Dear Nikil thank you very much. With your channel and your work you inspire and influence positively so many people! And thanks to all your generous guests.
What a nice surprise. I read her book a long time ago on my search for understanding why improvisation stopped being an important part of music making in classical music. This also led me to discover the Partimento t tradition through the works of Gjerdingen and Sanguinetti. Nice to know that you read the book, thank you for making this episode.
Especially in this modern age where we mostly consume music in a recorded state, it is really easy to forget that music used to be a 'practice'. It was something you 'do', in an community, not something to be displayed and to be admired for its own sake. Like a chef might have a conceptual idea of his 'work', his signature dish, but the recipe on paper is not the thing itself, it is merely a guide for the real thing, which is the practice of cooking and serving food through teamwork with a group of cooks and waiters. You could use that recipe and create a microwavable supermarket version of that signature dish, with all the same ingredients and cooking techniques, and you can sit there and admire the 'genius' of the food combination, the cooking techniques, the presentation, but it would never be the same. It is the entire experience of going to a restaurant, where a team of cooks is working at their best, under the direction of a master chef, everything perfectly crafted and executed to give you a pleasurable eating experience, connected to the local community, knowing that you are in that moment where they all worked together in perfect harmony to provide you something good. Similarly, you can sit in your home and admire a recording of Bach for its genius musical craftsmanship, but it is not the same experience that Bach intended. You had to be there, in that church, in touch with the community, connected to the culture of church music of that time, to really experience what Bach had in mind.
In the practical order, I think that while we cannot perfectly recreate the conditions where we could listen to a historical work, it's not a worthless enterprise to play it translated to a modern context. In some senses the listening experience may even be superior. I agree that the context is highly relevant, for instance listening to liturgical music in the midst of a mass for instance. In fact, there's probably no better situation to listen to proper liturgical music than during mass. Other works like instrumental works I believe are afforded more room for alternate settings.
@@NikhilHoganShow I agree. While I am of skeptical of the work concept in terms of authenticity, I do not have anything against historically informed recreations, as long as it isn't in service of some kind of inaccurate order, e.g. this is how it 'should' be played and anything else is incorrect. In terms of authenticity, how could any music not be authentic? What makes Bach's idiosyncratic conditions more authentic than my idiosyncratic conditions? But as long as it is in service of exploration of sound, e.g. what could the music have sound like back when Bach wrote it, I applaud any such effort. I have heard many different performances of the St. Matthew Passion, large modern orchestras, a Dutch version, historical recreations, amateur performances, and still my favorite is the Gardiner recordings because it reminds me of my childhood during Easter when my parents always played it. For me, music transcends the notes on the paper, or in the digital code, it is something that exists, it is in the world, by people and for people. Authenticity can become a quest for perfect order, which is nonexistent and thus imperfect. Music is a temporal phenomena, it can 'only' exist, and thus is always perfect. My apologies if my thoughts are a bit rambly, this is complicated stuff and I haven't fleshed out my philosophy on music, yet.
Hey Nikhil, love your content. I am wondering when you might upload your new episodes on Spotify? I tend to like to go on walks outdoor and listen to your stuff or when I am driving to work. I of course watch the episodes on my computer too at a later date. All the best.
![KSI - Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/At8v_Yc044Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Great subject, great talk, great episode!
What an episode!
Dear Nikil thank you very much. With your channel and your work you inspire and influence positively so many people! And thanks to all your generous guests.
You're welcome!
I've been an Opera Hooligan.
Lydia has given my life meaning.
What a nice surprise. I read her book a long time ago on my search for understanding why improvisation stopped being an important part of music making in classical music. This also led me to discover the Partimento t tradition through the works of Gjerdingen and Sanguinetti.
Nice to know that you read the book, thank you for making this episode.
You're very welcome, thank you for watching.
Really interesting, thank you.
Much appreciated.
Especially in this modern age where we mostly consume music in a recorded state, it is really easy to forget that music used to be a 'practice'. It was something you 'do', in an community, not something to be displayed and to be admired for its own sake.
Like a chef might have a conceptual idea of his 'work', his signature dish, but the recipe on paper is not the thing itself, it is merely a guide for the real thing, which is the practice of cooking and serving food through teamwork with a group of cooks and waiters. You could use that recipe and create a microwavable supermarket version of that signature dish, with all the same ingredients and cooking techniques, and you can sit there and admire the 'genius' of the food combination, the cooking techniques, the presentation, but it would never be the same. It is the entire experience of going to a restaurant, where a team of cooks is working at their best, under the direction of a master chef, everything perfectly crafted and executed to give you a pleasurable eating experience, connected to the local community, knowing that you are in that moment where they all worked together in perfect harmony to provide you something good.
Similarly, you can sit in your home and admire a recording of Bach for its genius musical craftsmanship, but it is not the same experience that Bach intended. You had to be there, in that church, in touch with the community, connected to the culture of church music of that time, to really experience what Bach had in mind.
In the practical order, I think that while we cannot perfectly recreate the conditions where we could listen to a historical work, it's not a worthless enterprise to play it translated to a modern context. In some senses the listening experience may even be superior. I agree that the context is highly relevant, for instance listening to liturgical music in the midst of a mass for instance. In fact, there's probably no better situation to listen to proper liturgical music than during mass. Other works like instrumental works I believe are afforded more room for alternate settings.
@@NikhilHoganShow I agree. While I am of skeptical of the work concept in terms of authenticity, I do not have anything against historically informed recreations, as long as it isn't in service of some kind of inaccurate order, e.g. this is how it 'should' be played and anything else is incorrect. In terms of authenticity, how could any music not be authentic? What makes Bach's idiosyncratic conditions more authentic than my idiosyncratic conditions?
But as long as it is in service of exploration of sound, e.g. what could the music have sound like back when Bach wrote it, I applaud any such effort.
I have heard many different performances of the St. Matthew Passion, large modern orchestras, a Dutch version, historical recreations, amateur performances, and still my favorite is the Gardiner recordings because it reminds me of my childhood during Easter when my parents always played it. For me, music transcends the notes on the paper, or in the digital code, it is something that exists, it is in the world, by people and for people. Authenticity can become a quest for perfect order, which is nonexistent and thus imperfect. Music is a temporal phenomena, it can 'only' exist, and thus is always perfect.
My apologies if my thoughts are a bit rambly, this is complicated stuff and I haven't fleshed out my philosophy on music, yet.
@LesterBrunt no need to apologize, I'll definitely be exploring philosophy in music in greater detail, at least from the scholastic side, stay tuned!
Hey Nikhil, love your content. I am wondering when you might upload your new episodes on Spotify? I tend to like to go on walks outdoor and listen to your stuff or when I am driving to work. I of course watch the episodes on my computer too at a later date. All the best.
Thanks so much. My podcast host, LibSyn, doesn't have unlimited upload capacity like RUclips so I upload intermittently unfortunately.
Dear Nikil, at 43:00 you mention a textbook about history of philosoohy from a scolastic perspective: can I ask you author and title please? Thanks
Yes, it's "The History of Philosophy" by Rev. Paul J. Glenn. You can easily find the pdf on google.