was incredible that UW Madison had done research showing tenureship rates in the Arts is the lowest among different faculties in a university, and that in women is significantly lower than men. Sometimes I'm sick of feminists quoting heavily on discriminative speeches done/ passages written by men; but Koza put a compelling argument, and also avowed to act to help her fellows who have not gotten tenureship. It is also worth noting that less than 20% of women professors are able to have a child plus have tenureship at the same time by the age of 40. The percentage of men achieving those is significantly higher (Koza has the stats; it's my bad that i forgot.) After-panel discussions included stories of UCLA and UIUC, and how university trustees may affect tenureship policies.

The topic is, of course, related to Hong Kong, too. Not only people are looking for tenureship; the shelter of tenureship also enables members of the faculty to speak up, not like, as Koza says, "it's not a good time to die, now". Especially when the freedom of speech is in risk with mainland Chinese political influence, scholars in most cases will not speak against the government, or make political statements, if they do not have tenureship. As a result, there will be no meaningful musicological articles on post 1949 music in China. (Yes, I dare make this statement.)

A few presentations today focused on forgotten female contributors to music. Johann Strauss's Jr's wives (Zoe Lang), Jutta Hipp (Ursel Schlicht), Pauline Viardot (Natalie Emptage Downs). They successfully argued their importance, but I think we need another person to show us how they can be inserted to textbooks. Now we only know they should be in there. Another question would be about the ethics of writing history: writing history is what each and every musicologist is doing.

The paper session concerning E.T.A. Hoffman is of intense interest for me, since it deals with literature and music. The two papers on Hoffman broadened my sight on how we can write about them. My question would be how relevant the papers will be, to society? 1. A suceesful paper does not need to have this link; 2. Literature is innately tied to society, I know. But the link has to be outlined in each case, if the author wants to show that link.

Lastly, I would like to point to Elizabeth Gould's paper, offering a lesbian-seduction reading of the Flower Duet in Lakme in a particular performance. I will have to watch the video again to see if I agree with her, but she is definitely provocative and... that's why I love this conference. This is one of the frontiers of musicology!

Feminist Theory and Music '11 Day 1

A one-hour flight feels like 15 minutes and I'm in Phoenix, AZ. I won't regret that I'm here for this fantastic conference. I am basically an outsider to feminist theory, except that I read Susan McClary's book Music and Society (which was published like 20 years ago) and some of Rose Rosengard Subotnik's article. I saw that Phoenix isn't that far away from SD and flight ticket prices are reasonable, so I decided to jump onto the flight!

(Allow me to reveal my ignorance in the following passage, and close the browser if you don't wanna read on,)
The most exciting part, for me, is to see how the NYU violinist Megan Atchley embodied her feminist analysis to her performance. She cogently argued and pursuaded me that the expressiveness of the piano (soft volume) press bow in Saariaho's Nocturne for solo violin has a quality that echoes her identity as a woman. The soft dynamics could have been even softer given the medium-small size of the hall, but I was struck by the quality of both the verbal and musical work she did.
I feel fortunate that I get to know about the three waves of feminist theory movements and how that can be used persuasively, or how dangerous it can be if not cogently argued. It could have been as simple as "women being able to do whatever they like", or "women not doing whatever they like", but it's also much more complicated than that. Scholars always look closely into issues of agents and different views from the three waves of feminist theories.
I also got to know a lot more non-classical music, and how their politics (in the broader sense) is. That includes Bessie Smith, Led Zepplin, Tracy Chapman, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, cock rock and Spice Girls. Violence (domestic and/or sexual), irony, understanding, commercialization, and politics (in the narrower sense) are great, if sometimes distubing, food for thoughts.
And the post-presentation discussions were also fascinating. Mary Fonow and Susan McClary conducted lively discussions, and Ellen Kostkoff's comments are always trenchant. I didn't participate in any discussion. I think I will at some point, and right now I'm enjoying as a listener, seeing how minds cross.

Website for the conference: http://ftm11.events.asu.edu/
Will look forward to Day 2.

Such personal academic writing

I think a personal touch to an academic essay is magical. The author writes with her heart, and it connects me.
Allow me to quote at length the beginning of the preface of Jann Pasler's Composing the Citizens.

