TARUSKIN ON POSTPOSTMODERN POMPOSITY

Still reading the first volume of Taruskin's Oxford History of Music. 

He brings up a nifty little 14th century motet entitled Musicalis Sciencia/Sciencie Laudabili, a sort of satirical piece which takes the form of a dialogue between Music and Rhetoric, who enumerate various stylistic faults musicians and composers are prone to, even as the motet commits each one.

Thus Taruskin:

"Such a satire requires an attitude of ironic detachment, a consciousness of art as artifice, and a wish to make that artifice the principle focus of attention. These are traits we normally (and perhaps self-importantly ) ascribe to the 'modern' temperament, not the 'medieval' one. Only we (we tend to think), with our modern notions of psychology and our modern sense of "self," are capable of self-reflection. Only we, in short, can be 'artists' as opposed to 'craftsmen.' Not so."

(270).

Ditto.

A FRANKLY ELIDED 'ELEISON'

Kyrie IX (Cum Jubilo) performed by the Choral-Schola der Wiener Hofburgkapelle.

Melody which Taruskin dates to "around 1100." Apparently the Franks liked "formal rounding and regularity" as he puts it. Figured I'd share it on the merits of a). that crazymule elision b). the melisma on the final kyrie eleison.  

Melody's in the Liber usualis if Wikipedia can be believed.

As you'll hear, the text isn't terribly difficult: Kyrie eleison x 3, Christe eleison x 3, kyrie eleison x 3. Keep it simple stupid.

HURRYIN' TO THE MOON: AKKADIAN MUSIC 101

Clear as mud.

Still thoroughly enjoying Richard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music (Vol. I): Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century. Today, just a bit about the Hurrian "hymn to Nikkal" (= wife of the (Ugaritic) moon god Yarikh, cf. Sumerian Ningal/Nanna couple), also known as Hurrian Hymn 6.

This nice little chunk of over-cooked mud is the oldest substantially complete work of notated music we can lay claim to. It theoretically dates from as early as 1400 B.C. Some sunburned European archeologists discovered the tablet at the site of the Royal Palace at Ugarit.

Of course, there are about one hundred thousand competing interpretations of how the thing actually sounds. This link seems (not exactly an expert judge here) to do a decent job presenting some of the problems and some of the would-be problem-solvers.

TARUSKIN: SNARK, MUSIC AND NOTKER BALBULUS

What manner of smarm is this?

Just started volume uno of Richard Taruskin's well-recieved Oxford History of Western Music (2010 re-/"2nd" editon).

The man's got snark, which immediately wins me over (example uno: "By critical study I mean a study that does not take literacy for granted, or simply tout it as unique Western achievement, but rather "interrogates" it (as our hermeneutics of suspicion now demands) for its consequences," (xiv-xv).

The bulk of his intro is dedicated to lambasting the self-destructively rarefied trend in musicology (read: academia in toto): "this sort of writing gives everybody an alibi ... Because nobody is doing anything, the authors never have to deal with motives or values, with choices or responsibilities, and that is their alibi," (xviii). Not brain-shattering, no, but at least he doesn't let it slide.

His writing's excellent imho, but I'm only a few pages in. A bit of pithiness goes a long way.

Another point in Taruskin's favor is his prompt namedrop of one of my personal medieval favorites: Notker Balbulus ("The Stammerer"). Poor guy wrote De Carolo Magno, a collection of anecdotes about Charlemagne. But really all you need to know is his name: Notker Balbulus.

More to come.