[lit-ideas] Re: Facing the Music
- From: Mike Geary <jejunejesuit.geary2@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 13:58:31 -0600
Actually the expression is "face the Muzak" which is an ironic saying since
everyone turns his back to Musak. Nevertheless, we appreciate JL's
exhaustive research on the term, and thank Professor Richie for his
humility in asking such an obvious question. It gives us all courage.
On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 5:39 AM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I agree with _Juliereneb@gmail.com_ (mailto:Juliereneb@xxxxxxxxx) when
> she writes that music can be both faceable and not be faceable at the same
> time.
>
> Now let's back to Ritchie's original query, which perhaps demanded some
> etymythological research. As we recall, Ritchie wrote:
>
> "I've reached one of those moments when a familiar phrase suddenly seems
> weird."
>
> The phrase, 'face the music' was never THAT familiar to me, and yet it is
> STILL weird, in some sense.
>
> Ritchie goes on:
>
> "It's like when you realize that hankies could be any shape at all...and
> yet they're all square."
>
> This seems like what logicians call nonmonotonic reasoning ("All birds fly,
> except penguins, ostriches, etc.").
>
> Ritchie specifies:
>
> "The phrase which has caused this state of mind is, "it's time to face
> the music.""
>
> I would think the kernel is
>
> FACE
>
> face, v.
>
> face verb.
>
> As applied with object, 'the music' (rather than 'a little music', or
> worse, 'a little night music'. Note the oddity of 'it's time to face a
> little
> night music').
>
> So here, the cruciality is in the 'the', of 'the' music, which is never
> specified. Note that 'music' is usually used without the 'the' or definite
> article:
>
> "Do you like music?"
>
> versus the oddity of
>
> "Do you like the music?"
>
> Or
>
> "Do you play the music?"
>
> versus the more natural
>
> "Do you play music?"
>
> Or, "There's music in the air", rather than 'there's the music in the
> air".
>
> Ritchie, let's recall, writes:
>
>
> "The phrase which has caused this state of mind is, "it's time to face
> the music.""
>
> It seems to me this is then a variation, as it were, on a theme, 'face the
> music'.
>
> Astaire commands Rogers or invites Rogers to face the music.
>
> Similarly, one can imagine a context where Jeeves tells Wooster that
> Wooster WON'T face the music (or dance).
>
> Ritchie goes on:
>
> "The web has rumors about its origin: that soldiers were being drummed
> out of their regiment or that
> performers had to face not only a potentially hostile audience, but the
> orchestra pit too."
>
> Interestingly. Indeed two different scenarios. Helm may expand on the
> drumming bit.
>
> In this case it would be a synechdoche, I think is the phrase Helm would
> use, for 'face the drums'.
>
> In the case of the, say, music-hall performer, it's a synechdoche for the
> performing having to face the orchestra pit, or the face of Toscanini, say,
> which reminds me of an American soprano, Farrar, when she told Toscanini:
>
> "But as you know, Maestro Toscanini, art must be funded in order to exist
> at all."
>
> "And the public pays to see my face, not your backside."
>
> She was facing Toscanini, literally.
>
> While HE was NOT facing the audience -- but his backside was.
>
> Ritchie continues:
>
> "The web supplies early uses by American abolitionists."
>
> Ritchie goes on:
>
> "But what music was being "faced," and why is "facing the music"
> equivalent
> to facing reality (to quote the French equivalent, "Affronter la
> réalité")?"
>
> I would NOT think it's equivalent in what Carnap calls 'semantically
> isomorphic. Palma, who is French, may agree.
>
> "affronter la réalité" seems a VERY abstract French notion, typically --
> even as from a page by Bergson.
>
> "face the music", on the other hand, is colloquial, Anglo-Saxon, and
> concrete.
>
> Ritchie concludes:
>
> "Surely at the time of its nineteenth century origin music tended towards
> the opposite of hard reality?"
>
> Well, it may be the case that 'face the music' IS French in origin, since
> 'face' is hardly an Anglo-Saxon word.
>
> It may be that if French, or Anglo-Norman, it has a Graeco-Roman root to
> it.
>
> In any case, I accept this source below, as stating it's military and it's
> a sign of disgrace (if not disgrice).
>
> To face the music is a BAD thing, in the words of Sellars and Yeatman.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
> online source slightly adapted
>
> The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York,
> 1985). :
>
> FACE THE MUSIC -- To confront or cope with a difficult situation. The music
> that was being faced, in a situation where courage was required, is now
> uncertain. It may have been the pit orchestra in a theater; a nervous actor
> who steeled himself to go on stage would be facing the music (as well as
> the
> audience). It may have been the soldier being dismissed from his regiment
> in disgrace; it was sometimes the practice for the band to play the
> 'Rogue's March' on such an occasion. In any event, the saying was common
> by 1851.
> One theory suggests that the saying comes from the theatre, where nervous
> actors must literally face the music when the curtain goes up. Others
> think
> that the origin is military and based on the drumming out ceremony that
> accompanied dishonourable discharge.
>
>
>
> Face the music means accept the unpleasant consequences of an action.
>
> It comes from the tradition of disgraced officers being 'drummed out' of
> their regiment.
>
> Source:
> The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York,
> 1985).
>
> My mind.
> Asker's rating & comment
>
> This is military and it does refer to a difficult situation!
>
> But it is not merely "being drummed out" -- or one could just tell the
> person where to face, eg., face the judge, the officer, the band, or the
> like.
>
> The only time to orient a person by sound is when the sense of sight is
> unavailable.
>
> To understand fully the order "face the music" you must understand the
> person so ordered is blindfolded.
>
> It would be more precise to say, "face the firing squad", but that would
> not mean much to a blindfolded man. The main thing is, you don't want the
> person to be facing the wall or stumbling about aimlessly.
>
> 0 Musical instruments used to serve communication purposes in army until
> recently and, also, bands were sent along with armies to keep troops
> morale
> up.
>
> When going in to combat, A soldier would be "facing the music" of the
> opposition while a coward/desserter I guess wouldn't be.
>
> The thing then comes from the British military.
>
> When someone was court marshaled, there would be a military drum squad
> playing, hence face the music. The term drummed 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.
>
> To some, a Chinese man grew up loving music.
>
> It was his passion. He was jealous of those who could play and went to
> every concert he could just to hear music. Due to his own fear and
> insecurity
> though, he never sought to learn to play an instrument for himself, only to
> listen to others.
>
> When he became older, his love of music grew and his life’s desire was to
> be associated with music somehow. He devised a scheme in which he
> deceptively forged his way into being accepted into the Chinese National
> Symphony. He
> carried a violin with him everywhere and so deceived people into thinking
> he could actually play. For years, he would travel and sit with the
> symphony during performances, never knowing how to play a single note.
>
> Until one year that the symphony played before the Emperor of China.
>
> He was so pleased with the performance that he requested that each musician
> come to his palace to play for him the next day…individually.
>
> The man was so distraught and overcome with fear that he went out that
> night and committed suicide, unable to “face the music”, metaphorically.
>
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