THE NONSENSE OF MUSIC

BY

Rupert Mayr

GRAHAMSTOWN

RHODES UNIVERSITY

1973

THE NONSENSE OF MUSIC

IN A U G U R A L L E C T U R E D E L IV E R E D AT

RHODES U N IV E R S ITY

on

11th MARCH, 1971

by

R U P E R T M A Y R

Dr. Ph i l . ( Innsbruck), L . R. S. M. , Graduate in Organ and P iano for te of the Bruckner Conserva tory (L inz ) , Graduate in Conducting of the Mozarteum Academy of

Music (Salzburg)

PROFESSOR OF MUSIC

Pr in ted by theInstitute of Social and Economic Research

Rhodes U n ivers ity Grahamstown

A C K N O W LE D G E M E N TS

At the beginning of my lectu re I should like to express my sincere thanks to seve ra l people who helped me grea tly in p r e ­paring this paper.

Above all, thanks are due to my teachers and p ro fe s so rs at conservato ire , academy and univers ity , who taught me not only the fundamentals of mu sic but also im pressed on me the need and the des ire to continue my studies throughout the yea rs .

I should also like to thank my co lleagues at this univers ity , pa rt icu la r ly those in my own department, with whom I discussed many prob lem s of music, art, culture and l i fe . In such discussions they made me aware of many new aspects of our art.

Special thanks are due to Dr. Rutroff, who kindly provided some examples in the f ie lds of literature and rhetor ics , and to M iss J. Osborne, who helped in the final wording of this paper.

Furtherm ore , I thank all my students, past and present. Without their co llaboration, their questions,their own suggestions and their knowledge and work I might never have devoted my thoughts to aspects of music norm a lly outside our syllabus, nor would I have gained the insight into my subject without the con­tinual need to explain reasons and developments.

Last but not least I should like to thank my w ife for the patience with which she endured the prolonged stage of absent- mindedness, that clouded our household during the preparation of this lecture. I adm ire in particu lar, that, even though she listened to this paper a lready in the p r ivacy of our home, she decided to come and listen fo r a second time.

M r V ice -C han ce llo r , Lad ies and Gentlemen:

P e rm it me to start m y lecture by quoting from the s tr ic t ly confidential minutes o f a meeting o f a comm ittee o f a un ivers ity — I hasten to add, a un ivers ity other than Rhodes Univers ity :

"Po in t 7 : The com m ittee had be fore it an applicationby the Science Faculty fo r the purchase of some urgently needed spare parts fo r its labora tory equipment : total valueR345 617, 25. Without further discussion the comm ittee approved this application.

Point 8 : The com m ittee dealt at length with a r e ­quest by the Head of Music fo r a new music stand, approximate value R5. The com m ittee which fe lt responsib le fo r the economic handling o f un ivers ity funds noted that s im ila r applications had come fo rw ard during the last three yea rs . It was eventually decided to se lect a special com m ittee to investigate the academic qualities of a department that in the opinion of many was p r im a r i ly concerned with the cultivation of an enjoyable but unessential pastime, with — as one m em ber o f the com m ittee put it - "the nonsense of m us ic " . The special com m ittee was to consist o f represen ta t ives from the fo l lo w ­ing departments and facu lt ies: philosophy, languages, divinity, education and s c ie n c e . "

This quote, as many of you know, is not my own product, but a 'va r ia t ion ', to use a m usica l term , o f a s im ila r story told by a famous v is i to r during one o f his lectures in P o r t Elizabeth some months ago. I have chosen it not so much in the sense o f economic rea l i t ie s , but as a convenient pretext fo r an investigation into the sense or nonsense o f music. We started this evening on a f ictional basis and we might as well retain the pretence that has been e s ­tablished. In this way we shall create an atmosphere o f fantasy, an atmosphere often associated with music. M o reove r , f rom a musical point o f view, I shall then be able to develop m y 'main theme' in a m ore log ica l way, in a sort o f rondo structure, with the com m ittee meeting as unifying R itorne llo and the speeches of m y f iv e rep resen ta t ives as ep isodes. In fo rm ative dialogues w ere fo r centuries a favourite m ethod of instruction - why should we not adjust it to that basis o f human conversation which is r ep re s e n ­tative o f our days, v iz . the com m ittee? Let us leave then the introductory 'r i to rn e l lo ' and modulate im m ed ia te ly to the f i r s t episode - to 'M usic and Ph ilosophy '.

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MUSIC AND PH ILO SO PH Y

To the philosopher music is no unknown quality as it appears at random in the writ ings o f the grea t thinkers. In Western culture, the ancient Greeks w ere the f i r s t to concern them se lves with musical prob lem s, and to note two d if ferent aspects o f the art : the o lder Pythagorean school spec ified in the science ofmusic, whereas the younger school o f P la to and A r is to t le d is ­cussed in particu lar the educational value o f a thorough musical training. In a way, these two viewpoints correspond to the basic p r inc ip les that govern all musical activ ity, nam ely in te llectua lism and emotionalism . To the Pythagoreans, music was essentia lly a mathematical science, p r im a r i ly concerned with f igu res and ratios. To the Platonians, music was a fo rc e influencing the soul and and there fo re determining the actions and the character of a person. Good music results in a w ell balanced persona lity and produces a cit izen capable o f serv ing the in teres ts o f the community. Bad music spoils the character and consequently damages community l i fe .

Both the intellectual and the emotional qualities o f music w ere known to e a r l ie r c iv i l iza tions where such knowledge was often clad in mytholog ica l disguise and obscured by legend and m ystica l speculation. The fo llow ing story, fo r example, te lls us the or ig in o f Chinese scales:

"E m p e ro r Huang T i, . . . one day o rde red L ing Lun to make pitch pipes. L ing Lun went f r o m the west o f the Ta Hia and came to the North o f the YUan YU moun­tain. H ere he took bamboos from the va lley , se lected those the internodes of which w ere thick and even, and cut them between two nodes. Their length was three inches, nine lines. He blew them and made their tone the starting note . . . o f the scale. He blew them, and said: "T h a t 's r igh t" . Then he made twe lve pipes.Since he heard the m ale and the fem a le b ird Phoenix sing at the foot o f the mountain, he accord ing ly d is ­tinguished the twelve notes. He made six out o f the singing o f the male Phoenix, and also six out o f the singing o f the fem a le Phoenix, which all could be d e ­r ived from the main note. "1

Among Indian legends the fo llow ing report suggests the a ll- consuming power o f music:

"W hoever attempted to sing the raga Dipaka was to be destroyed by f i r e .

The E m peror Akbar o rdered Naik Gopaul, a ce lebrated musician, to sing that raga: he endeavoured to excuse h im se lf, but in vain; the E m peror insisted on

2

obedience. Naik Gopaul there fo re requested p e r ­m iss ion to go home and bid fa rew e l l to his fa m ily and fr iends. It was w inter when he returned, a fter an absence o f six months. B e fore he began singing he placed h im se lf in the w aters o f the Jumna t il l they reached his neck. As soon as he had p e r fo rm ed a strain or two, the r iv e r gradually became hot; at length it began to boil; and the agonies o f the unhappy musician w ere near ly insupportable. Suspending for a moment the m elody thus cru e lly extorted, he sued fo r m e rc y from the Monarch, but sued in vain. Akbar wished to prove m ore strongly the powers o f this raga: Naik Gopaul renewed the fatal song; f lam es burst with vio lence from his body, which, though im m ersed in the waters of the Jumna, was consumed to ashes. "2

Science and m ythologica l speculation mingle again in the ea r ly centuries o f the Christian Era, espec ia l ly in the writ ings of the Roman philo sopher mathematician Boethius. H is f ive volumes "De institutione m us ica " sum m arize Greek musical theory, but adapt it to a somewhat d if ferent outlook. Music, together with arithm etic , g eom e try and astronomy belongs to the 'Quadr iv ium 1, to the mathematical sc iences which have their counterpart in the linguistic sc iences o f the 't r iv iu m ' : g ram m ar, rhetor ic andlog ic . Bound together by the old Greek concept of the 'a rtes l ib e ra le s ' , that is "a r ts proper to the fr e e c it iz en " , these seven arts se rve the ideal o f 'know ledge ', o f 'insight into the u n ive rse ' . Boethius combines the ethical doctrines o f P la to and A r is to t le with the mathematical approach of the Pythagoreans, and regards music as an educational means as well as an essentia l requ is ite in d iscover ing the laws of the un iverse. This double function of music is expressed in the fo llow ing sentence from the introduction to book I o f the "Institu tione":

"O f the four mathematical sc iences, the others are concerned with the pursuit o f truth, but music is r e ­lated not only to speculation but to m ora l i ty as well.

The position o f music as a m ed iator between human behaviour and the un iverse is s tressed even m ore in the w rit ings of Cassiodorus. H is " Institu tiones" contain a section on music where we find the fo llow ing elaborations:

"T h e d iscip line o f music is diffused through a ll the actions o f our l i fe . F irs t , it is found that i f we p e r ­fo rm the commandments of the C rea tor and with pure minds obey the rules he has la id down, e v e r y word we speak, e v e ry pulsation of our veins, is re la ted by m usica l rhythms to the powers o f harmony. Music indeed is the knowledge o f apt modulation. If we l ive virtuously, we are constantly proved to be under its d iscip line, but when we com m it in justice we are without

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music. The heavens and the earth, indeed all things in them which a re d irected by a higher power, share in this discip line o f music, fo r Pythagoras attests that this universe was founded by and can be governed by mu sic.Music is c lo se ly boundup with re l ig ion itse lf . Witness the decachord of the Ten Commandments, the tinkling o f the harp, the t im bre l, the m elody o f the organ, the sound of cymbals. The v e ry P s a l te r is without doubt named after a musical instrument because the e x ­ceed ingly sweet and gratefu l m elody o f the ce les t ia l v irtues is contained within it.

