21. Sudre and his Universal Musical Language
A very familiar expression is, “Music is the International Language.” As this is used today it expresses the fact that the emotions communicated by Music are un...
Category: Essays on Music
22. Doctrine of the Affections, part 1
Mersenne Napoleon: Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greatest encouragement. R. W. Marpurg, 174...
23. Doctrine of the Affections, part 2
Descartes, Kircher, Mattheson and Heinichen Napoleon: Music of all the arts has the most influence on the passions and the legislator should give it the greates...
24. Music is the Ruler of the Passions of the Soul
Martin Luther (1538): Only Music deserves being extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart. Angelo Berardi (1681): Music is the r...
25. The Truth about Baroque Music
Many early histories of Baroque music had a focus which left out a great deal of music, in particular the music representing Humanism, By Humanism in music we m...
26. Early Voices on Reason versus Experience
In works of music that man who judges by rules, judges wrong. Voltaire The fragments of Greek philosophy which have survived from the period before Socrates and...
27. Early Voices try to Explain Emotion
The work of getting anybody to cheerfully undertake the monotony and drudgery of teaching must be effected not by pay merely, but by a skillfully worked-up appe...
28. Baroque Period Writers on Emotion
Although traditional Music History texts generally fail to make this clear, beginning with the late Renaissance there was a rapidly growing interest in leaving ...
29. Some Early Voices Intuit the Bicameral Mind
We all speak well of our hearts, we none of us dare speak well of our minds. La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) But though I distrust my head, I am always sure of my ...
30. On Preference of the Right Hand
A wise man’s heart inclines him toward the right,But a fool’s heart toward the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2 Considering our two hands apart from the rest of the body...