"Growing up in a post-Sputnik generation that valued scientific pursuits along with the American dream of economic prosperity, I understood the role of music in life as marginal. Music could entertain, distract, engross, and elevate, but it was not socially useful. Its proper place in society was secondary to other, more obviously serious or practical pursuits. Living in France changed my mind. At the age of nineteen, when I got lost in Paris and stopped a woman on the street for help, she gave me a glimpse of another perspective. Learning that I was a musician, she went out of her way to accompany me to my destination. It wasn't just her generosity that impressed me. There was a twinkle in her eye, a suggestion of some deeper knowledge about the meaning of her gesture. When I asked her why she'd gone to such lengths to help me, she explained that, when all is said and done, it is the arts that survive from out past. The arts ensure the continuity of civilization. This woman had known the way. She'd experienced the annihilation of much that she valued and loved. It wasn't that I represented the future, although my father, at my age, had been among those who had fought to liberate her people. It was the music. Seeing an opportunity to support someone involved with the continued creation of music, she smiled broadly."

Pasler is frank and is speaking the simple truth about music nowadays. "Music is not socially useful, or secondary to other pursuits" can be rebutted, but not without painstaking efforts and, for me at least, hard self-persuasion and determination. Then, it's the undergrad experience of traveling abroad. I can imagine Pasler (I just met her today), a college girl some 30 or 40 years ago, wandering in Paris. (Kind of occidental, or romantic, maybe?) The point is, the verbal expression seems to genuine to me and I am touch by her experience! I want to listen to her story.

This triggered a couple of thoughts of mine. The thought of my what-if decision to go to Palestine instead of UCSD has been back and  haunting me these days. I seem to have lost some possibility of genuine experience. Another thing is the whole musicology enterprise I'm taking on. Pasler's words makes musicology live for herself as well as for the reader (for posterity!) She is living up to the unique experience she has had. (And I hope I will live up to the unique exp I have had.) And musicology becomes a living discipline because it is about life stories. (I don't claim this is the only way, but this is an amazing way, isn' it?) It is a personal encounter, rather than exhaustible, exhaustive and exhausting analyses.

I look forward to reading this book, and writing in a similar manner some day.

Here is a short article/ interview on the book.

Art and Music/ Primitivism/ My Poem

There are many moments where a painting elicits musical sounds for me, or vice versa. When I listen to Debussy's cello sonata(1915), (his only cello sonata, and it's a striking use of the cello, at least for Debussy's time!) Gauguin's In the Vanilla Grove, Man and Horse (Dans la vanillère, homme et cheval)

Here's the music and the painting... okay. I confess, that when I listen to it again, the picture is not a perfect match with the music. The beginning phrase, played by piano solo, gives a green color, and a feeling of vastness. Cello, as many people have pointed out, has a human quality. It's quality is the closest to a human voice, among all musical instruments. I think it signals the entry of the person. The tone color change, which is initiated by both instruments playing softly, and more importantly, cello playing in high registers (therefore using a thinner string among the four, and using less portion of string to vibrate, and thus produce a more shrilly sound. However, if executed beautifully, the shrilly sound can be rendered round and sweet, as in the recording below.)

The second movement itself embodies more creativity, and it demands the same creativity from the performer. As for the style, I am so tempted to call it primitivism. With politically incorrect Orientalist eyes, I see weird people, or aliens walking in a strange way. Cello professor Alan Harris asks his student (and my friend) to play it in a weird way. Like really weird. 

The sonata is subtitled (by Debussy) “Pierrot fâché avec la lune” (Pierrot vexed with the moon).


The painting below is Paul Gauguin's In the Vanilla Grove Man and Horse, aka. the Rendezvous.

Gauguin was inspired in his excursion in Tahiti and had one of his most fruitful years in artistic output (1891). My general comment: the sharp color changes resembles Debussy's music. The visual depth is not created by space, but color. One can even argue there is no space depth. Unlike portraits, where the main character usually is situated in the middle, the Tahitan in the picture stands at the side, and lends space for nature to show itself. His contemplative face does not show clear emotions. Quite mysterious, and yes, Oriental.
More info on the painting on this external link.

And now, I'll share my spoils, a poem from the poetry session in Lyra Summer Music Workshop... (www.lyrasummermusic.com)

What makes me Blissfully Happy today

Beauty

  of friends, every friend

  of nature, every creature

  of music, every god-blessed - or god-damned - note, gesture and expression

  and finally, of weirdness, everything that seems to go the wrong way - or just another way.

I'll try to share more thoughts/ anecdotes about the relationship between music and visual arts in this blog. I really like that.

