The Day France Killed Bach's Viola
Today is February 16. Yes, one of the darker days in history. We remember these days in their infamy. D-Day, V-Day, VE Day, Vday Day, Election day 2000 and the like are enshrouded by clouds of gore and death. (Awesome pun definitely intended).
But February 16th is the day that we should all remember as the point in history where the Enlightenment took its smiley social science to ruin the first of the seven artes liberales, the music of the spheres.
Here is the scene, pitch in music (the fundamental frequency of notes/sounds) was consistently defined according to different composers based on the nature of the music and instruments that were being utilized. For example, one may note.. (ahem) that pitch in Bach's organ fugues (as distinct from some of his other works) are relatively high owing to his own Leipzig pitchpipe placing A at near 500 Hz. This is unlike his English counterparts who placed the A at would be around an F or E# on Bach's organs. Therefore, Handel's work (Primarily written with English instruments in mind) translate inconsistently in Germany where Bach's well-tempered clavier set the standard for how keys are separated.
I know what you are thinking. This is crazy, how can this be, why cant we all have one standard? Well, start with this, what has standardization done for us lately? Standardized testing in the schools, standardized railways at the Civil War, standardized professional necessities for lawyers... they haven't done much other than squelch creativity in favor of the soft glow of mediocrity. So for the WTO people out there loving on the internet revolution and a women in pants in every country, this isn't for you.
France in 1859 was the first nation to, by legislation, standardize pitch. They standardized the A at 435 hz which is a very democratic and tolerant pitch comporting well with Enlightenment values. I would have moved that it be named the "Robespierre Pitch" in a sly honorarium to the great leader of our positivist past hung in the gallows of his own rational promulgation.
Ok, so here is the thing with all of this. I am ok with a standard pitch as long as it is taught as an innovation. The "hertz" unit is a modern designation that has a certain grounding in empirical science again owing to its Enlightenment forebears. Science and music is a lot like science and religion. You can talk about the same things, but your language is essentially different.
Before tuning forks and electronic tuners grounded musical expression according to accepted standards (though after Quantum theory, I don't see it lasting) people interpreted music an a generally "interpretive" way. That is to say, without the faux exactness of science, the impetus was much like reading a poem and augmenting tone and pitch in a way to express the author's intent. This is the essence of interpretation which the modern mind has collapsed in favor of meta-analytical schemes designating art according to social values rather than as human expression. That all began on this day in France, our divorce from awe.
Let music be music. Let it catch us up and connect us to the heavens. Let Hildegard von Bingen's tonal lowness bring us to prayer and Allegri's haunting High C in the Miserere bring us to contrition. Let the telos guide the praxis and burn to ashes this tradition of placing mind over matter, and nature over grace. There is an intelligible order to it all. It is enshrouded in mystery but only takes a willing mind. It cannot be broken down into its mereological constituents and those that try will be doomed in their humanist quest. Death to protestant and modern crafts that defy the order, long live the musicians who preserve our Father's creation.
Chouans!!!
Do (re) Be
"Without a 'music of the spheres' to approximate, modern music, like the other arts, begins to unravel. Music's self-destruction became logically imperative once it undermined its own foundation."
But February 16th is the day that we should all remember as the point in history where the Enlightenment took its smiley social science to ruin the first of the seven artes liberales, the music of the spheres.
Here is the scene, pitch in music (the fundamental frequency of notes/sounds) was consistently defined according to different composers based on the nature of the music and instruments that were being utilized. For example, one may note.. (ahem) that pitch in Bach's organ fugues (as distinct from some of his other works) are relatively high owing to his own Leipzig pitchpipe placing A at near 500 Hz. This is unlike his English counterparts who placed the A at would be around an F or E# on Bach's organs. Therefore, Handel's work (Primarily written with English instruments in mind) translate inconsistently in Germany where Bach's well-tempered clavier set the standard for how keys are separated.
I know what you are thinking. This is crazy, how can this be, why cant we all have one standard? Well, start with this, what has standardization done for us lately? Standardized testing in the schools, standardized railways at the Civil War, standardized professional necessities for lawyers... they haven't done much other than squelch creativity in favor of the soft glow of mediocrity. So for the WTO people out there loving on the internet revolution and a women in pants in every country, this isn't for you.
France in 1859 was the first nation to, by legislation, standardize pitch. They standardized the A at 435 hz which is a very democratic and tolerant pitch comporting well with Enlightenment values. I would have moved that it be named the "Robespierre Pitch" in a sly honorarium to the great leader of our positivist past hung in the gallows of his own rational promulgation.
Ok, so here is the thing with all of this. I am ok with a standard pitch as long as it is taught as an innovation. The "hertz" unit is a modern designation that has a certain grounding in empirical science again owing to its Enlightenment forebears. Science and music is a lot like science and religion. You can talk about the same things, but your language is essentially different.
Before tuning forks and electronic tuners grounded musical expression according to accepted standards (though after Quantum theory, I don't see it lasting) people interpreted music an a generally "interpretive" way. That is to say, without the faux exactness of science, the impetus was much like reading a poem and augmenting tone and pitch in a way to express the author's intent. This is the essence of interpretation which the modern mind has collapsed in favor of meta-analytical schemes designating art according to social values rather than as human expression. That all began on this day in France, our divorce from awe.
Let music be music. Let it catch us up and connect us to the heavens. Let Hildegard von Bingen's tonal lowness bring us to prayer and Allegri's haunting High C in the Miserere bring us to contrition. Let the telos guide the praxis and burn to ashes this tradition of placing mind over matter, and nature over grace. There is an intelligible order to it all. It is enshrouded in mystery but only takes a willing mind. It cannot be broken down into its mereological constituents and those that try will be doomed in their humanist quest. Death to protestant and modern crafts that defy the order, long live the musicians who preserve our Father's creation.
Chouans!!!
Do (re) Be
"Without a 'music of the spheres' to approximate, modern music, like the other arts, begins to unravel. Music's self-destruction became logically imperative once it undermined its own foundation."
posted by Duebster95 at 8:40 AM
2 Comments:
I officially and formally pronounce and decree that Do (re) Be, a.k.a Duebster95, a.k.a Duebs, a.k.a. Dubious, a.k.a. Doobs, a.k.a. db, a.k.a. Doobie, a.k.a Doob, shall heretofore and forevermore be the
BARD of the SILENT PLANET UPRISING
May he and Sir Ransom fight and battle to protect and defend the noble and upright art that is unstandardized pitch!
Fantastic post. I wish I could add anything to this, but it is just too good.
The standardization of pitch is a great example of an "invisible technology" that subversively and powerfully changes the way we act and think. I have said it before and I will say it again, everyone needs to read "Technopoly" by Neil Postman (or just listed to Do (re) Be).
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