Saturday, May 21, 2011

Maps

I'm reading a good book by Gerald Danzer entitled Atlas of World History. A couple of points have stood out as being relevant to music.


The term "geography" is often used very generally today, but it traditionally fit into this scheme:

topography - mapping a small enough region that the local level details of the landscape like hills and streams can be shown

chorography - mapping a region or continent

geography - mapping in a global context


I extrapolate this idea of several meaningful levels to music study.


For example,

local-level analysis of harmonies, motives, and so forth (topography)

consideration of the form of the work at hand (chorography)

understanding of the work in the context of the composer's output or the style (geography)


Another scheme might go this way:

intra-opus style (the first two levels from above)

inter-opus style (the third level from above)

and finally, the place of the work's performance in broader culture which would include musicological and ethnomusicological topics


We musicians need a bit of all this in our lives.



A second point is what I think is an extremely well-stated definition regarding the concept of "classic" or "classical."

Danzer writes:

"A society develops a classic culture when it gathers together traditional ways of life and expresses their values in such a powerful way that it sets standards of achievement for future generations."


Here's a link to a fascinating program for preserving valuable elements of the cultures on our planet.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Sad

School's over.
Students are gone.