Musicians benefit from academic studies

 Discussion  No Responses »
Dec 312005
 

I’ve studied computer science and then gone on to study the recorder and I’m currently busying myself with making the recorder able to control the computer. I love the combination, but wondered a bit about if I’ve chosen a favourable tradeoff. I’m happy so I guess I’m not doing to bad. But, when I started reading “On playing the Flute” by Johann Joachim Quantz (the book I’m referring to is the 2nd edition of the English translation by Edward R. Reilly published through Faber & Faber) I found that he had something to say on the issue. In chapter 1 (page 24) he writes:

“Furthermore, a musician must not occupy himself with too many other things. Almost every science requires the whole man. My meaning here, however, is by no means that it is impossible to excel in more than one science at the same time, but that this requires a quite extraordinary talent, of a kind that nature seldom produces.”

Ouch! But later in the same paragraph: “Yet if someone who gives himself to academic studies has sufficient talent for music, and devotes just as much industry to it as to the former, he not only has an advantage over other musicians, but also can be of greater service to music in general than others, as can be demonstrated with many examples. Whoever is aware of how much influence mathematics and other related sciences, such as philosophy, poetry, and oratory, have upon music, will have to own not only that music has a greater compass than many imagine, but also that the evident lack of knowledge about the above-mentioned sciences among the majority of professional musicians is a great obstacle to their further advancement, and the reason why music has not yet been brought to a more perfect state.”

So, apparently, nature seldom produces people that can do two things well, but there are many examples if the two things are music and academic studies. Of course, a good question is what Quantz recognizes as academic studies. Is what he writes considered academic by his contemporaries?

PS, happy new year! :-)

 Posted by at 6:50 pm

Blogging in 2005

 Blogs  No Responses »
Dec 312005
 

2005 has been quite a good year for blogging. This blog has been its regular mess of different stuff that intrests me, but it has spawned some interesting projects. My photoblog, for instance, got a kick start with my photoblog entries that I used to have in this blog. Also, as I started teaching, my work related posts turned into a blog with lecture notes that my students could visit to get all the material I had to offer them. And quite recently the early music section, with quite a bit of help from some friends, is made into the early music blog. The server and familly blog that I set up for my father has been mostly left untouched, but all in all I’m quite content with the stuff that is being served. I’m a bit surprised by how little comments come in as my feeds have a steady amount of subscribers. Many people actually send me emails rather than leave comments, so it’s not that I don’t get feedback, but you don’t get to read it. ;-) Oh well, I’m sure I’ll understand more of why this is in the following year.

 Posted by at 1:59 am

Philidor

 28-75mm  2 Responses »
Dec 282005
 

Philidor

 Posted by at 7:53 pm

Quantz on the troubles of buying good instruments

 Instruments  No Responses »
Dec 262005
 

When Quantz writes “On playing the flute”, the flute is just emerging from a time of much change, and we know that the flute changed much until it became the flute we know today. The recorder is in a similar situation today where the recorders that are made are often very different from what they were only fifteen year ago, and through my correspondence with inventors and recorder builders I have no reason to believe that the recorder is done developing now.

What I have found is that recorders made by good recorder players are in general better than those made by instrument makers who are not good recorder players. And I was happy to find support for this finding in Quantz’ book. He writes this for the traverso, but I see no reason why this should be different for the recorder if we replace the word embouchure with breathing technique. He writes:

“Pure intonation from one note to another depends upon a firm and secure embouchure, a good musical ear, and upon a good understanding of the proportions of the notes. Whoever possesses this knowledge and also plays well is in a position to make a good, accurately tuned flute. But since the majority of flute makers are not able to do so it is difficult not only to get hold of a good flute, but also to acquire a good ear, even with frequent playing.”

Quantz then goes on to advocate that flute players should know much on flute making. I disagree with this since I don’t think we have the time for it, but I would strongly suggest only buying recorders from makers who are good recorder players themselves.

 Posted by at 11:34 pm

Oscar

 30mm  No Responses »
Dec 262005
 

Oscar

 Posted by at 4:30 pm

Felix

 30mm  1 Response »
Dec 242005
 

Felix

 Posted by at 2:00 pm

How to make a lightbox

 Photography  1 Response »
Dec 242005
 

In his blog Joseph Holst has a great tutorial on how to build a light box. I expect to be building one of these when I get back to Esbjerg after the christmas holidays

 Posted by at 10:22 am

Cat Clutter

 30mm  No Responses »
Dec 222005
 

Cat Clutter

 Posted by at 7:59 pm

Philidor ornaments

 Ornamentation  2 Responses »
Dec 222005
 

In this first post I’d like to talk about Pierre Philidor’s notation of ornaments and what this might mean. The ornament in question is the grace note leading up to the second quarternote in the third bar:

Excerpt #1 from Prelude of Philidor's Suite No. 10

Seeing just the upper voice and that second bar, I’d think this is inégal. However, as this is french late baroque music, we would assume that inégal would be written in quavers like the fourth bar in the bass line. But if we can expect a regular inégal, why would Philidor then in the next system write the dotted figure seen in the upper voice first bar and bass second bar in the following example?

