Hi Ray,
Thank you for your quite fascinating essay on equal temperament and other
musical matters. I have deleted it for reasons of length but thoroughly
recommend any FWer who wants to learn more about this to read your original
reply.
I was, of course, tongue in cheek when describing Bach as an entrepreneur
because this role was simply not available in his day. But, in selecting
and promulgating one particular technical standard (in the choice of
12-pitch scale), which has continued ever since, he carried out one of the
important functions of the entrepreneur.
I think it is possible that you are misinterpreting my comments on music
and the arts. I used the example of Bach to show that technical
specifications and technological innovations are as important in the arts
as they are in the more mundane areas of economic affairs.
In the case of music, there were a few more 'technological junctures' which
caused immense, subsequent flowerings of new types of music. The piano was
another one -- with its novel ability to produce wide-ranging change in
dynamics from pianissimo to fortissimo.
We can choose similar junctures in the case of pictorial art. The use of
the camera obscura in Renaissance times was one (pointing the way towards
the rules of perspective), and the importance of the three primary colours
to the Impressionists (rather than relying on the natural pigments used
down the centuries) was another.
In fact, I can only think of one art -- that of oral story-telling -- which
arose directly out of ordinary human practice. Even poetry was boosted
enormously by being accompanied by stringed instruments in Greek times --
and the latter depended on technology.
I am not trying to disparage the arts. Far from it -- as you knwo, I am
spending my few remaining active years to help the great choral music of
the past remain accessible in these days when conventional publishing is
increasingly failing to satisfy the needs of choirs all round the world.
The only two points I am trying to make are that:
1. The arts are essentially no different from any other product of human
skills. I can find no sharp dividing line between the arts and the
production of other economic goods and services. The arts may be among the
most profound of these, and certain aspects of some of the arts may attract
only the more intelligent and thoughtful among the population, but they are
subject to the same facts of life as other products -- needing capital,
innovation, skill, marketing and so on, in order to be accepted;
2. Like other economic goods and services, the arts have a certain
maturation and development timescale. For widespread, popular usage and
patronage, both the 'standard' bicycle and the 'standard' symphony
orchestra (and symphony music) have probably reached the end of their
development time even though they'll probably be appreciated for centuries
to come.
I have always tried to shy away from basing my views about music on my own
personal prejudices. All I am trying to say is that the arts depend upon
voluntary decisions by consumers in exactly the same way as all other
economic goods and services.
Keith
___________________________________________________________________
Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org>
6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England
Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727;
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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