[lit-ideas] Re: Why are the greatest composers all German?
- From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 14:59:01 -0700
> exceptional ability regardless of accident of place or time of birth), we
> would expect artistic achievement to be spread evenly,
ck: The bell curve's exceptions "spread evenly"? Nevermind. I get the gist.
I'm also drawn to those weighty musical Germans, even when they're actually
Austrian, and even when a Jew converts to Catholicism so he can join the
great German pantheon (viz Mahler).
The mystery seems more interesting on the surface than it actually is, I
think. It's a matter of artists and their patrons knowing each other, at the
time, and promotion--of the public becoming used to the sounds of a certain
group of musicians (or writers, painters, etc.).
Most of all, though, it comes down to who is doing the canonical choosing.
(Not women. End of sexist argument. History is sexist, of course.) Who
promotes the handful of artists in any medium as "great" throughout the age.
But then why haven't there been equal numbers of truly remarkable British
composers? (Arguably, Handel's influence extends beyond his own work.)
But why not put Italians on the top of the musical heap? Are we
discriminating against opera, or is there a sudden dislike for Vivaldi? Yet
the German composers stand out for their drama. Their sense of presence.
Their zumzum. Even today, in hiphoprippityrock, Ramstein (sp?) has a certain
dominating, charismatic effect. I can't help myself! It's my Inner Hitler! I
want sturm mit drang, if only in my coffee.
Ah, that's what's missing today. Coffee. 'Scuse me, folks.
carol
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Yost" <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 10:22 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Why are the greatest composers all German?
> At The Valve, Adam Roberts asks, "Why are the greatest composers all
> German?" He ponders an evolutionary explanation which has provoked many
> comments.
>
> http://www.thevalve.org/go/valve/article/why_are_the_greatest_composers_all_german/
>
>
> the various branches of art enjoy long periods of mediocre achievement,
> punctuated by blazing, tightly-defined (geographically and
> chronologically) ?golden ages?, which then go on to dominate the canon or
> received climate of the art for many subsequent generations.
>
> Why should this be? If artistic ability is distributed evenly amongst the
> population, as seems likely (so that, let us say, one in two hundred
> thousands humans has exceptional ability regardless of accident of place
> or time of birth), we would expect artistic achievement to be spread
> evenly, throughout time and throughout countries. But this is not what we
> find. Why not?
>
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