1) 9-11, and the Klinghoffer controversy// 2) the Hong Kong response

1. 9-11, and the Klinghoffer controversy
After 9-11 happened 10 years ago, the Boston opera decided to cancel the performance of John Adam's The Death of Klinghoffer. This opera puts on stage the story of the murder of Jewish-American Leon Klinghoffer on a passenger liner by hijackers of the Palestine Liberation Front. The untimely schedule of Boston opera's Adams production left the administration with a tough question after 9-11: whether to play or not play the production, since some people thought the opera is pro-Palestinian. Finally, they withdrew the plan and annouced the cancellation ofthe performance.

UC Berkeley professor Richard Taruskin, legendary musicologist, wrote on New York Times that he thought the cancellation is a "case for control". Whereas, many readers and critics responded with negative voices. Among them, UCLA professor Robert Fink believes that various musical elements and the elimated scene from Adam's original score should suffice for an non-anti-semitist argument. The latter would supplement the arguments of various newspaper readers and letter-to-the-editor writers, e.g., "Boston Symphony missed the point on art and grieving".

I was silent when this matter is discussed in last year's Music and Politics seminar. The matter seems to touch such a sensitive and sentimental American blood that I failed to respond verbally, only to subdue in silence. I was happy, however, that musicologists stood up for debates. We shouldn't be people who go ever deeper into the ivory tower, but rather, we should engage as social individuals.

------
2) the Hong Kong response
I was listening to RTHK, one of the biggest radio broadcasting companies in Hong Kong. As they were discussing the 9-11 issue, I found many people who were so good to call up to the radio, missed the nuance of the event. Many of them pointed to Americans being arrogant and, and the Americans were unaware of the underlying causes of the tragedy.
I can agree that there are a large number of Americans being ultra-conservative. But the ramification of the nuance require in-depth study and no one should say that "USA deserves that".

Beautiful prose (+ Orientalist imagination), and one disappointment today

The beauty of academic prose:
Let me quote Ralph Locke
"The librettists and Puccini here produce - even without Japanese musical motifs - an unsurpassed scopic and aural emphasis on Oriental (East Asian) feminine beauty and grace. This occurs at the level both of the group and - as the voice of the "happiest girl in Japan" soars above - of the individual. The moment could be regarded as the most oppressive in the work - the most quintessentially Orientalist, in the denigratory sense. All Asian womanhood, practically, is here reduced to a vision of loveliness, as if frozen in time, for the delectation of the Western gazer."
Ralph Locke "A Broader View of Musical Exoticism" in JM 24 no. 4 (2007).
In short, the last sentence give such a sweet perspective... like dolcissimo! The prose matches Locke's idea so well. (As opposed to expressing sweet ideas with prosaic passages). Despite the sweetness, academic authority is by no means lacking :)

Disappointment:
I was researching on Tan Dun's opera, and did some searches on Chinese journal databases... There is a clear sense of conformity, and a lack of questioning. In the case of questioning, a sense of imperialist revenge + newspaper gimmicking comes through. Examples:
1. "The First Emperor "Subverts" Western Opera"(《秦始皇》要“颠覆”西方歌剧)as title of an article (Tan said that, but i don't think he means that.) The article is from the journal Northern Music.
2. Chen Qigang describes music critics who bitterly criticizes Tan Dun as "parasites". (People's Music 12, no. 440 (2002)). (Yes, they don't start from no. 1 again each year.)

I feel, despite being conservative, embarrassing to reveal these to the world. Well, should I?

The Distortion of Musical Syntax: articulation of the fugue subject in Franck's Prelude, Chorale and Fugue

This is the question I had when I practiced yesterday. I haven't quite made up my mind on what to do, and I'd like to share with you some fragments of ideas.

The problem is here:

The fugue subject starts at "Tempo I", and it comprises of two parts: the first part consists of two "sighing motives"with anticipation, and I am referring to the first six notes of the fugue subject with the rests. The second consists of a descending line and a resolution, which represents the seventh to fifteenth note of the fugue subject.

How should I articulate the seventh and eighth notes? (the first two notes of the second part of the fugue subject)

The phrasing and syntax of the music as represented by the notation is curious. The slurs between the second and third, and fifth and sixth notes, form two sighing motives. The second and fifth notes are non-chord tones (with the implication of V - I or V - vi as the harmonic progression), resolving to the third and sixth notes. We can view them as appoggiaturas; Donnington (1974:197) states the art succinctly:
     The Italian verb appoggiare means "to lean" and implies an ornamental note expressively emphasized and drawn out before being more gently resolved on its ensuing main note. This is the true appoggiatura.

