implicit in howard's original posting is the invitation to compare what once was to what is now and while it's entertaining to speculate on the differences and similarities between one time or another, we are, in effect, walking in the dark with only a flash light to see by. overall, there's not much detail and when we zero in on something to examine it closely, the radius of light gets very small; it becomes difficult to see how whatever it is we're examining relates to its surroundings.
if you take a phenomena like mass suicides, for example, like that religious colony in central america that was run by someone named jones, back in the 1970's or that cult of people in switzerland who believed they were going to be taken on a space ship - how could anyone looking back from 100 years or so from now make any sense it? i don't think that delving into their record collection is going to be particularly illuminating, one way or the other. to me, the interesting point in howards posting is the idea that lute music, or early music in general, is a facet of culture that appears to us in a bygone, historical context and the study of it might act in a way that promotes mental health. on the news just now there's a case of an historian named chang who killed herself - they believe - after spending years doing research for a book on the rape of nanking before the second world war. they believe she absorbed so much awful information about it that it made her depressed and drove her to kill herself. i find it hard to imagine that a lute player, under similar circumstances of intense study, would - as the phrase goes - "loose the balance of their mind" and kill themselves after overloading on dalza or weiss. i think there's something to be said for the sound of the instrument as well - it sounds good, it sounds sane. the same could be said for all instruments in the string family that are plucked - especially those that don't lend themselves to amplification. i can't honestly say that i feel noticeably better after playing my oud or picking out a melody on my irrepressible charango but that - in fact - may be precisely the case. - bill --- Alan Sumler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think lute music does make a big difference in my > own life. Yet at > the same time I fear the soul sucking corporate > world. A few years > ago I quite doing drugs and it was about the same > time I began to > listen to classical guitar. Slowly I became > interested in lute pieces > and lo behold many years later I rely on my > collection of lute music. > My own way of dealing with the world is to remain > tranquil or as they > say ataraxia or hesuchia. > > On the other hand education is a real bitch. I'm > about to finish a > masters degree in classics and now I'm applying to > doctoral programs. > The problem is this: am I good enough? These > schools care too much > about GRE scores and too little about academic > transcripts and letters > of recommendation. As I see it, the higher > education system in > America is trying to weed me out. Why? Of course I > am qualified to > translate and discuss most if not all classical > works. > > Soon I will begin practicing the 10 course lute. I > hope to keep my > peace, even if graduate programs turn me down. The > other day I was > outside of a coffee shop with a friend and we kept > listening to > Renaissance music. His friend a teenager came up > and inquired why we > listened to such music. I told her that it was the > last component > between me and massive carnage. :) > > Oh well. I enjoyed this subject on the list because > it made me think > about why I listen so much to lute music. > > Cheers, > > enthousiazo > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > ===== "and thus i made...a small vihuela from the shell of a creepy crawly..." - Don Gonzalo de Guerrero (1512), "Historias de la Conquista del Mayab" by Fra Joseph of San Buenaventura. go to: http://www.charango.cl/paginas/quieninvento.htm ___________________________________________________________ Win a castle for NYE with your mates and Yahoo! Messenger http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com