Excerpt #2 from Prelude of Philidor's Suite No. 10

It seems like Philidor likes to play with the sharpness of the inégal. But if this is the case, we still haven’t decided what the second bar in the first excerpt means. My personal take on this is to see what Vivaldi is doing at the same time. Shame on me for thinking about italians when working with french music, but hey, Philidor and his fellow french composers were more influenced by italians than the previous generation composers would have allowed. Vivaldi uses such grace notes as dissonances in front of the harmonically correct notes, and since we know that they should have at least half the length of the note, they become great dissoances while it’s easy to read where we’re going harmonically. So I tried playing it lombardic, but I’m not sure that this would be a great solution either.

 Posted by at 2:30 pm

Early Music Blog launched

 The Blog  1 Response »
Dec 222005
 

Welcome to the Early Music Blog. This project was started by Niklas Saers after discussing it with a couple of friends and will hopefully be a place where people interested in early music will post their thoughts and stories and link up other early music blogs. I hope that you will find this site interesting and participate throught commenting and posting your thoughts and ideas.

If you’d like to write for Early Music Blog, please register and I’ll be sure to give you writing priveleges

 Posted by at 1:59 pm

Monday Night Drinking Club I

 28-75mm  No Responses »
Dec 202005
 

Monday Night Drinking Club I

 Posted by at 7:50 pm

What you really need to know about angles

 Music  1 Response »
Dec 182005
 

In this last quote Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister, we go back to religion. There are just a few things that a good capellmeister cannot afford not to know:

“…to God even a thousand years is like the day which passed yesterday, and the angels’ days are years, as is known by the theologians.” Mattheson quotes Luther here from Daniel.

But let’s return to the origin of music: “Angels, though they are spirits, can assume bodily for, can use instruments and appear in flesh and blood, as Michael did, as often as they want. And since in the hereafter we redeemed men like them will be in body and soul, it is easy to divine what a magnificent quality the harmony of these heavenly musicians must have had.

Thus it is not true that vocal music is actually and originally older than instrumental: for all sort of instruments are also ascribed to the angels and saints in the Bible, especially harps and trombones, as string and brass instruments, and they certainly played just as well as they sange before Adam was created.”

 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Behind bars

 28-75mm  2 Responses »
Dec 182005
 

Behind bars

 Posted by at 7:36 pm

The origin of music

 Music  1 Response »
Dec 172005
 

Here is yet another of my favourite quotes from Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister:

“Others, who think they know much more about [The Origin of Song] and who maintain no small reputation to this day, seem yet more wrong to me than the previous ones: since they, with Lucretious as their leader, made the unthinking bird the inventor of divine music. Hence, one of these may write that the first inventors of vocal music had been monkeys, because they aped this art from birds; in this however, in my opinion, the good man really acts quite apish. For anyone who has nothing sensible to say has no cause to abuse.”

Hehe, I can just imagine the conversations Mattheson and Darwin would have had if they’d ever met.

 Posted by at 8:00 pm

The location of Paradise revealed

 Music  No Responses »
Dec 162005
 

One of my favourite quotes from Mattheson’s Der vollkommene Capellmeister is from the foreword: “…the four principal rivers wich originate ther [in Paradise]. But now the most common opinion on the location of Paradise is that it was situated in Mesopotamia toward Armenia, thus Eden must have been on the land which stretches between the Tigris and Euphrates up to the Armenian mountains. Certainly a fine spot!”

Certainly a fine spot indeed. Looks like a great place for a holiday trip. ;-)

 Posted by at 8:00 pm

Snowgrass

 100mm, Photo Friday  2 Responses »
Dec 162005
 

Snowgrass

 Posted by at 4:29 pm

Mattheson on perfection

 FreeBSD, Technology  No Responses »
Dec 152005
 

I’d like to quote Mattheson from Der vollkommene Capellmeister. In his foreword (I read from the english translation that’s close to impossible to get hold of these days. Publishers take note: this book requires a reprint!) he writes:

In France they say:

A passable meldoy or verse
Is not worth the devil.

Scholars are all of the opinion that it would be impossible for an individual to bring even only one branch of knowledge to perfection; but, in order to do this, it would be absolutely essential that many scholars pool their resources, render mutual assistance, and work collectively. For experience shows that nothing of significance is achived until matters are taken up through such cooperation.

I think this is one of the nicest places I’ve ever found support for the open source movement. And science for that matter. Words of note: mutual assistance, work collectively. Go out, do your work, share your insights and show us how you did it

 Posted by at 9:44 pm

Christmas music

 30mm  1 Response »
Dec 112005
 

Christmas music

 Posted by at 1:24 pm

Classic Nikon lenses on Canon EOS systems

 Photography  No Responses »
Dec 112005
 

Peter Spiro wrote an article making the argument to use Nikkor lenses on Canon EOS cameras. It fits nicely with the manual focus argument I’ve been making. Out of special interest, he has copied a table comparing 50mm lenses. I’ve decided NOT to go for a Canon 50mm lens, even though I’ve used my friends f/1.4 extensively.

 Posted by at 11:19 am
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