[lit-ideas] Re: Facing the Music
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 17:04:39 +0100
"Facing the music" is some damned AMerican expression. We in the Balkans
don't speak about facing the music in anything like this sense. The origins
are uncertain but probably military:
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/face-the-music.html
Origin
The phrase 'face the music' has an agreeable imagery. We feel that we can
picture who was facing what and what music was playing at the time.
Regrettably, the documentary records don't point to any clear source for
the phrase and we are, as so often, at the mercy of plausible speculation.
There was, of course, a definitive and unique origin for the expression
'face the music' and whoever coined it was quite certain of the
circumstances and the music being referred to. Let's hope at least that one
of the following suggestions is the correct one, even though there is no
clear evidence to prove it.
A commonly repeated assertion is that 'face the music' originated from the
tradition of disgraced officers being 'drummed out
<http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/127400.html>' of their regiment. A
second popular theory is that it was actors who 'faced the music', that is,
faced the orchestra pit, when they went on stage. A third theory, less
likely but quite interesting none the less, was recounted with some
confidence by a member of the choir at a choral concert I attended recently
in Sheffield. It relates to the old UK practice of West Gallery singing.
This was singing, literally from the west galleries of English churches, by
the common peasantry who weren't allowed to sit in the higher status parts
of the church. The theory was that the nobility were obliged to listen to
the vernacular songs of the parishioners, often with lyrics that were
critical of the ways of the gentry.
It may help to pinpoint the origin to know that the phrase appears to be
mid 19th American in origin. The earliest citation I can find for the
phrase is from *The New Hampshire Statesman & State Journal*, August 1834:
"Will the editor of the Courier explain this black affair. We want no
equivocation - 'face the music' this time."
Almost all other early citations are American. Sadly, none of them give the
slightest clue as to the source, or reason for, the music being faced.
On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 1:24 PM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> In a message dated 1/22/2015 4:25:33 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
> donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> we must mark a key distinction between "music" as sound [World 1, though
> encoding World 3 content] and music as written [also World 1, though also
> encoding World 3 content - so I realise both these parentheses are fairly
> pointless (but they allowed me to drop in Popper's World123 theory)]. The
> question is whether the expression arises from facing the sound of music
> or
> facing a written score etc.? If from facing a score, we can see the
> meaning
> may be to bring back free-floating improvisors to the reality of the music
> they should be playing - and the expression has real bite as many of these
> improvisors play not just with their eyes shut or their head tilted but
> even
> lolling away from the score entirely. It's also a useful expression to
> bring an orchestra to order as often they will be turned round chatting
> with
> their mates, and sometimes even flicking the bird at members who have
> annoyed
> them, just as the conductor takes the stand and taps the baton - at which
> point it is appropriate that she* tells them it is "Time to face the
> music."
>
> One problem with this is drums.
>
> If the thing is NOT abolitionist in nature, and started with the British
> military (which predates Popper), it is a historic fact that when someone
> was
> court-marshaled, there would be a military drum squad playing, hence he
> would be facing the music ('with his face', as Geary otiosely qualifies
> it).
>
> Similarly, the idiom "drummed" (literally: out of the military) came from
> this practice...
>
> It may be argued that being "drummed out" does not make sense because
> military drumming is not considered music in none of the two senses --
> World 1
> and World 3 -- that McEvoy refers to above.
>
> And since McEvoy mentions etymology, we should remember that 'the music',
> was anything related to these nine women called 'muses' that Apollo is seen
> facing in a couple of sculptoric groups (notably in a sculpture hall in the
> Vatican Museum).
>
> So, it may be argued that the 'music' is anything produced, promoted, or
> advertised by the muses, which can include history (Ritchie's topic), since
> Clio (also spelt Kleio) was History's Muse.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music
> The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").
>
> While in general "μουσι^κή", an adjective, is applied to "τέχνη", it
> shouldn't. "τέχνη" is merely implicated, as everytime a musician says
> that music is a _talent_ that belongs to nature, not nurture or technique.
>
> Each muse presided some activity, and it was all then _music_ for them,
> and those who followed or worshipped.
>
> Apollo, an otherwise cruel god, loved them and usually faced them. One of
> his names is "Apollo" is "Musagetes"
>
> Indeed, as god of music was called "Musagetes" (Doric Μουσαγέτας, Mous
> āgetās) or Musegetes (Μουσηγέτης, Mousēgetēs) from Μούσα, "Muse"
> -- and ἡγέτης, "leader".
>
> (My favourite is a Venetian fresco depicting the thing) -- vide "Veneto
> Frescos").
>
> When Greek and later Roman authors spoke of 'music' they couldn't have been
> referring to Kodak.
>
> Thus Pi.O.1.15, and Hdt.6.129; refer to “μουσικῆς ἀγών” Th.3.104.
>
> Cf. IG12.84.16, etc.; “ποίησις ἡ κατὰ μουσικήν” in Plato's
> Symposium 196e.
>
> Cf. 205c; τίς ἡ τέχνη, ἧς τὸ κιθαρίζειν καὶ τὸ ᾁδειν καὶ
> τὸ ἐμβαίνειν ὀρθῶς; Answ. “μουσικήν μοι δοκεῖς λέγειν”
> Id.Alc.1.108d.
> 2. = ἀγὼν μουσικῆς, IG 12(9).189.8 (Eretria, iv B. C.).
>
> During later times, 'music' suffered an implicatural expansion: “μουσικῇ
> καὶ πάσῃ φιλοσοφίᾳ προσχρώμενος” Plato in the Timaeus 88c,
> cf. Phaedrus.61a, Prt.340a; refers to
>
> μουσική
> γράμματα
> γυμναστική
>
> as three branches of education,
>
> ("By the same token," Geary notes, "we should be speaking of facing the
> grammar and facing the gym").
>
> Further references: Id.R.403c, cf. X.Lac.2.1; with γραφική added,
> Arist.Pol.1337b24; “ἐν μουσικῇ καὶ γυμναστικῇ παιδεύειν”
> Pl.Cri.50d: metaph., “εὑρὼν ἀκριβῆ μ. ἐν ἀσπίδι” E.Supp.906.
>
> Note incidentally, that a museum (as in "You're the Louvre Museum", in
> Porter's laundry list song) hardly contains music that can be faced, such
> being
> the strength of this implicatural (but still cancellable) expansion.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
>
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