14 Feb
2013
14 Feb
'13
1:50 p.m.
On Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 7:39 AM, Rustom Mody <rustompmody(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Personally, Ive for years belonged to the class of people who consider
that music starts with Bach and ends with Beethoven. Bach because he is God
and Beethoven because He is a man.
as much of a lover of Bach's non-vocal works as I am, I'd like to point out
that most definitions of music involve at least 3 components:
rhythm
melody
harmony
one might also timbre if you were in the right mood. Bach, like more or
less everyone who is a part of the "western tradition", did some incredible
things with harmony, and had some modest accomplishments in the melodic
area (*), but did essentially nothing with rhythm.
It is entirely possible to fully respect the incredible work of western
composers while also acknowledging that "music" begins and ends in places
far outside anywhere that they (or any other single musical culture) have
ever explored.
(*) contrast western notions of melody with that found in carnatic music,
for example. one could argue that this is a matter of listener
interpretation rather than compositional form, but since in practice these
two are tightly bound together, it doesn't make a lot of difference when it
comes to actual music.