Musical science is the d iscip line which treats of numbers in their re la tion to those things which are found in sounds, such as duple, tr ip le , quadruple and others ca lled re la t iv e that are s im ila r to these.

The definition o f music as having to deal with numbers as re la ted to sounds rem ained va lid throughout the Middle A ges and re -appeared as late as 1620 in A ls ted 's Encyclopedia which re fe rs to music as a "m athem atica l science subordinated to a r ithm etic " . The Pythagorean vis ion of a 'sounding un iverse ' reached a late and im p res s iv e culmination in the f iv e vo lumes "De Harmonice Mundi" o f the astronom er and philosopher Johann Kep le r . N ow ­adays ch ie fly rem em b ered fo r the d is cove ry o f the three laws of p lanetary movements, Kep le r was a musical philosopher o f high rank who based, his astronom ica l resea rch on both sc ientific ob­servation and m athem atica l-m usica l speculations. A f i rm be l ie v e r in the "Harm ony of the W orld " he looked fo r musical ratios in the movements of the planets. In t rans fe rr ing these ratios into in terva ls , scales and m elod ies he wished not only to demonstrate the 'sound of the un iverse ' but also to anchor the musical theory o f his t ime in laws of tru ly universa l valid ity .

To the philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries, music was no longer a subject of sc ientific and mathematical qualities, but essen tia lly an art of express ion and as such a topic fo r aesthetic investigation.

Immanuel Kant, one of the most systematic and cr it ica l minds in the h is tory o f philosophy, der ived lit t le satisfaction from music which he regarded as "m o re a m atter o f enjoyment than of cu lture". Accepting the viewpoint o f baroque musical theory, he r e fe r r e d to music as a 'language o f a ffect ions '. But according to his judgement "m usic speaks by means of m ere sensations, without concepts, and so does not, like poetry , leave behind it any food for re f lect ion . "

The fo llow ing words from his "K r i t ik der aesthetischen U rte i lsk ra ft" - words o f surpris ing actuality in our t im e of tran­sistor radios and grammaphones - prove Kant's negative attitude towards the subject:

4

"M usic has a certa in lack o f urbanity about it. For owing ch ie fly to the character o f its instruments, it scatters its influence abroad to an uncalled fo r extent (through the neighbourhood) and thus as it w ere becomes obtrusive and deprives others, outside the m usica l c ir c le , o f their freedom . . . . The case is a lmost on a par with the p ract ise o f rega ling onese lf with a perfume that exhales its odours fa r and wide. The man who pulls his perfumed handkerchief f r om his pocket g ives a treat to all around whether they l ike it o r not and compels them, i f they want to breath at all, to be parties to the enjoyment. "5

Beethoven 's con tem porary F r ied r ich H ege l groups the arts into three d if ferent ca tegor ies , v iz . the symbolic, the c lass ica l and the romantic. This dif ferentiation corresponds to the r e ­spective balance between the spiritual idea (or content) and its m ater ia l iza t ion (or fo rm ). The symbolic arts, l ike arch itecture , are dominated by the weight o f their matter. The tem ple needs a God to g ive content to the fo rm . The c la ss ica l arts, exem plif ied by Greek sculptures, display a pe r fec t balance between content and fo rm . But i f is the 'rom antic ' arts which rank highest in this h ie ra rch ica l o rder , as these arts are a lmost tota lly f r e e from the lim itations o f m atter. Music, according to H ege l 's reasoning, requ ires no space and ex ists only in time. Its m ater ia l medium is a succession o f sounds or tones. While sculptures ex ist in space, independent and outside the spectator, music has no such permanence, but comes into ex istence only within the beholder, penetrating his soul. The most emotional o f all the arts, music appeals im m edia te ly . The emotional qualities, however, must never de te r io ra te into m ere sentiment, but have to be organ ized and made subservient to a unifying pr inc ip le , to a content o r idea. H eg e l 's a rt is t ic demands found their rea liza t ion in the works of his grea tes t contem porary, Ludwig von Beethoven, whose music combines im m edia te emotional appeal with s tr ic t adherence to a unifying pr inc ip le .

Music occupies an even higher position within the ph iloso ­phical system of Schopenhauer's "T h e w or ld as w il l and idea " . The third volume of this, his most famous work, is devoted en­t i r e ly to questions o f aesthetics, or , to use Schopenhauer's own words, " to the platonic idea as the object o f a r t " . To appreciate the unique place Schopenhauer assigns to music, it is n ecessa ry to sum m arize b r ie f ly the essentia l points o f his w or ldv iew .

Accord ing to his be lie f , the w or ld is essen tia l ly an o b je c t i f i ­cation of the 'w i l l ' . Analogue to the Kantian ' T h in g - in - i t s e l f ' the immanent w ill m anifests i ts e l f in a grea t d iv e rs i ty o f Ideas (in the P la ton ic sense) which in turn express them se lves in a multitude o f individuals. To quote:

"A s the m agic lantern shows many d if ferent pictures which a re all made v is ib le by one and the same light, so in all the multifar ious phenomena which f i l l the

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world together o r throng a fter each other as events, only ONE W IL L m anifests itse lf , o f which everyth ing is the v is ib i l i ty , the ob ject iv ity , and which remains unmoved in the m idst o f this change; it alone is thing- in - itse lf ; a ll objects are manifestations, or , to speak the language o f Kant, p h en om en a ."6

A l l the d if ferent manifestations o f the w il l fo rm a pyramid, commencing with unorganized nature through the vegetab le k ing­dom and the fo rm s o f animals to man who stands at the apex of this pyram id . A ccord ing to its nature, knowledge rem ains com ­p le te ly subject to the w ill , a dependence from which man can fr e e h im se lf only in exceptional cases, v iz . by relinquishing his in ­dividuality in a p rocess o f f ixed contemplation. To quote:

" I f he g ives the whole power o f his mind to perception, sinks h im se lf en tire ly in this and lets his whole con­sciousness be f i l le d with the quiet contemplation of the natural ob ject actually present . . . in as much as he looses h im se lf in this object, i. e. fo rge ts even his individuality, his w ill , and only continues to ex ist as the pure subject, the c lea r m ir r o r o f the object, . . . then that which is so known is no longer the particu lar thing as such, but it is the Idea, the eternal fo rm , the im m ediate ob jec t iv ity o f the w ill at this grade, and there fo re , he who is sunk in this perception is no longer individual . . . but he is pure, w i l l - le s s , pa in -less , t im e - le s s subject o f knowledge. " 7

Only the genius who has been entrusted with a la rg e r amount of knowledge than the norm al human being, only the genius shall be able to grasp the ideas by pure contemplation. And only A r t has as its object the tru ly essentia l, the Idea, which it then r e ­produces according to its m ater ia l as sculpture, painting, poetry or music. Of these arts, sculpture, painting and poetry depend on the representation o f particu lar things, on fo rm s fro m the phenomenal world . Only music stands alone, separated from the other arts, fo r " in it we do not recogn ise the copy or repetit ion of any Idea o f ex istence in the w or ld " . While all the other arts ob­je c t i fy the w ill ind irec t ly by means o f the Ideas, music is en tire ly independent o f the phenomenal w or ld and could ex ist i f there was no w orld at all, fo r it is not a copy o f ideas but the copy o f the w ill i tse lf .

"T h is is why the e f fect o f music is so much m ore powerful and penetrating than that o f the other arts, fo r they speak only o f shadows, but it speaks o f the thing itse l f . " ®

It fo llows, then, that music never exp resses the phenomenon, but only the inner nature o f all phenomena. It th ere fo re does not reproduce a spec ific joy or so rrow or pain, but joy, so rrow , pain them se lves , without their m otives . In summing up his discourse

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on art, Schopenhauer concludes that "w e m ay rega rd the phenomenal w orld or nature, and music as two d if ferent ex ­press ions o f the same thing", or , to use the language o f the school­men, that "m usic g ives the un iversa lia ante r em and the rea l w or ld the un iversa lia in r e " .

The pyram ida l arrangem ent o f a ll natural things, ranging f r o m m ere m atter to man as the highest grade o f ob ject if icat ion has its pa ra l le l in the harmonic arrangem ent o f music, i. e. : the bass corresponds to unorganized nature, the inner parts to p ro g re s s iv e ly higher grades. Their p rogress ion s and movements, however, still lack melodious connection and significant p rog ress . Only the m e lo d y m oves "with unrestrained fre edom in the unbroken significant connection o f one thought f ro m beginning to end" and there fo re represen ts "the highest grade o f the ob ject if icat ion of w ill , the intellectual l i fe and e f fo r t of man".

We have seen ea r l ie r that H ege l 's philosophical outlook was rea l iz ed in the w or ld o f Beethoven. We may as w ell draw a s im ila r pa ra l le l between the concept o f Schopenhauer and the work o f R ichard Wagner, fo r within the Wagnerian music drama, music is never subservient or supplementary to action, but always speaks of the thing itse lf .

