Re: [LAU] re Subconscious Affecting Music

From: David Santamauro <david.santamauro@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Thu Sep 09 2010 - 12:30:06 EEST

On Wed, 8 Sep 2010 17:04:37 -0700
Ken Restivo <ken@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 03, 2010 at 08:55:34AM -0400, David Santamauro wrote:
> > On Fri, 3 Sep 2010 17:56:13 +0530
> > Rustom Mody <rustompmody@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
> >
> > > There are two voices I hear here vis-a-vis Bach:
> > > 1. Art for art's sake -- the romantic idea
> > > 2. Art for money's sake -- the distinction of commercial vs
> > > commisioned being a fine semantic distinction.
> > >
> > > Bach himself expressed a view however which does not fit in with
> > > either: *
> > > Anything done other than for the service of God is vanity*
> >
> > "The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the
> > glory of God and the refreshment of the soul."
> >
> > God, unfortunately, doesn't pay for food directly. The refreshment
> > of the soul alone would have left him starving as well.
>
> Brother had like 18 kids or something? He made plenty of money; he
> had a lot of mouths to feed.

10 that made it past infancy, actually, but I'd say that's plenty.

> >
> > Although he was extremely devote and clearly most of his inspiration
> > was generated by that religious stance, he was not above squabbling
> > for better pay. The fact that his employer was the church might
> > also had something to do with that stance as well.
> >
> > "He regarded himself as a conscientious craftsman doing a job to the
> > best of his ability for the satisfaction of his superiors, for the
> > pleasure and edification of his fellowmen, and to the glory of
> > God." [ Grout & Palisca: A History of Western Music ]
> >
>
> I think it helped his music. He could have made decent, forgettable
> music and it would have gotten him paid well enough. Since he thought
> he was writing music for god, that's a pretty heavy gig, and I'm sure
> it drove him to take his music to levels of perfection and
> immortality he might not otherwise have acheived.

It definitely helped his music, much the same as a broken heart, the
birth or death of a loved one and many other sources of inspiration,
including the love of money.

David
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Received on Thu Sep 9 16:15:02 2010

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