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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 23
stranger
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OP
stranger
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 23 |
"It must be left to students of musical semasiology to account for the psychological association that exists between the spiritual concept of goodness and saintliness and the notational accident of the absence of sharps and flats in the key signature, which results in the 'whiteness' of the music."
There are two factors that can make music notation look whiter: one is the absence of sharps and flats, the other is the use of longer note-values (whole notes and half notes).
The first was the subject of an edict from the Council of Trent in the 16th century: the church authorities wanted to clean up the (to them, unnecessarily) complications of church music, including sharps and flats. The product of this reform was . . . Palestrina.
A composition teacher I attended once told me that in his choir-boy days he would judge the interest of a piece of music by how white it looked. Black meant later, therefore interesting, while white (all semibreves and minims) meant earlier (Palestrina etc.) and boring.
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Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
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Thank you Andrew Robinson for at least casting some light upon the word-context of this day. I hadn't the faintest what this was all about and didn't dare ask. I was wondering about the "whiteness" of music, but I don't want to openly be the dummy all the time. Thank you for your post. Interesting . Never knew that the Council of Trente kept itself also busy with things like this.  Palestrina... See the connection with pale?
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Joined: Dec 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not sure I'd want to pay much attention to someone who found Palestrina boring. I hope he came to his senses in later life.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
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Welcome, Andrew.
the psychological association that exists between the spiritual concept of goodness and saintliness and the notational accident of the absence of sharps and flats in the key signature
Good heavens--it never occurred to me that there might be such an association. I've played a lot of music, and none of it ever looked spiritually good or otherwise to me. Sound, now--sound can certainly evoke images. Night on the Bald Mountain, for ex.
I'll PM eta about this.
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Not sure I'd want to pay much attention to someone who found Palestrina boring. I hope he came to his senses in later life. Grumble. No need to pay attention to an anonymous composition teacher's childhood opinions. I'm glad Andrew enlightened to some degree the meaning of this rather totally rare word semasiology. I have no particular opinion on Palestrina, but his name in this context reminded me of the old hit " Whiter Shade of Pale". Words, just words. Maybe etaoin will have more to add. The music expert.
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 1,067 |
Does this have any relevance to that other thread concerning the expression "that's mighty white of you"? I suppose not. 
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I suppose neither. But to stay on the musical side of the track, I made a disturbing discovery just now. Copying a Handel CD + an Alan Hovhaness CD to my media library files, Vista, taking categorizing out of my hands, did not let Hovhaness pass the "classical " test and categorized him "new age". I don't agree. I'm in shock. Did I give Vista 'carte blanche' to label my CD's? I suppose not. 
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 3,290
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Did I give Vista 'carte blanche' to label my CD's?I'm pretty sure that Vista just downloads the data from the CDDB ( link).
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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heh well, Catholic decrees aren't my usual thing, but I have had an interesting and enjoyable time learning about the Counter-Reformation and all that... it sounds like Palestrina did the best he could considering the restrictions (disclaimer-I very much like Palestrina), but then the best composers always do well with restrictions, e.g. J.S.Bach. (interesting stuff here) as for kids and Palestrina, I'm not surprised at the young choirboy not being thrilled with slower, "beautiful" music, I have the same trouble with my students. fast means better. (too bad for them, we still sing slow, beautiful songs.) as for "white" notes and psychological stuff, I think it's all blowing in the wind.
formerly known as etaoin...
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thank you etaoin, for adding some more information about the Counter-Reformation. I never knew much about Palestrina but this furthermore instructive YouTube-je is really quite enjoyable, beautiful singing. And the "whiteness" is clearly present. Palestrina
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