Schopenhauer1 s romantic idea lism ep itom izes the preva il ing outlook of the 19th century. In the m iddle o f the same century, in 1854, the V iennese cr it ique and P r o fe s s o r o f Music Eduard Hanslick published his "Th e Beautiful in M u s ic " , a work which opposes rom an tic ism in favour o f a c lass ica l viewpoint. Hanslick re je c ts the popular b e l ie f in music as a language o f definite emotions. He also denies that the object o f music is to arouse fee l ings . Instead, music l ike any other art, a ims p r im a r i ly "at producing something beautiful which a ffects not our fee l ings but the organ of pure contemplation, our im agination". The beautiful, in turn, "a im s at nothing, since it is nothing but a fo rm which, though ava ilab le fo r many purposes accord ing to its nature, has as such no a im beyond itse l f . I f the contemplation o f something beautiful arouses pleasurable fee l ings , this e f fect is distinct f rom the beautiful as such". Fee lings , th ere fo re , a re only the in d iv i­dual reaction to a p re -ex is ten t sensation, but a re not essentia l to the object that produces this sensation. To i l lu stra te his a r ­gument, Hanslick c o r r e c t ly states that

"the decis ion whether one is m ore deeply a ffected by a symphony o f M ozart, a tragedy by Shakespeare, a poem by Uhland or a Rondo by Hummel must depend, after all, on the individual h im s e l f " .9

While music, according to its nature, is incapable o f r e p r o ­ducing spec if ic emotions, it can neverthe less rep resen t their dynamic p ropert ies . An abstract concept such as ' lo v e ' l ies to ta lly outside the domain o f music. But its qualify ing ch arac­t e r is t ic s can be expressed , prov ided they are associa ted with motions or m ovem ents, as e . g . ' r e s t le s s ' , 'c a lm ', 'exc ited ' or

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'passionate '. Consequently, we m ay speak o f 'r e s t le s s ' or 'c a lm ' music, but never o f music representing 'r e s t le s s lo v e ' .

Apart f ro m the element o f motion, music also employs to a moderate degree sym bolism of sound to po rtray states o f fee lings . Such a symbolic usage of keys, chords or modes appeals to our mind only in an ind irect manner, as we are influenced not by the actual sounds but by the meaning we attach to them. (A good example o f such an association can be found in the common attitude towards the m inor key, which is often thought to express 'sadness '. This interpretation, however, is o f f a i r ly recent or ig in and was tota lly fo re ign to com posers o f e a r l i e r periods, who employed m inor modes side by side with m ajo r modes pure ly for musical and never fo r emotional reasons. )

The nature of music is sp ec i f ica l ly musical, i . e . its various elements serve only the express ion o f m usica l ideas. Hanslick condenses this b e l ie f into the well-known definition "T h e essence o f music is sound and m o t ion " .10 Its beauty l ies en tire ly within the rea lm of m usica l considerations, v iz . in the perfec tion of the details and in their log ica l combination and arrangement. The tru ly musical l is ten er w ill devote his attention to the particu lar fo rm and character o f a composition, to its individual features and not to the fee l ing it expresses .

At the t im e of its publication, Hanslick 's t rea t ise met with opposition fro m musicians and theoris ts who be lieved in the essentia l identity o f all arts, an identity which a llowed fo r 'translations ' o f a g iven content f rom painting into poetry , or into music, en tire ly in accordance with the wishes and intentions of the artist. The fo l low e rs o f this romantic doctrine could not but object to the fo rm a l is t ic and autonomous viewpoint held by Hanslick. C om posers and musicians o f our time, how ever, occupy a position much c lo ser to the sp ir it o f n e o -c la ss ic ism and in te llectua lism . Above all, Hanslick 's approach was substantial in the development of proper m usico log ica l research , which has to base its findings on facts and not on imagination and dream s.

At this point we reach the end of a chapter. R em em ber the pseudo-fictional content o f this lecture, fo r accord ing to our story we have just listened to the 'm inutes ' o f a talk g iven by the r e ­presen tative o f the philosophical faculty to a com m ission . A com m ission entrusted with the task o f evaluating the sense or nonsense of music.

We seem also to have a r r iv ed at an opportune moment to reg is te r the slight unease with which the rep resen ta t ive o f the science faculty listened to this address. He dis liked in particu lar the expression "m athem atica l sc ientific speculation" that had been used in connexion with the attempts o f ea r ly ph ilosophers to d is ­c lose the secre ts o f the un iverse. He thought this rather am a­teurish but, he did not want to pre jud ice the com m ission with any objections from his side. M o reove r , the contrast between the weakness of these ea r ly mathematica l attempts and the c lea r log ic

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o f modern calculations would add w e lcom e support to his own arguments, once it was his turn to speak.

For the t ime being, he kept certa in points in mind while l isten ing to the d iscourse o f the next speaker. He was the r e ­presen ta tive o f the language departments, who had just begun to address the comm ittee.

MUSIC AND LA NG U A G E

Through ages music and language w ere c lo se ly interwoven as p r im a ry means of human express ion and communication. Complementing each other, they a re interdependent like speech and vo ice . Certa in ly , the human vo ice can be used without the simultaneuous enunciation of words, but this usage is n orm a lly re s tr ic ted to uncontrolled utterances o f joy or o f pain or may se rve as a simple means of communication. M usico logy r e fe r s to c r ie s and ca lls o f this kind as "pathogen ic" o r emotion-born. The p r im it iv e spontaneity o f such music has its intellectual counterpart in the " lo g og en ic " or w ord -born music, which owes its ex istence to the m usica l rendering o f a text, o f a verba l m essage o f spec if ic content.

Of the two proto-types , both of which appear regu la r ly among p r im it iv e soc ie t ies , the logogen ic or w ord-born ca tegory was destined to ca r ry the development o f music fo r many centuries. Music was used to intensify speech or, in the so -ca l led 'm usical languages' became an in tegra l part o f the language itse l f , d e te r ­mining the meaning o f a word or a group of words. The ea r l ie s t examples o f w ord-born music c i r c le around a nucleus o f one, two or three d if ferent pitches, the number o f pitches depending on the cultural development o f the tr ibe . The higher c iv i l iza t ions soon expanded the l im ited range o f notes and a r r iv e d at pentatonic, heptatonic and other scale form ations. In W estern culture, the combined fo rc es o f music and language reached their f i r s t cu l­mination in the dram atic m asterw orks o f ancient G reece . The plays o f Aeschy los , Sophocles and Euripides w ere so c lo se ly in terwoven with choral and so lo is t ic singing that the 19th century philosopher F r ied r ich N ie tzsche r e f e r r e d to them as " traged ies born from the sp ir it o f m us ic " . It is most unfortunate that only fragm ents o f the music survived, fragm ents which are too short to allow any conclusions about the compositional technique o f their p laywright - com poser s.

During the M iddle A ges poetry and music entered a pa rt icu ­la r ly important partnership. The Troubadours and T rou ve res o f France as well as their fo l low e rs in Spain, Portuga l, Germany, Ita ly and England, w ere both : poets and s ingers. The poetica l fo rm s w ere identical with the musical fo rm s , the rondeau, the ballade, the chanson de geste , the rotrouenge, the la isse a. o. Many of these fo rm s have their pa ra l le l in the musica l patterns o f the G regor ian Chant. Others, such as the v ir e la i , trans fer

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poetica l designs into music. Po e ts such as Guilhem IX, Rudel, de Ventadorn, Blondel, Adam de la Hale, Machaut, A lfonso el Sabio, W o lfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, to mention but a few, are known equally w ell to historians of l i t e ra - ture and of music.

In the 14th and 15th centuries, the fo rm a l ism of troubadour poetry and music gave way to a poetic and musical style o f g rea te r individuality and express iveness . This a rt is t ic change had been made possib le by the r is e o f the 'do lce stil nuovo', the new m ellow style o f Italian poetry which came to its f i r s t c lim ax in the works o f the poet and musician Dante A l igh ie r i and which reached ultimate perfec tion in the passionate subjectivity o f F rancesco P e t r a r c a 's " I I C anzon iere " . Through the centuries, its canzonas and sonnets prov ided the model fo r European love poetry and supplied com posers with suitable texts fo r their exp ress ive song writ ing. Dufay, the grea t m aster of the Burgundian school, was among the f i r s t to u t i l ize the new language fo r some o f his finest compositions.

An even m ore important combination of poetry and music fo llowed ea r ly in the 16th century with the em ergence of the Italian m adriga l. O rig ina lly , a simple pastora l idyll, the m adriga l soon g rew into one o f the most popular m us ica l-poe tica l fo rm s of the Italian Renaissance. While historians o f l i te ra tu re associa te it p r im a r i ly with the m annerism of the P e tra rch fo l low er Cardinal Bembo, historians o f music use the te rm in a much w ider sense and apply it in many branches o f secular vocal music, including other poetic patterns, as for example the sonnet, the ballata, the canzona or the sestina. Owing to the c lose in terre la tionship of poetic content and musical expression, m adriga ls a re even r e ­fe r r e d to as "un iversa l works o f a r t " with small dimensions. This re fe rence , introduced by the eminent m usico log is t Gustav Reese , is the m ore just if ied as m adriga l com posers often e m ­ployed a naive p ic to r ia l ism in the notation of the music. For instance, notes in red colour would be superposed on texts r e fe r r in g to ' f i r e ' , or black notes on words such as "da rkness" or "death". Increas ing ly w ord-consc ious, poets and musicians no longer approved of the long established vocal polyphony where the over lap of d if ferent vo ice parts often rendered the words un­in te l l ig ib le . In their des ire to rem edy this fault, a group of amateur com posers , liv ing in F lorence , developed a new kind of music. Their sponsor was Count Giovanni de 'Bard i, keenly de­voted to a musical r ev iva l that would correspond to the prevalent trends o f the Renai s sance movement. In a "D iscou rse on Ancient Music and Good Singing" from ca 1580, he c r i t iz is ed counterpoint as being unsuitable fo r the presentation of words. To quote:

"W e shall endeavour not to spoil the ve rse , not im itating the musicians o f today who think nothing o f spoiling it to pursue their ideas, or o f cutting it to bits to make nonsense of the words, l ike a man who does not mind that the robe made fro m the cloth that he has is short and i l l - f i t t in g . . . For to take an example, while the

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soprano sings 'V o i que ascoltate in r im e ' the bass at the same time sings other words, thus m ixing one idea with another which r igh tly considered is the torture and death o f forsaken music. This subject is d is ­cussed by all the grea t scholars and in particu lar by P la to who says that the m elody ought always to fo l low the v e r s e that the poet has composed. . . . In com ­posing, then, you w ill make it your ch ief aim to arrange the v e rs e w ell and to dec la im the words as in te l l ig ib ly as you can, not letting you rse l f be led astray by the counterpoint, . . . fo r you w ill consider it se lf-ev iden t that, just as the soul is nob ler as the body, so the words are nob ler than the counterpoint. 11

Count B ard i 's vis ion o f a m usica l development represen ta t ive o f Renaissance sp ir it became rea l i ty when towards the end of the 16th century a f i r s t attempt was made to r e v iv e the dram atic art o f Ancient G reece .