In the first part of the subject, the strong-weak syntax is notated. (Of course, how you link the two gesture is another question.) However, the beginning of the slur at the seventh note is on the weak beat. Should I emphasize the weak beat because it's the beginning of a (long) slur? Should the seventh be in quasi legato with the eighth?

Often, we find the best answer when we situate the question within the context, i.e. the whole piece of music. But in this case, that complicates the question.

Similar gestures has occurred in earlier places of the piece. Here are two important moments:

In the middle of the prelude, this capriccio section has forbade the fugue subject. Compare the articulation markings from the third measure to the first beat of the fourth measure, with those from the second beat of the fourth to the first beat of the fifth. Is it a similar problem as the one we have in the fugue?

After the Chorale (second movement), there is a bridge (Poco Allegro section) before the fugue commences. Take a look at the articulation of the fugue subject: it is different from the first appearance of the fugue subject in the "official" fugue. Pay attention also, to the gesture on the right hand at the end of the upper system. The anticipation of the top voice forces the gesture to cross across the bar line. Rhetorically, it creates doubt. The doubt is enforced by the transposition of the same gesture in different register, eventually withers into the void. "Not the right way," said Franck, and we're off to another attempt to reaching the fugue.

In the middle of the second attempt, the withering gesture propagates. Notice the difference between the phrase marking at its first appearance (final beat of measure 2 to second beat of measure 4)  and its second (final beat of measure 4 to second beat of measure 5). Is the first gesture an adventure, and does the A-sharp outside the phrase marking represent hesitation? (Although the harmony at the final beat is V over I, I think A-sharp does sound foreign, even exotic and sexy, given the B as bass note.) Is the inclusion of the C-double-sharp in the second gesture a confirmation of the success of the adventure? (And therefore, the fugue starts after the germination of this gesture?)

This brings us to the fugue, the subject matter of today. The second presentation of the fugue subject at the alto voice (top voice in the second system) is marked differently from the first presentation in articulation. The second part of the subject has its first note detached from the phrase afterward. The weak beat emphasis occurs after the fugues subject. After two gestures of weak beat emphasis, the strong beats begins the slur again.

What can we make out of this labyrinth given to us by Franck? Here's my suggestion:


Same-note upbeat to a sighing gesture: hesitation and anticipation (a dialectic), or simply an assured anticipation, to the ensuing sighing gesture. Decision depends on the context and the performer's interpretation.
Slurs (long or short) on the downbeat: smooth gesture.
Slurs on a fourth beat: deliberate distortion of the four-beat syntax, to be emphasized. The distortion is always rectified by subsequent appearances of the right syntax. This distortion is a dissonance in syntax, leading to a right, thus consonant syntax.

Coming back to the opening question, I will play it (the first note of the second part of the fugue subject) quasi legato, with more emphasis than the same-note anticipations that precede. It is as though a continuation of the exploration, or this time a trial and error, although the fugue has started (formally, it has started.) The fixation point of the fugue subject articulation is at the second appearance of the subject. Interestingly, the articulation is the same as that in the opening of the bridge section. (At this point, I play the bridge with a lot of planned hesitation. But none of the recordings of the masters is doing that.)

Three more things to say:
1. I believe the distortion of syntax appears in poetry! But I don't' know about them. Does anyone know?
2. I guess someone in the music theory circle has said similar things. I want to know who they are and how they theorize, and what how to they label it.
3. Well, I admit, when I play it on the piano, it's another art. Enough bullshit.

Short comment on politics and academia

In Edward Said's Orientalism, p.10
"To some extent the political importance given a field comes from the possibility of its direct translation into economic terms; but to a greater extent political importance comes from the closeness of a field to ascertainable sources of power in political society."
Whereas Said's talking about the Cold War, what if I translate "political society" as the musicological institution, which I am entering? What should my thesis topic be about?

(yes, I know I should "be myself"... yes, I know...)

Book Review: Strunk's Source Reading for Music History Vol 1 "Greek Views of Music"

Finally, I have taken action to write this review, which will be of great benefit to my learning and assimilation of knowledge. This review is more a summary than a criticism (the review I did for Musical Childhood is a criticism, if you are interested in that.)

