Klarinet Archive - Posting 000037.txt from 2001/04

From: Roger Shilcock <roger.shilcock@-----.uk>
Subj: Re: [kl] Meta-music?
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 08:20:55 -0400

"Breath support" is presumably necessary for the successful
siphoning of liquids. Terms like this are not meta-musical in the
way that terms such as "rhythm" are - and even then, "rhythm" has other
fields of application.
You might substantiate statements such as "this music is ugly" with
comments on its sound "world", intervallic structure, and so on.
Any work of art has properties by which it might assessed
aesthetically - that's trivially true, come to think of it.
I know this isn't coherent.....
Roger S.

In message <19611-3AC8AF41-1141@-----.org writes:
> <><> Roger=A0Shilcock wrote:
> But nobody is trying to describe music in terms of its own language -
> are they??
> For music, "natural" language - of whatever kind - *is* a metalanguage.
>
>
>
> As always, comparison of music to language is a bed of quicksand
> --- and so is any discussion of "good" or "bad". But ultimately, I
> believe that music and language spring from the same roots. (Many
> people on this list disagree with me, of course.)
>
> That said, if music and language do share some basic structure in
> common, cannot we make a case that "embouchure" and "breath support" and
> "on the beat" and "intonation" and perhaps even "historical knowledge"
> are all pieces of music's syntax and grammar? If so, then aren't they
> part of the meta-language that describes the language of 'proper'
> clarinet playing? And if so, isn't there room for logical error when
> trying to use these same 'symbols' (words) for both levels of the
> hierarchy?
> You could end up with statements such as "This music is ugly" that
> are logically equivalent to "This sentence is a lie." They sound
> reasonable until you attempt to deal with the two levels of meaning.
>
> I find this to be an interesting chain of thought about music
> because it can deal with statements that, at first blush, seem to be
> blatant statements of personal preference and yet simultaneously appear
> to have some fundamental relevance to the proper defnition of 'good
> music'.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
> Bill
>
>
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--
............
For there's more enterprise
In walking naked.
-------------- W. B. Yeats ("A coat")

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