Ottavio Rinuccini, who prov ided the l ib re tto fo r this event as w ell as fo r la te r s im ila r occasions, reports as fo l low s :

" It has been the opinion o f many . . . that the ancient Greeks and Romans, in representing their traged ies upon the stage, sang them throughout. But until now this noble manner o f rec ita tion has been neither r e -v iv ed n o r (to m y knowledge) even attempted by anyone, and I used to be lieve that this was due to the im p e r ­fection of modern music, by fa r in fe r io r to the ancient.But the opinion thus fo rm ed was wholly driven out from m y mind by Jacopo P e r i who . . . set to music with so much g race the fable o f Dafne (which I had written s o le ly to make a simple t r ia l o f what the music o f our age could do) that it gave p leasure beyond be l ie f to the few who heard it. "12

The operatic 'Stile rappresenta tivo ' inevitab ly enhanced the express iveness of music and made it a rea l language with a la rg e vocabu lary o f m otifs and phrases with c le a r ly defined meaning.

This important development was considerab ly aided by the renewed in terest in the ancient art o f rhetor ic , which exerted an eve r grow ing influence on the further course o f music. As ea r ly as in the 16th century musicians and theoris ts distinguished b e ­tween the rational compositions o f the 'm athem atic i ' , i . e . the fo l low e rs o f the old style, and the new 'm usica r e s e rva ta ' with its dependence on rhe tor ica l techniques and e lem ents. This dependence appeared f i r s t l y in the rather l im ited f ie ld o f the so- ca lled 'humanistic ode' where the short and long sy llab les o f the text had their exact equivalent in the note values o f the simple settings. La te r , com posers a imed to in terpret the 'sentiment' or 'a ffec tion ' o f words and sentences by standardized musical f igu res , p rogress ion s or s im ila r dev ices . In his trea t ise 'Musica poetica ' f r om 1613 Johannes Nucius l is ts , among others, the

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fo llow ing words which requ ire spec if ic musical consideration:

(a) ' Verba a ffectuum ': " la e ta r i , gaudere, la c rym a r i , t im ere , r id e r e 1' a. o.

(b) Words o f motion and p laces : "s ta re , sa ltare, cu rre re , ascendere, descendere" and "coe lum , montes, Abissus, profundum, altum" a. o.

(c) Adverbs o f t ime and number : " c e le r i t e r , v e lo c i te r , cito, tarde, sem el, bis, ter , iterum , saepe" a. o.

Nucius also r e fe r s to the a lready mentioned p ic to r ia l ism , the so -ca l led 'e y e -m u s ic ' and recom m ends the use o f empty or white notes fo r words l ike 'day ' or ' l igh t ' and black notes fo r words l ike 'night' and 'darkness '.

In addition to the standard vocabulary other methods are used to assist com posers in the in itial stages of their com pos i­tions. Heinichen, in his 'Genera lbass in der Com position ' f r om 1728 and Mattheson, in his 'D er vo llkom m ene K a p e l lm e is te r ' f r o m 1739 r e f e r espec ia l ly to the 'L o c i Top ic i ' o f the 'a rs rhe to r ica '. The 'Locus notationis ', fo r example, which uses a name or te rm fo r c le v e r associations or puns, has its musical equivalent in the re -a rrangem en t o f single notes within a phrase, in the l i t e ra l or va r ied repetit ion o f short pa r t ic les and in canonic im itation. The 'Locus de fin it ion is ', used by rhetor ic fo r the descrip tion of things or concepts, can be used m us ica lly fo r the express ion of emotions or a ffections. The naive methods ofdescr ip t ive music, much favoured by baroque com posers , have their rhetor ica l counterpart in the 'locus adjunctorum' whereas quotations from the music o f other m asters are just if ied a c c o r ­ding to the p r inc ip les o f L o c i 'exem p lorum ' and 'tes tim on iorum '.

Having accomplished the 'In ven tio ' or se lection of a suitable topic, com posers p roceed to the 'D ispos it io ' or 'E labora t io ' . For this second rhetor ica l operation theoris ts p rov ide equally detailed instructions as fo r t h e 'Inventio '. In his 'M usica poetica ' f r o m 1606 B u rm eis te r recom m ends a tr ipar t ite d isposition fo r any 'carm en musicum ', v iz . the Exordium, the 'Ipsum corpus ca rm in is ' and the 'F in is ' . The functions o f these parts c o r r e s ­pond to the main sections o f any speech. The 'E xord ium ' serves as an introduction or preparation, 'to capture the benevo lence ' of the audience; the 'corpus ca rm in is ' or main section has its pa ra lle l in the rhetor ica l 'con f irm atio ' and the 'F in is ' , l ike the epilogue in speech, g ives a pleasant ending to the composition. Mattheson suggests a subdivision into six sections: Introduction, Narration , Propos it ion , Confutation,Confirmation and Pero ra t ion . This subdivision underlies many baroque compositions and Mattheson h im se lf i l lustrates his proposa l with an analysis o f an A r ia by his Italian contem porary Benedetto M a rce l lo . The same outline, however, also appears in instrumental music, as fo r example in the f i r s t movement o f Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3. The relationship between rhetor ic and music is espec ia l ly

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c lose in the f ie ld o f the third rhetor ica l operation, the 'd ecora t io '. Speakers and com posers em ploy a va r ie ty o f f igu res and tropes not only fo r purposes o f decoration, but p r im a r i ly fo r arousing the wanted a ffections. A few examples should suffice to i l lustra te the m ore striking s im i la r i t ie s between the two arts.

A number o f rh e tor ica l f igu res u t i l izes the e lement of repeat. A good example fo r an 'Anaphora ', i. e. the repeat o f a word at the beginning o f seve ra l success ive sentences, occurs in a poem by W il l ia m Blake (No. 8 f rom his 'Songs o f Innocence '):

"H e doth g ive his jo y to all He becom es an infant small;He becom es a man o f woe;He doth fe e l the so rrow too. "

The fo llow ing psalm v e rse g ives us another, longer example fo r an Anaphora:

"T h e vo ice o f the L o rd is powerful:The vo ice o f the L o rd is full o f m ajesty :The vo ice o f the L o rd shaketh the w ilderness . "

The a forem entioned poem by Blake also contains an 'ep izeu x is ' , i . e . an im m ediate repeat o f words and sentences:

"No , no, n ever can it be!N ev e r , never can it be. "

A d if ferent type o f repeat pattern is the recu rren ce o f the initial word at the end of a phrase o r sentence, as in the fo llow ing example:

"S ev e re to his servants, to his ch ildren seve re . "

Two other rhetor ica l patterns important fo r our purposes are the 'g rada tio ' and the 'd istr ibutin '. The fo rm e r has been compared to a ladder which helps to ascend stepwise fro m the low er to the higher term , as fo r example in Po p e 's 'Ode on Solitude' :

"B le ssed , who can unconcernd 'ly find hours, days and yea rs slide soft away. "

The la tter , the 'd istr ibution c la r i f ie s a subject by subdivision into parts o r aspects. An amusing example o f a 'd is tr ibu tio ' occurs in 'K ing L e a r ' Act 2, Scene 2:

"A k n ave , a rasca l, an eater o f broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly , three-su ited , hundred- pound, f i lthy w orsted-s tock ing knave; a l i l y - l i v e r e d , action-taking knave; a g lass -ga z ing , s u p e r - s e r v ic e ­able f in ica l rogue; one-trunk-inherit ing slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good se rv ice , and art nothing but the composition o f a knave, beggar,

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coward, pandar and the son and he ir o f a m ongre l bitch. . . . "

The various rhetor ica l patterns have their equivalent in music. Repeats o f phrases and m otifs a re ex trem e ly common and essentia l to the internal unity o f longer and successive phrases. The gradatio has its musical pa ra l le l in the gradual ascent o f a m ot if or phrase, each ascent intensifying the or ig ina l line. The distributio underlies those m usica l fo rm s or sections that a im at the c lar if ica t ion , e laboration and development of a subject or theme.

