Joe Musicology

So everyone’s all excited about the meeting, well, those who went, well, those who went and posted something about it on their blogs. Strange, I saw a bunch of bloggers there who really aren’t saying anything. I guess if you don’t have anything nice to say…. There are some really nice pictures though. Ah well. I have a couple of nice things to say.

My favorite (or should I say favourite) paper by far was Sarah Hibberd’s Cherubini and the Revolutionary Sublime. In it, she argues that the French were equally pursuing “…a (French) conception of the sublime that complements the German Idealist view that has tended to dominate nineteenth-century studies” (from her abstract) It was a nice discussion although I wish she had looked a little closer at German idealism. The terror created by (and pleasure derived from) an experience of the sublime shifted subtlety in Germany at the beginning of the 19th century-a shift that was complemented in England. Wordsworth in his Preludes describes it quite nicely:

I too exclusively esteemed that love,

And sought that beauty, which as Milton sings

Hath terror in it. Thou didst soften down

This over-sternness; but for thee, sweet friend,

May soul, too reckless of mild grace, had been

Far longer what by Nature it was framed—

Longer retained its countenance severe—

A rock with torrents roaring, with the clouds

Familiar, and a favorite of the stars;

But thou didst plant its crevices with flowers,

Hand it with shrubs that twinkle in the breeze,

And teach the little birds to build their nests

And warble in its chambers…( 224)

That beauty which hath terror in it. The flower among the rocks. The fragile thing in threatening isolation—the prima donna at the precipice. In Cherubini’s opera Lodoiska (the fragile thing) is imprisoned by that evil Count Dourlinski, but her desperate position is not emphasized by the fire and the battle scene. At least not until Weber wrote his great insert aria for the opera that emphasizes her beauty in the wilderness. In the Romantic movement in Germany and England, they sought to amplify the terror of the sublime by mixing it with beauty. As Schilling stated in On the Sublime (1801) “Only if the sublime is wedded to the beautiful and our sensitivity for both has been cultivated in equal measure are we perfect citizens of nature without thereby becoming her slaves and without squandering our citizenship in the intelligible world.” I think I’m going to write a paper on that—see? Hibberd gave an inspiring paper—saved the conference for me and justified the $80 and 5 hour drive. I’d like to tell her personally, but I don’t know how, I suppose I’ll just cite her paper in mine. Zoe’s paper was cancelled. I saw the Rock-Doc lookin’ cool with a Bloody Mary at the Hotel bar (TA in tow). DF was holding court and I actually spoke to S.B. 

Outside of the conference it was nice to see Dad’s neighborhood, and stay in Grandpop’s old pad.. I think I saw the music shop where Dad bought me my first guitar. It was just fun and nostalgic for times that I had, or might have had, or wished I had, or could have had, or thought I had, or might still have….yuck. Anyway, here is a little Lodoiska on the YouTube:

Not great quality, but a worthwhile performance.

Finally, the composer of the day is Vanessa Lann. I don’t like to characterize styles, except to say I like her stuff.  Especially, check out Illuminating Aleph (although I’d skip the program and just give it a listen…). G’night y’all