I fell in love with the baroque music repertoire a few years ago, shifting my musical interests from the Renaissance to the 17th and early 18th century.
Your parallels between theatre mechanics, philosophy, and science are fascinating. It reminded me of how Mannheim described how the philosopher Erich Kaufmann showed that the term "organism" appears to have been first used in a political and social rather than a biological context. According to Mannheim, Kaufmann traced the origins of the modern concept of "organism" back to Kant. It turned out that philosophers who worked mainly in the field of law used this term in a sense close to the modern concept of "mechanism" and related to ideas about systems assembled by masters for specific purposes and not living beings with their spontaneous development. But all of them, unfortunately, had no thoughts on music as you have))
I've never formally studied music theory, so I hope I can express this properly:
Few would dispute that, today, the most well-known baroque composers are Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. While I have to concede Bach was the more versatile of the two, lately I enjoy listening to the Venetian more.
Bach's music feels like an intricate, beautiful clock constructed by a brilliant artisan, crafting the parts from his own genius.
With Vivaldi, it's as if the music is a force of nature the composer has managed to channel for our delight -- an underground stream that emerges, dazzling, from the jets of a gorgeous fountain.
Weirdly, I just don't vibe that well with Bach. I can appreciate him intellectually, but I cannot really feel the soul of the music though it is certainly there. I like Vivaldi too--Italian music in general. I love Kapsberger, Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi,... And if I had to pick a German, then it would be Silvius Leopold Weiss, e.g., -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHEf3_i-jFk&ab_channel=AnnaWiktoriaSwoboda
Your parallels between theatre mechanics, philosophy, and science are fascinating. It reminded me of how Mannheim described how the philosopher Erich Kaufmann showed that the term "organism" appears to have been first used in a political and social rather than a biological context. According to Mannheim, Kaufmann traced the origins of the modern concept of "organism" back to Kant. It turned out that philosophers who worked mainly in the field of law used this term in a sense close to the modern concept of "mechanism" and related to ideas about systems assembled by masters for specific purposes and not living beings with their spontaneous development. But all of them, unfortunately, had no thoughts on music as you have))
Very thought-provoking!
I've never formally studied music theory, so I hope I can express this properly:
Few would dispute that, today, the most well-known baroque composers are Vivaldi and J.S. Bach. While I have to concede Bach was the more versatile of the two, lately I enjoy listening to the Venetian more.
Bach's music feels like an intricate, beautiful clock constructed by a brilliant artisan, crafting the parts from his own genius.
With Vivaldi, it's as if the music is a force of nature the composer has managed to channel for our delight -- an underground stream that emerges, dazzling, from the jets of a gorgeous fountain.
Or something like that😜
Weirdly, I just don't vibe that well with Bach. I can appreciate him intellectually, but I cannot really feel the soul of the music though it is certainly there. I like Vivaldi too--Italian music in general. I love Kapsberger, Monteverdi, Barbara Strozzi,... And if I had to pick a German, then it would be Silvius Leopold Weiss, e.g., -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHEf3_i-jFk&ab_channel=AnnaWiktoriaSwoboda
Love me a good chaconne!