L ike rhetor ic , music employs the wide range o f ava ilab le f igu res in the se rv ic e o f a 'doctr ine o f a ffect ions ' that a ims at arousing spec ific emotions in the l is ten e r 's mind. K ir c h e r 's 'Musurgia u n ive rsa l is ' f r om 1650 stresses the interconnexion of rhetor ic and music when he says:

"Sicut rhetor ica . . . nunc delectat, nunc contristat, nunc ad iracundiam, iam ad com m iserat ionem , modo ad indignationem, . . . impetus vehementes aliosque affectus provocat . . . ita et musica animum agitat. "

The in terre la t ion of rhetor ic and music underlies also the last of the four rhetor ica l operations l is ted by C ice ro , v iz . the 'E locutio ' or 'A c t io ' . Both, speech and music r e ly fina lly on a good and c lear presentation. Musical theorists o f m an y per iods emphasize the signif icance o f a p roper and co rre c t interpretation which needs to consider the m eo ld ic lines and the meaning of f igures and phrases. F o r the laws o f speech also prov ide the guiding lines fo r vocal and instrumental per fo rm an ce . Mattheson sum m arizes the s im i la r i ty between the arts with the fo llow ing statement:

"He who cannot speak cannot sing; and he, who cannot sing, cannot play. "

The connexion between language and music which evo lved ea r ly in the baroque era became stil l c lo ser in the centuries that fo llowed. During the c lass ica l per iod it led to a new c l im ax of the opera. Since its beginnings in the late Renaissance opera underwent considerab le changes and developments. Conceived or ig ina l ly as G reek traged ies , reborn fro m the sp ir it o f the Renaissance, operas la te r de ter iorated into public showpieces o f m ere entertainment value. The poor l ib re ttos , the accumu­lation of improbable situations, the many and taste less stage effects and the musical excesses o f the star s ingers eventually gave r is e to a fee l ing o f d issatis faction, to c r i t ic ism and satire . In his contributions t o 'The Spectator ' (Tuesday, March 6, 1711) Joseph Addison had the fo llow ing to say:

" I found, by the d iscourse o f the actors, that there w ere grea t designs on foot fo r the im provem ent o f the opera, . . . that there was actually a p ro jec t o f bringing

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the New R iv e r into the house, to be employed in jetteuas and w ater-w orks . This pro jec t , as I have since heard, is postponed t i l l the summer season, when it is thought the coolness that proceeds from fountains and cascades w ill be m ore acceptable and re fresh ing to people o f quality. In the meantime to find out a m ore agreeab le entertainment fo r the w inter season, the opera o f Rinaldo is f i l led with thunder and lightning, illuminations and f i r e -w o rk s ; which the audience m ay look upon without catching cold, and indeed without much danger o f being burnt. For there are seve ra l engines f i l le d with water and ready to play at a m inute 's warning in case any such accident should happen. H ow ever, as I have a v e r y grea t fr iendship fo r the owner o f this theatre, I hope that he has been w ise enough to insure his house be fore he would let this opera be acted in it. "13

It was against this background that Gluck and M ozart succeeded in g iv ing new meaning to opera, the fo rm e r in the f ie ld o f the 'opera se r ia ' , the la tter in his sem i-se r iou s and comic operas, where the old humanistic concept became the c a r r ie r of a humanitarian m essage.

Language and music continued their c lose partner ship during the 19th century. The emotional outlook o f that pe r iod had its or ig in in the l i t e r a r y movement known as 's to rm and s t re s s ' , a movement which pleaded fo r the unrestrained express ion of fee l ings . Its impact was fe lt fo r a f i r s t t ime in the music o f the 1770s, its full fo rc e was kept in check until the turn of the century, when poets and com posers fina lly abandoned c lass ica l res tra in t in favour of romantic freedom . The ly r ic a l language o f Heine, E ichendorff, Chamisso, Mbrike and many m ore opened a new era not only for German poetry but also fo r the German L ied which reached its g rea test heights in the hands o f Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Wolf, Mahler and Strauss. The romantic partnership language-music was by no means l im ited to song writ ing only, but intruded into other musical fo rm s , even into the symphony, hitherto one of the main rep resen ta t ives o f 'absolute m us ic '. No longer convinced of the autonomous position of their art, com posers re l ied on extram usica l p rog ram m es , stor ies , legends or scenes o f nature which they depicted by musical means. The symphony, thereby, turned into the 'symphonic poem ', a typ ica lly romantic hybrid o f music and poetry.

The interpenetration of the two arts occas iona lly leads to the fascinating phenomenon of the double-talent m u s ic ian -w rite r or poet-music ian . While com posers o f e a r l i e r t im es hardly eve r ventured into the domain o f l ite ra tu re , romantic com posers often addressed their public by musical means as well as by l i t e r a r y fo rm s such as essays, c r i t ic ism s , autobiographies or learned elaborations on spec if ic musical prob lem s. Schumann became famous not only fo r his compositions, but also fo r his in terest in l ite ra tu re , fo r the starting o f a m usica l per iod ica l and

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fo r his c r i t ica l essays. The autobiographies o f W eber and B er l io z are highly amusing with their v iv id descrip tions o f p e r ­sonal exper iences and h is tor ic background. W agner 's books may not be as easy to read, but grant us a rem arkab le insight into the persona lity o f their author. By nature o f his pro fess ion , the m u s ic ian -w rite r rem ains bas ica lly a musician who discusses musical prob lem s, though with considerable l i t e r a r y skill and ability. The poet-music ian , on the other hand, represen ts a double-talent in the str ict sense o f the term , because his poetry m ay deal with m usica l m atters , though this is not essentia l, whereas his compositions have to fo llow the topics and laws of music. The best known examples o f such double-talents are J. J. Rousseau and E. T. A Hoffman. The fo rm e r , ph ilosopher, educationalist, poet and com poser exerted tremenduous influence on the a rt is t ic outlook of the c lass ica l per iod . The la tter p r e ­sented his fo l low ers and successors not only with one o f the f i r s t romantic operas, but a lso with a w or ld o f imagination, fantasy and dreams, a w or ld idea lly suited fo r romantic music. In the third story from his K re is le r ian a , Hoffman in term ing les poetry and music in a pa rt icu la r ly fascinating manner, when K r e is le r meditates on the meaning and content o f success ive harmonies. The romantic be lie f in k ey -sym bo lism , which underlies this story also accounts fo r the ass im ila tion of key and colour in K r e i s l e r 's le t ter to the Baron Wallborn:

"A t that occasion I w ore a jacket in a shade of C SharpMinor, but with a co lla r in E M ajor , which I hadadded on to appease all those who had to look at me. "

Hoffm an 's fanciful m e rg e r of sound and colour foreshadows the s im ila r fusion of these elements in im press ion is t ic music and in the paintings o f the A m er ican James M cN e il l W his tle r , who entitled some of his pictures "M e lody System ", "Nocturne in Blue and S i lv e r " or "Harm ony in Black and G rey " .

But with these re fe ren ces we have a lready le ft the topic language and music and m ay consequently p roceed to a new chapter.

MUSIC AND D IV IN ITY

A fte r the represen ta t ive o f the language department had completed his address the spokesman fo r the faculty o f D ivin ity expressed his v iews on the sense or nonsense o f music. He be­gan his speech by drawing the attention of the com m ittee to his rather unfortunate position. He was a lo v e r and grea t connoisseur o f music and his magnificent re co rd co llection was the envy o f his co lleagues in the music department. In fact they often borrowed some of his reco rds fo r their lec tu res . N ever th e less , as far as his theo logica l standing was concerned, he had to express certain reserva tions about the subject. It was true that music fo rm ed part o f many a se rv ice , but did the existing

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hymn tunes r e a l ly neccess ita te academic invest igat ions? Did their quality g ive cred it to the musical p ro fess ion? R e fe rr in g to the address by his co lleague fr o m the philosophy department he mentioned the foot-note in Kant's d iscourse that had been omitted. F o r this was what Kant had said regard ing music and p rayer :

"T h ose who have recom mended the singing o f hymns at fa m ily p rayers have forgotten the amount o f annoyance which they g ive to the genera l public by such noisy worship fo r they compel their neighbours either to join in the singing or e lse abandon their meditation.

But even the findings o f the language department could not dispel his doubts on the right o f music within worship, fo r had we not heard about the 'pass ionate subjectiv ity ' o f love poetry , which prov ided com posers with 'suitable tex ts '? 'M us ica ', apparently, was a lady o f rather easy v irtue, w ill ing to jo in any enterta in­ment. M o reove r , many love songs had found their way into sacred music, as e .g . H a ss le r 's well-known tune "M e in Gmuth ist m ir v e r w i r r e t " which was la ter to become a chorale that featured even in a work of such deep and sincere re l ig iou s fee ling as Bach's St. Matthew Pass ion . And, did we not witness in our century the decline o f the o ra tor io , a musical fo rm that had been ra ised to g rea t spiritual heights in the m asterw orks o f Handel? But what had become o f it ? Only recen t ly he bought a set o f three records by a modern com poser, singing and shouting the Triumphs o f Aphrod ite ! This was no m ore re l ig ious music than that of the olden days, when com posers w rote their m asses on such pop- tunes as "the arm ed man", "your face is p a le " or even on such t r iv ia l stuff as " I never eat pork m eat" .

We need not be surprised, then, that prominent w r i t e r s of the Christian Church ob jected to all fo rm s of e laborate church music. F o r instance, the grea t Erasm us commented on a passage fr o m St. Pau l 's 1st le t te r to the Corinthians with these words:

"T h e y chant nowadays in our churches in what is an unknown tongue and nothing e lse , while you w ill not hear a sermon once in six months te ll ing people to amend their l i fe . Modern church music is so con­structed that the congregation cannot hear one distinct word. The chor is te rs them se lves do not understand what they a re singing. . . . Why w ill they not l is ten to St. Pau l? . . . There was no music in St. P a u l 's t ime. Words w ere then pronounced plainly. Words nowa­days mean nothing. They are m ere sounds striking upon the ear, and men are to leave their work and go to church to lis ten to w orse noises than w ere eve r heard in Greek or Roman theatre. . . . They have so much o f it in England that the monks attend to nothing e lse . A set o f c reatures who ought to be lamenting their sins fancy they can please God by gurgling in

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their throats. . . .