For those who are not familiar with what Strunk's Source Reading of Music History is, this is a book that compiles excerpts or totalities of original documents or their translations. The first edition is a bulky 919-page compendium of essays from "the classical antiquity to the romantic era", published in 1950. Oliver Strunk, himself an expert on music in the middle ages, took great shouldering in creating "a history of music faithfully and entirely carved from contemporary accounts". The current edition I am reading is published in 1998. Split into seven volumes, each is edited by a veteran musicologist who specializes in each era. The seven volumes are titled:
Greek Views of Music, The Early Christian Period and the Latin Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Baroque Era, The Late Eighteenth Century, The Nineteenth Century, and the Twentieth Century. The latter, of course, was untackled by Strunk, and this void is only to be fulfilled by a younger generation (old, of course, as compared to me or my teachers). The general editor, Leo Treitler, is installed to ensure a coherent tone in the seven volumes (achieved in the first edition by Strunk since he was to the only person compiling the writings). Articles from these source readings are frequently assigned in music history classes, including mine at the Chinese University and Eastman School of Music.

I aimed to finish reading all seven volumes in the summer, prior to the commencement of my PhD program in University of California, San Diego (UCSD). I believe that, although I will be specializing in a certain kind of music, or period of musical-philosophical-critical style, a solid general foundation of music history based on primary sources is essential for a "real" doctor in music - a person of vast knowledge, and a person who would not embarrass himself due to his lack of knowledge, which is always the case. Starting from volume 1, it is as though I am revising for the undergrad History I course.

As the foreword bespeaks, this volume is not about "The Greek View of Music", but Greek Views of Music. Greek views, according to my assimilation of the book, consist of the theoretical and the expressive. This is a reflection of their understanding of music, a union of science and beauty.

The first writings, by Plato, however, embarks on the role of education of music. Plato did not went into technical details on how to tune in different modes (a word that I will further explain). He emphasizes that the Dorian and Phrygian are to be used to arouse warriors' morale, while youngsters should learn another mode (which I forgot which one it is). Other treatises expounds on the power of music to sooth or iritate the soul. Depending on the musical mode and the instrumentation, siginicantly different effects would result.

The Greek terminology is different from ours. For example, their modes seems to differ from our understand of modes, which are established by the Church during the 14th century (that's arguably the earliest time we can say. It's also plausible to say 16th C.) They have similar names: Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, etc. But the Greek ones are based on tetrachords (scales that consist of four notes) and often include quarter-tones (diesis in Greek). The modes that we know (including the major and minor modes) consists of seven notes and no quarter tones, but only semitones and tones, are involved.

There are a few vocabs that reflect key Greek thoughts: (will add in the explanations this week...)
melos
harmony
consonant and dissonant
intervals
ethos

Why read the Greek? Because people at all times look back to them as the source of civilization, i.e. people to quote and quotes to justify their innovation. A musical example: Plato said "the harmonia and the rhythm must follow the text"; in the 16th/17th century, Monteverdi, while promoting his seconda practtica, justifies his standpoint quoting Plato. (p. 10) The skepticism of Sextus Empiricus also has its remote descendents from the Middle Ages on. Outside of the musical context and the context of this book, Nietzsche's philosophy is based on his reading of the Greek mythologies, and suggest new ways of seeing the world. (Actually, all continental philosophers love/ take advantage of the Greeks.) In an academic point of view, the Greeks is the beginning of the story of western music, and being able to trace back to it is great joy. In a purely personal perspective, I find the Greek's sensitivity fascinating. Their souls are touched by different modes, and touched by good and bad music playing. Hence Spartans are different from Athens. They also correlate music with the planets and cosmos. It's not considered rational in our world today, but in some imaginative ways, doesn't it make sense? They are just enunciating today's unspeakable.

(The evolution of listening is also wondrous. Greeks: quarter tones are their everyday lunch and dinner. But they wanna get them right and pleasant. Music affects their morality. Middle ages: plainchants, but still, sing well please. Renaissance: Michelangelo Rossi's Settima Toccata explains it! Baroque: J. S. Bach's writing P&F to show different colors of the different keys which give different affects. Coming to the end of the Romantic period: Equal temperament. Maximalism strikes the general audience more than anything. 20th century and beyond: let's put it this way... the sensitivity is different. Less auratic, in the Adornian, nostalgic sense.)

The theoretical part of Greek music is an important foundation to music but I personally find them less interesting. It consists of the Pythagorean calculation of pitch (how to divide a vibrating cord to produce different intervals), the naming of different modes (in tedious names), and different signs/ symbols for ntoes and modes. Seimologists may be very excited to look at them!

Funny moments: professional musicians (aulo-ists) are dirty people... and the great Socrates learn music when he's old (so music teachers, you know what to say if an adult wants to learn music!)