File spoon-archives/nietzsche.archive/nietzsche_1995/nietzsche_Nov9.95, message 45


Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 18:59:13 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Tompkins <st265089-AT-oak.cats.ohiou.edu>
Subject: Re: Music, Nietzsche, Rhythm


Violet and all,
Mozart didn't change opera? I never wrote that Wagner, was the logical 
step, I thought that was the issue at hand?  BUT

tonality is not just "a feeling of gravity", perhaps it is a cute 
metaphor, but for rendering the "graphic" distribution of tones, one can 
assume for example that in the key of G Major, g, will have a consistent 
quantitative sound waves, that is, one can determine that the frequencies 
of tones in the musical scale correspond logarithmically to integers, in 
short, another set of signs.  "Complexity", if we are striving for 
logical accuracy here, could be measured in terms of the distribution of 
these integers, synchronically, and diachronically - I guess I want to 
demonstrate here that there are a number of ways to signify what one 
might mean by the logical consistency of composer to composer and piece 
to piece.
But for conventional sake, as someone mentioned on an earlier post, 
saying the Viennese tradition exemplified certain characteristics, could 
be like saying that Dali was a surrealist;  the latter of course would be 
"acceptable" but it diminishes the effects of the artist's growth as 
well.  we all know what it's like when someone casually says, "oh yeah, 
that Nietzsche guy, god is dead, or something, right?"  Perhaps fine in 
passing, but why do spend so much time babbling on and on endlessly about 
it.  It's like trying to find "genius within a context", both in its 
deviation from tradition and it's rupture of the strength of an era.

now what what it mean to say wagner changed music "itself"?  what about 
that guy who records silence, how would he be placed?  People take this 
man seriously.  I can't recall his name, anyone? 
claims like "changing music itself" make no sense to me, it is empty and 
remember that big winds come from empty caves.

 - Maledetto colui che contrista un spirto immortal!
 - Cursed whoever saddens an immortal spirit! 




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