H a lf a century la te r the Council o f Trent vo iced a s im ila r c r i t ic ism and was about to abolish all fo rm s of church music e x ­cept that o f the traditional G regor ian Chant, had it not been fo r the intervention of some influential churchmen, among them the Cardinal o f Augsburg, Otto von Truchsess, who persuaded the Council m em bers to study such tru ly re l ig ious music as that of Pa les tr in a and others. But musical d isasters in church never ended and ea r ly in the 17th century John E ar le , la ter Bishop of Salisbury, gave the fo llow ing sa t ir ica l account o f a cathedral choir o f his time:

"Th e common singing-men in Cathedral Churches . . . a r e a bad society and yet a company of good fe l low es , that roa r deep in the Quire, deeper in the taverne.They are the eighth part o f speech . . . and are d is tin ­guished by their noises much like be lls . . . . The ir pastime or rec rea t ion is p rayers , their ex e rc is e drinking, yet here in so addicted that they se rve God oftest when they are drunke. . . . Upon w ork-days they behave them se lves at P ra y e r s as at their pots, fo r they swallow them down in an instant. . . . I f they escape a rres t ing they dye constantly in God 's se rv ice ; and to take their death with most patience, they have winde and cakes at their funerall: and now they keepethe church a grea t deale better, and helpe to f i l l it with their bones as be fore with their noise. "

On the other hand, musica always attempted to win lega l status within re l ig ion . In P re -C h r is t ia n t im es she even c la im ed divine ancestry . For the Indians be lieve that the gods w ere ardent musicians, who liked the music better than a thousand p rayers . Egyptians and G reeks speak of Gods who came down from heaven and taught music to human beings. A lso the Bible r e fe r s to the use o f certa in instruments fo r ritual and w ar fa re and to the singing o f hymns and cantic les. Christian philosophers o f the Middle A ges speak o f music in even higher te rm s. In the 11th century, A r ibo Scholasticus re la tes the four tetrachords o f the musical system to the l i fe o f Christ. The lowest tetrachord (or 'g ra v iu m ') sym bolizes 'incarnation '. The second tetrachord (or 'f ina lium ') C h r is t 's death on the c ross . The two higher t e ­trachords, v iz . superiorum and excellentium, correspond to the resu rrec t ion and the ascension. Two centuries la te r Jean du Muris conceived a musical sym bolism with great beauty of detail: 'musica mundana' and 'musica humana' represent the old and the new testament respec t ive ly . The four lines used in G regorian notation resem b le the four gospels , the seven notes the seven sacraments and the eight modes the eight beatitudes. Great s ignificance was attached to the f igu re 'T h r e e ' as the symbol o f the Holy T r in ity . A ccord ing ly , the tr ip le t ime was c lass if ied as 'tempus per fec tum ', as the 'p e r fe c t ' t ime and indicated by a c ir c le , the sign of etern ity and perfection .

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The re l ig iou s sp ir it which speaks in symbolic speculations o f this kind, also underlied the musical structures that appeared during the ea r ly centuries o f choral polyphony. The organum, the oldest type o f singing in m ore than one part only, owed its development to the des ire fo r contemplation. Superposed on sentences o r words o f particu lar re lig ious content, such organa a re the m usica l equivalent to the drawings and m iniatures that often beautify old manuscripts where they condense the essence o f a text o r s tory into a single p icture. A s im ila r idea gave r is e to th e 'm o te tu s ', the m ed ieva l forerunner o f the la te r motet: one vo ice part, known as the Tenor, sings a l itu rg ica l text. Another part, known as the Counter Tenor, comments at the same time with d if ferent words on the deeper meaning o f the passage and thus de l iv e rs a kind o f musical sermon. The simple fo rm s of this old art o r 'a rs antiqua' w ere soon superseded by those o f the 'a r sn o va ', the new art, which put its pride in the composition of motets where the individual vo ice parts re - i t e ra te d fixed rhyth­m ica l patterns. A century la ter, Netherlands com posers de­v ised further com plex it ies with c lo ser in terre la tionship of all vo ices , often along the lines of a musical canon. By emphasizing the structure o f a work, com posers resem bled in their music the re fined arch itecture o f Gothic cathedrals. Only the v e ry best was good enough fo r g iv ing p ra ise to the Lord . The concept o f univer sal thanksgiving also allows fo r the appearance o f w or ld ly tunes within the m asses and motets o f Netherlands m asters , b e ­cause both, the sacred and the secular w ere bas ica lly one, like body and soul. S im ila r ly , old cathedrals often have statues of kings, dukes, sponsor s and other s placed side by side with saints, m ar ty rs and teachers o f the church. Sometimes, decorations include even the simple things o f daily l i fe , patterns resem bling sa ilor m otifs as e .g . ropes, knots, wheels, or small animals creeping up the ra il ings to the pulpit, obviously in re fe ren ce to the animals listening to the sermons of St. F ranc is .

The be l ie f in the essentia l one-ness o f all spheres o f human l i fe insp ired artists o f la te r generations to combine the theatrical and the re l ig ious. In catholic countries this in term ingling gave r is e to the display o f grea t splendour in all aspects o f churchly l i fe . The magnificent baroque churches with the dram atic in te r ­play o f light and shade, with the emphatic gestures o f their statues and the sp ira ll ing movements o f their p i l la r s bear w itness to the same sp ir it that underlies the elaborate cerem on ies at high mass, the colourful p ictures and paintings and the la rg e - s c a le com po­sitions o f the Venetian m asters o f the 16th and 17th centuries. The most important development in the f ie ld o f music was the o ra to r io which evo lved from sacred plays staged as part of p rayer m eetings. Its name still r e fe r s to the 'o ra to r iu m ', the p rayer hall, where such 'd ram atized s to r ie s 1 made their f i r st appearance. The ex trover t sensuality of southern baroque Catholicism, which employs the arts in the se rv ic e o f an a l l-em brac in g re l ig ious spectacle, contrasts strongly with the in trovert sp ir ituality of northern protestantism , which retained many elements o f gothic or ig in . While the Italian com posers read ily abandoned the t r a ­ditional church style in favour o f a new opera t ic language, the

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German baroque com posers successfu lly blended the complex structures o f the 's t i le antico' with the dramatic r ea l ism o f the 's t i le rap p resen ta t ivo 'o r operat ic style. The cantatas, passions and m asses o f J. S. Bach not only prove the compatib il ity o f r e ­lig ious and theatrical elements within sacred music but also res to re , in their unique m e rg e r o f northern and southern e l e ­ments, the spiritual unity of the one and holy church. F igure sym bolism , delight in structural in tr icac ies and the deep re lig ious quality o f the chorale stand side by side with rhetor ica l devices and an almost operatic rea lism . How could one eve r fo rge t such grea t music as the opening choruses o f St. Matthew Pass ion or the B Minor Mass, or the fr ightening rea l i ty o f an infuriated crowd cry ing out their 'away with him, cruc ify h im '? Or the deeply moving chorales, where the choir represents the whole w orld in its p rayer for m e rcy and pardon?

With these re fe ren ces to the music o f his favourite com ­poser, the speaker ended his address on music and divinity. As he pointed out to the other m em bers o f the comm ittee, Bach's music, in his opinion, would suffice to justify the use o f music within the fram ew ork o f any s e rv ice . M o reove r , its unique beauty and perfec tion should d ispell once and fo r all any doubts about the sense o f music. No other com poser eve r spoke with the same power, and depth, and m as te ry o f language as L e ip z ig 's g rea test cantor. I f a man with the mind of Bach made music his pro fession , how dare we doubt the qualities o f this art?

H ow ever, the viewpoints o f the education and science r e p r e ­sentatives w ere still to be heard.

MUSIC AND ED U CATIO N

Speaking o f musical education it is advisable to c la r i fy at f i r s t the meaning o f this term . In its widest sense it includes all education in m usica l subjects, whether fo r pro fess iona ls or fo r amateurs. For the purpose o f this investigation, however, we shall e lim inate the pro fess iona l training and re s tr ic t ourse lves to that aspect o f musical education which might be ca lled "education by m us ic " . Since the days o f the oldest c iv i l iza t ions man always accepted music as an essentia l part of human activity, as a c r ite r ion o f humanity. Music was taught at the tem ples of ancient Babylon, A ssy r ia , Egypt and P e rs ia , where together with mathematics and astronomy it belonged to the fundamental d is ­cip lines o f instruction and learning. The association with the temple, with re l ig ion and with the cast o f the p r ies ts points at the high es teem in which music was held by these peoples. This attitude, incidentally, was by no means spec ific to the c iv i l iza tions o f the W estern Orient, but had its pa ra l le l in the s im ila r outlook o f nations in the Far East, where music o f a certain type is r e ­garded as the p r iv i le g e of se lected c lasses , and where the educated man is supposed to own the long z ither o f Chinese tradition, even though he may no longer know how to play it. Music, in this way, became a status symbol of the educated, a status symbol though only in a secondary way: because only the

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educated man would be able to enjoy the contemplative qualities o f music, which he used to control his passions and emotions. Music, thus, was a means o f education and self-education .

The educational qualities o f music w ere discussed in detail by the philosophers o f ancient G reece , espec ia l ly by Plato, A r is to t le and their fo l low ers . Music was considered an a ffa ir o f the state and its part in the a rt is it ic aspects o f l i fe was so grea t that an educated man was r e f e r r e d to as a 'm usica l man', and superior to the man without music. P la to , in his 'Repub lic ', r e fe r s to the use o f music fo r building up a harmonious p e r ­sonality and fo r calm ing the human passions. Youth should be exposed to beauty and g race and music had to play the leading ro le in education.

"M o re than anything else, rhythm and harmony findtheir way to the inmost soul and take strongest holdupon it, bringing with them and imparting g race . " 17

A fte r music, youth was to be educated by gymnastics, but music should always p recede and dominate gymnastics, because the body did not enoble the soul, but the soul gave to the body all the perfec tion of which it was capable. To ensure the w e ll-be ing o f the entire state, P la to suggests that music be pract ised by all generations. For this end, the population would be divided into three groups: the boys, the young men up to the age o f 30 years , and the men between 30 and 60 years . In addition to singing, musical education was to include the playing of the ly r e for a minimum of three years .

