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Thu, 13 Jul 2000 15:30:00 -0500 |
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Steve Schwartz:
>We learn the emotional meaning of music by associating rhythms, modes, and
>so on with non-musical things. For example, the rhythm, mode, and color of
>Beethoven's Eroica funeral march probably comes from other funeral marches
>and in turn influences the music of other funeral music.
The Eroica funeral march, according to this picture, came from earlier
funeral marches, and I suppose that there was one ur-funeral march from
which all others derived, in terms of"rhythm, mode and color." This is
completely possible - then the nature of funeral marches becomes what
the physicist Murray Gell-mann calls "a frozen accident."
But there is somethinmg a bit too facile about this convention approach.
In some way the" rhythm, mode,and color " may reflect something more basic
and intrinsic to the emotional atmosphere of a funeral. It does not have
to be all convention. Anybody know a really peppy funeral march?
Professor Bernard Chasan
Physics Department, Boston University
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