... and following on from my Bitcoin reading material from yesterday was something that was completely different but ordered in the same delivery! This one has much more to do with my day job, and it is a book but two of the leading writers in the Early Music field of music (that is what I specialise in). The Pathetick Musician deals with the writings and reflections on the philosophies and craft that musicians (and composers) employed in the Baroque era to move an audience.

This is of quite a bit of interest to me, as I am definitely landing in the camp of Historical Performance as a revision and revising of a set of intuitions and assumptions about how to interpret the blobs on the paper... leading to a new set of intuitions and assumptions that help us better understand the original intentions of the music, rather than interpretation through the modern lens... which is hopelessly out of context.

After all... to me, it makes little sense to think that music and the ways of interpreting music have remained unchanged for nearly three centuries. In fact, I think it is borderline high arrogance to think that our modern ideas about music are even remotely applicable! If we look to the fields of architecture, language, society, science, art... well, it is clearly obvious that many things have changed... from the mundane technical aspects through to the more refined topics of philosophy and general sentiment about a variety of topics.

... it would be strange to think that music would be any different. And yet, a good chunk of the "Classical" music profession (which I refer to as the modern musicians) are blissfully (or willfully) unaware of any cognitive dissonance there!

Anyway... to try and make it a little bit clearer... think about the interpretation of the US Constitution, the Magna Carta, or any other historical document. You would be hopelessly wrong and misled if you interpreted them literally according to modern definitions of words and semantics. In fact, you would be very far off the mark in many cases... but again, many people don't know any better, and will still make arguments based upon ignorance and flawed interpretation.

Just as a quick and simple illustration... "Pathetick"... in the title of this book. In the modern context...to be pathetic is something to be despised. Useless, hopeless... something to look down on. In the context of the Baroque and older meanings... it means the ability to evoke emotions and feelings in another... in the case of a musician, in the audience. This is an old rhetorical craft... but if you thought only along modern lines... well, you would be quite mistaken!

I had meant to get this book for quite some time... but I only finally jumped on it recently, as I had saw that they had written a chapter on something that is currently on my mind as I try to explain and teach modern musicians about the concept of Early Music. Many of them think it is about rules and lack of interpretation... this is due to the amount of new "rules and structures" that need to be learnt to replace the current set of assumptions and intuitions that they had already learnt. Sadly, they (and many Early Musicians sort of encourage this...) don't realise that the new framework is just a new beginning... and NOT the end-point. From there, you are free to interpret... after all, they had to LEARN the original modern framework.... they just don't remember it!

So... the thing that I was investigating was the old Greek (?) concept of Chronus and Kairos... the two different forms and experiences of time... and the application to music. I fear that modern musicians have succumbed too much to the concept of Chronus, and definitely when they apply their thinking and skills to early Baroque and Classical repertoire.... in fact, they generally strip much of the emotion and feeling from the early repertoire, unaware that the music of the past was not created by robots.

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