In the ea r ly Christian Era and during the M iddle Ages musical education took place in the schools attached to m onas­te r ies and cathedrals. H ere the boys w ere taught, in addition to other subjects, the fundamental p r inc ip les o f music. The importance o f these churches fo r the cultural development of central Europe can hardly be overes tim ated , because m onaster ies and cathedrals w ere not only centres o f knowledge and learning, but o f fe red art and culture to all the inhabitants o f a d is tr ic t, d isregard ing their socia l and educational standing. M e re ly by v is it ing a church, but even m ore by attending a se rv ice , each individual inevitably encountered arts, ranging from arch itecture , sculpture and painting to drama and music.

The educational function of the church, espec ia l ly in musical and cultural aspects, was continued well into the re fo rm ation period . The 16th and 1 7th centuries witnessed a c lim ax o f musical education in German countries, with grea t musical act iv ity even in the small v i l la ges . This was the result o f Lu ther 's demands fo r founding 'Kan tore ien ' or singing schools at e v e ry church throughout the country.

The syllabus o f the Lutheran Gymnasium at Strassburg from 1598 is an example of the excellent musical training g iven to all pupils o f that school. Standards 1 and 2 p ract ised the singing of in terva ls and m em or iz ed chorale m elod ies . Standards 3 and 4 studied musical notation and did p re l im in a ry e x e rc is es fo r choral

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singing. Standards 5 and 6 sang short compositions in two and three vo ice parts, and standards 7 and 8 p ract ised the art of the canon up to four vo ices . The pupils of standards 9 and 10, to ­gether with boys se lected from low er standards, fo rm ed a full choir which studied la rge choral works. Each standard had musical instruction for f iv e hours weekly. F rom 1605 onwards the best singers o f all schools joined fo rces to p e r fo rm e v e ry Sunday afternoon for the genera l public. The musical atmosphere o f these days is proved most im p res s iv e ly by the fo llow ing report: during war, when the French arm y was approaching Strassburg, all her inhabitants w ere asked to help in fo rt i fy ing the walls of the city. To entertain the w orkers and so ld iers , the Choir of the Gymnasium was ca lled upon to per fo rm their entire rep e r to ire o f Renaissance and baroque motets.

English society of the Elizabethan period expected the educated man to have a sound musical knowledge. Singing of canons and m adriga ls was common among the higher c lasses and everybody was expected to partic ipate in this type o f musical entertainment. The attitude of the t ime towards music is beau­tifu lly expressed in the famous Shakespearian lines:

"T h e man that has no music in h im se lf N or is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,Is fit fo r treason, s trategem s and spoils; the motions of his sp irit are dull as night And his affections dark as Erebus.Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

And Henry Peacham, in his "Th e compleat Gentleman" from 1622 says the fo llow ing:

"M usic , a s is ter to poetry, next craveth your acquaintance, i f your genius be so disposed. I know there are many who are . . . o f such d isproportioned sp ir its that they avoid her company. . . . I dare not pass so rush a censure o f these as P indar doth, or the Italian, having fitted a p rove rb to the same effect, 'whom God loves not, that man loves not m us ic '. But I am v e r i l y persuaded they are by nature v e r y i l l d is ­posed and of such a brutish stupidity that scarce anything e lse that is good and savoreth o f v irtue is to be found in them. "

La te r centuries no longer retained the high standard of a w ide-sp read musical education. In spite o f intense musical a c ­t iv ity , musical instruction ceased to be education by music and gradually turned into education fo r music. Tra in ing was handed over to conserva to ires and academ ies which catered p r im a r i ly fo r the future pro fess iona l or fo r the in terested amateur. Music, thereby, became a job or a hobby and was no longer the basic requ irem ent fo r the form ation o f a character, nor a c r ite r ion of proper education.

F rom time to time, r e fo rm s w ere attempted, as e.g. ea r ly in the 19th century by the Swiss musician and publisher Hans Georg Nage li , who applied the pedagogic p r inc ip les o f P e s ta lo zz i

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fo r a systematic musical tra ining o f school children. At a time which indulged in all fo rm s o f instrumental music, N age l i r ea l ized the importance o f choral singing as the only means o f musical express ion and act iv ity ava ilab le fo r all ch ildren. N a ge l i 's concept o f musical training as training fo r l i fe , ..resumed the doctrines o f ancient G reece , his emphatic plea fo r choral singing, fo r the making o f music anticipates modern systems by m ore than hundred years .

While N age l i a imed at a musical education in schools, his contem porary C ar l F r ied r ich Z e lte r p laced his r e fo rm into the f ie ld o f church music, which he wanted to use fo r the musical education of adults. L a te r r e fo rm e rs , how ever, rea l iz ed the importance o f musical education at school le v e l ea r ly in the f o r ­m ative yea rs . Both, the Hungarian system o f Kodaly and Bartok, and the 'Schulwerk' o f C ar l O r f f are espec ia l ly designed fo r school children of d if ferent ages and standards and a llow for a g rea t va r ie ty of situations. Though they cater p r im a r i ly for th e national styles and id ioms of Hungarian and German tradition, they can be adapted to the musical background of any country. It is deplorable that the school system of our t ime pays so l it t le heed to the demands of educationalists. Instead of a iming fo r a proper balance between music and gymnastics it seem s to be heading towards the P la ton ic man who cares only fo r the body, but "has no contact with the Muse in any w ay " and "no longer makes any use o f per suasion by speech, but ach ieves all his ends like a beast by v io lence and savagery , and in his ignorance l ives a l i fe of disharmony and g ra c e le s s n e s s " . '19

To the true educationalist music is a necess ity and not a pastime. For it has been proved by experim ent and experience that children with m usica l background learn to apply their mind and their imagination in an almost natural manner. The study of music combines p lay and work, p lay and ex e rc is e , and requ ires acts o f concentration, o f m em ory and of fantasy. A l l these are basic and essentia l human ab ilit ies that can be tra ined by a musical education.

MUSIC AND SCIENCE

At last it was the turn of the science rep resen ta t ive to address the com m ittee. He began his speech by re fe r r in g to certa in statements made by his co lleagues from the departments o f philosophy and divinity. Two topics discussed by them in ­teres ted him because they w ere strange ly in terre la ted . The topics concerned w ere those o f the 'c osm ic m usic ' and of the 'd iv ine ancestry ' o f music, o f Gods who taught men the art of music. He rem inded his co lleagues o f a recen t ly developed theory that was hailed by some and re jec ted by others. A theory which attempted to prove that our planet had been v is ited at some stage by other in te ll igences , who taught the apparently still p r im it iv e earth -peop le some sc iences , v iz . m athem atics ,sc ience, astronom y and music. The author o f these books r e fe r r e d p r i ­m a r i ly to a rchaeo log ica l findings, to scriptura l w isdom, to

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legends and the like. But there w ere some striking pa ra l le ls in the f ie ld of musical be l ie fs . Why, fo r instance, do so many old c iv i l iza tions r e fe r to Gods who came from heaven and taught men sciences and music ? Why the particu lar re fe ren ces to astronomy and to co rrec t musical p itches? It is a well-known fact that traditional Indian music re s e rv e s one pitch of the scale fo r the Gods and that it uses dif ferent tuning systems and scales during certain hours o f the day, the change o f scale always taking place in accordance with the position of the sun. I f we translate the wording that recommends the choice of a d if ferent scale at c e r ­tain hour s of the day into modern term ino logy we could say: "w i l l you p lease retune your instruments to the fo llow ing frequ enc ies ". A re we not used to hearing announcements o f that kind e v e ry day at certain hours and in accordance with the position o f the sun? Applying a s im ila r method to Chinese theory, what interpretation could we g ive to their f i rm be lie f in the importance o f exact pitches in order to retain communication with the un iverse? And why, in one o f their o ldest legends does the G od -E m pero r listen to the f ive standard pitches whenever he wants to hear whether his m in isters in the country work in accordance with his instructions? Is this report purely a legend, purely speculation?

But now let us turn to facts: In spite o f all the teachingsof Chinese theory, in spite even of a 'bureau of standards' that ex isted in ancient China fo r the sake o f exact pitches, there r e ­mained great d iscrepancies between theory and pract ise . The w ell-be ing of the universe may have depended on the co rrec t pitch, but whatever this pitch was, the Chinese lost it long ago. Over the centuries they re-ad justed and changed their tuning systems, producing hundreds o f bells , gongs and s im ila r p e r ­cussion instruments - all on a dif ferent standard pitch. Only the Indians managed to retain an ingenious tuning technique with the subdivision o f their scale into movable units of d if ferent size, units which could be combined and r e -a r ra n ged at w ill in order to reproduce semitones and tones according to the wanted tra n s ­position. In fact, many of the oldest c iv i l iza tions displayed a surprising insight into acoustical prob lem s and c le a r ly d is ­tinguished between the methods of d iv is ive and cyc l ic tuning. It was rather unfortunate, though, that Pythagoras and his school used cyc lic p rogress ion s to calculate the in terva l ratio o f the third. Consequently they a rr iv ed at the rather complex figure 81 : 64 instead of the s im p ler 80 : 64 which they could havereduced to 5 : 4. The m iscalcu lation of l/64th caused them to c la ss i fy the third among the dissonances, a placing which was fa ithfully accepted by all the theoris ts o f the Middle A ges . The co rre c t and simple ratios o f 4 : 5 and 5 : 6 fo r m ajor and m inor third r e sp ec t iv e ly w ere proved and demonstrated only in 1482 by the Spaniard Ramos de Pa re ja , who by his d is cove ry en­abled com posers to treat these p leasantly sounding in terva ls as consonances.

But apart f rom this m iscalculation, Greek theorists developed tone systems of rem arkab le qualities. We owe them not only our scales and modes, but also the d if ferentiation between

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a diatonic and a chromatic genus, quartertones and even sub­div is ions o f a tone into 12 m ic ro in te rva ls o r 'shades '.

