Regarding physics and music, can I walk out on the ice and suggest that a distinction needs to be made between physics as a discipline of study, on the one hand, and the term being used to refer to the actual forces, etc., that function in the universe? After parsing through these interesting emails I feel like this ambiguity is somehow at the root of the issue. Kind of one of those "the map is not the terrain" deals, the field of study being the map.
Having said that, would anyone argue that musical compositional practice and/or performance techniques since Perotin, or the cave dwellers in Lascoux for that matter, have ever been changed directly because of some breakthrough in the field of physics? The underlying principles, discovered or not, not having changed much, I assume. Can anyone show that some specific parameter of musical composition or performance changed because of the work of Kepler or Newton, for example? I don't think so, so I think I'm with David. On the other hand, I expect it would be easy to find how specific discoveries in the field of physics changed the way performance halls were built, metals used to make instruments were, the construction and design of instruments, etc. I'm guessing that David would agree with that, because these things are not THE MUSIC. However, the net effect of such changes has, I expect, opened the way for actual changes in the music. I can imagine one of James Burke's PBS Connections series installments tracing a new way of composing for a particular instrument back through an enhancement that made that new expressivity possible that was, in turn, brought about by some discovery in the natural sciences. The composer taking advantage of the increased flexibility and range of the pfosucophone is dealing with a real, physical object, not thinking about physics. However, that someone's thinking about physics, mixed in with an assortment of fortuitous accidents, did eventually lead to changes in the pfosucophone, and therefore the music written for it, seems likely to me. Stu, not weighing in on The Magic Flute or Janacek, except to say that I get a kick out of The Glagolitic Mass, without vouching for it's everlasting greatness _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