Considering these ancient d is cove r ies it was log ica l that music was c la ss i f ied as a science. The 'Scholia ench ir iad is ' f r o m around 900 A . D. , fo r example, r e fe r s to music as "the rational d iscip line o f agreem ent and d iscrepancy in sounds according to numbers in their re la tion to those things which are found in sounds", and states that arithm etic is absolutely essen ­tial to the understanding o f music " fo r music is fashioned wholly in the l ikeness o f num bers". Even late in the 15th century the creation of a chair o f music at the Bologna U n ivers ity met with the vio lent protest f ro m the mathematica l faculty which insisted that music belonged in its f ie ld . We need hardly be surprised about this attitude, fo r the art o f music reached its highest technical standard during this period . This was the t im e of the 'A r ts o f the Netherlands m as te rs ' who exce l led in the invention of incred ib le in tr icac ies . It is the t ime of the puzzle canon and the t im e o f such mathematical m asterw orks as e . g . Okeghem 's 'M issa prolationum ', a work that could not be surpassed in the complication o f its design. Its individual vo ice parts are in te r ­re la ted by the most difficult o f all canonic techniques, by the 'm ensura l ' canon where each vo ice sings the same m elody but in d if ferent ranges and d if ferent m etres . About a century la ter, Pa les tr in a composed a s im i la r ly complex work, his 'M issa Repleatur Os meum ' which presents in its individual movem ents a cyc le o f canons at the octave, the seventh, the sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second and unison. To in crease the in tr icacy of the design, Pa les tr in a also re la tes the t im e - la g between the vo ice en tr ies to the in terva l o f im itation, i . e . in the canon at the octave the single vo ices fo l low each other a fter eight beats, in the canon at the seventh a fter seven beats, in the canon at the sixth after six beats and so on. O f la te r m asters only Bach would have been capable o f achieving s im ila r feasts o f structural com plex ity w ith­out sacr i f ic in g the musical character o f a work.

But then, Bach was also the f i r s t com poser to r ea l iz e the importance o f W e rc k m e is te r ' s d is co v e ry o f a tuning system that would so lve the awkward prob lem of the comm a between c and b sharp, which had made it p rob lem atic to use fa r o f f keys on a keyboard instrument. Now, with W e rc k m e is te r 's subdivision of the octave into tw e lve sem itones o f equal s ize it was made possib le to use any key. Th is poss ib i l i ty was u ti l ized and e x ­p lo red to the fu lles t in Bach's "W e l l - t em p e re d K la v ie r " .

Music and sc ience g rew m ore and m ore apart during the baroque, the c la ss ica l and the romantic eras , when music le ft the 'quadriv ium ' fo r the 't r iv iu m ' with its l ingu istic tra its . In­dulging in rhetor ica l, dram atic and emotional aspects it was eventually degraded to the function of a drug and became a con­venient means to escape the rea l i t ie s o f l i fe . How many of our so -ca l led music lo v e rs , who m e re ly want to c lose their eyes and dream away, are aware o f the sc ientific e f fo r ts that went into the works o f the grea t m as te rs? Of the sc ientif ic aspects which

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enable us to lis ten to their m usic? For is the art o f composition not a sc ience? Is the task o f the p e r fo rm e r only that of sitting down and "p lay in g" - l ike a child with a toy? In fact, each com ­position o f high a rt is t ic value is a ca re fu lly e laborated work of craftmanship, based on long established laws of science and of log ic . Each p e r fo rm er needs an instrument the design of which is the outcome of a re fined technique and of detailed mathematical calculations. M o reove r , technical and sc ientific considerations underlie all movements and actions of the p e r fo rm er h im se lf and also determ ine his interpretation.

C om posers and musicians o f our t ime res tored music to its traditional place among the sc iences. M usico logy is no longer dedicated to poetic descriptions of grea t m asterw orks, to childish public ity and anecdotes, but approaches its topics with the exact methods of any science. In a like manner, com posers are no longer supposed to r e ly on vis ions, dream s, m ystic inspirations and s im ila r psycho-pathic exper iences , but are f r e e to w rite their music along well-p lanned and ca re fu lly e laborated lines, often in c lose partner ship with scientists, technicians and occas iona lly even with the advice o f a computer. The return to sc ientific pr inc ip les is proved best by the fo llow ing extract f rom an a rt ic le 'How time passes ' in which Karlheinz Stockhausen, one o f the best known avant-garde com posers discusses his compositional technique:

"M u s ic consists of order-re la t ionsh ips in time; this presupposes that one has a conception of such time.We hear a lterations in an acoustic fie ld : s ilence -sound - s ilence, or sound-sound; and between the a l ­terations we can distinguish t im e - in te rva ls o f vary ing magnitude. These t im e - in te rva ls m ay be ca lled phases. . . .Our sense perception divides acoustica lly percep tib le phases into two groups: we speak o f durations andpitches. This becom es c lea r i f we steadily shorten the length of a phase (e . g . that between two impulses) f rom 1 " , t o ½ " , to l/4th " , l/8th " , l / l 6 t h " , 1/32",1/64II etc. Until a phase-duration of approx. 1/16 " we can still just hear the impulses separately ; until then we speak of 'duration' . . . Shorten the phase- duration gradually to 1/32 " and the impulses a re no longer separate ly percep tib le : one can no longer speak of the duration of a phase. The la tter p rocess be­comes percep tib le rather in a d if ferent way: one p e r ­ce ives the phase-duration as the 'p itch ' o f the sound. 1/32" makes us, say, a ' low ' note. . . . Steadily shorten the phase-duration still further, f r om 1/32" to 1/64, 1/128, 1/256 " etc. and the note ascends as a glissando from low to high.Thus one d if fe rentia tes phase-durations up to approx.1 / 1 6 " as durations and in music up to the present time, so -ca l led 'm e tre and rhythm' took place in the a rea between approx. 6 " and 1 /16 " . The t im e -a re a

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in which phase proportions w ere defined as pitch- relations - harmonic and m elod ic - extends from approx. 1/16" to 1/3200 " phase duration; ins tru ­ments with higher notes have not been used.

This language certa in ly sounds confusing to the m usica l amateur and is confusing even to the musician who enters fo r a f i r s t t im e the reg ion of contem porary music theory. But it is indicative o f the fact, that music in our t im e is no longer devoted to a w orld o f dream and fantasy but has becom e part o f the new society, a society which is based on sc ien ti f ic considerations rather than on unreal concepts.

E P ILO G U E - FINIS

When the scientist ended his speech the com m ittee p r o ­ceeded to vote on the question of the sense or nonsense o f music. The rep resen ta t ives o f science, education, d iv in ity and languages voted fo r SENSE. Only the philosopher was difficult - but he had e v e r y right to be difficult fo r he was a philosopher and as such not in terested in m er its o r pract ica l value. He wanted to know reasons, he wanted to have an insight into the prob lem . And, after having listened to all these discussions, a few questions sti l l remained open, v iz . : Why does man make m usic? We can understand, that arch itecture developed from the need to prov ide a suitable protection fo r heat, cold, rain or snow. We can un­derstand that man started making sculptures fo r pract ica l pur­poses, or to create a double o f his own or o f some fr iend or of an animal. Painting also makes sense, as it helped to p re s e rv e the m em ory o f an event, the face o f a fr iend, or other things of importance and in terest. P o e t r y could grow fro m language. But where does music come f r o m ? Does it make sense that man goes and takes a string and plucks it to get a sound out o f it? Or that he cuts a bamboo and blows into it? Is it his des ire to p lay? Or to entertain h im se lf? Or a m em ory from somewhere e ls e? Is it, by chance, rea l ly a present f ro m the Gods? Does it make sense only fo r those who know and is non-sense fo r those who do not know? Many, many questions and speculations . . .

But our philosopher was not only a philosopher. He was also a man o f w isdom and knew not only o f music but also of com m ittees . And so he under stood, that, l ike music, com m ittees also do not always have a reason . . .

And so he voted with his co lleagues FOR music.

And - incidentally, a le t te r a r r iv ed at the Department o f Music:

"D ea r Sir,

It g ives us grea t p leasure to in form you that the pu r­chase o f the fo llow ing item has been agreed upon :

1 music stand : approx, value R5, 00. "

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R E FE R E N C E S

1. Curt Sachs The R ise o f Music in the Ancient World , Norton & Comp. , New York, 1943, p. 114

2. Curt Sachs Op. c i t . , p. 174

3. O l iv e r Strungk Source Readings in Music H istory , Norton & Company, New York, 1950, p. 80

4. O l iv e r Strungk Op. cit. , p. 88

5. Kant's Critique o f aesthetic judgement, Translation, J. C.Meredith, Oxford at the Clarendon P r e s s , 1911, p. 196

6. Arthur Schopenhauer The w or ld as w ill and idea, Translation by R. B. Haldane and J. Kemp, London, Trilbner, Paul, Trench & C o . , Vol. I, p. 199-200

7. Arthur Schopenhauer ibid. , p. 231

8. Arthur Schopenhauer ibid. , p. 333

9. Eduard Hanslick The Beautiful in Music, Translation by Gustav Cohen, New York , The L ib e ra l P r e s s , 1957, p. 9

10. Eduard Hanslick Op. cit. , p. 13

11. O liv e r Strungk Op. cit. , p. 294f

12. O l iv e r Strungk Op. c i t . , p. 367f

13. O l iv e r Strungk Op. cit. , p. 512f

14. Kant's Critique (see 5) p. 196

15. Scholes, P e r c y A l fred The puritans and music in England and New England, Oxford U n ivers ity P r e s s , 1934, p.216

16. ibid. , p . 226

17. O liver Strungk Op. cit. , p. 8

18. O live r Strungk Op. cit. , p . 33 If

19. O live r Strungk Op. cit. , p. 1220. Pr in ted in: Die Reihe, Vol. 3 (Musical Craftmanship), p. lOff,

P r e s s e r Co. , - U n iversa l Edition, 1959

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