When Beethoven Met Goethe
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When Beethoven Met Goethe
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Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#2The population then was about 1 billion.
With 7.6 billion people, greater access to education, and more travel, how many meetings of comparable people happen today?
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#3The population then was about 1 billion. With 7.6 billion people, greater access to education, and more travel, how many meetings of comparable people happen today?
Maybe the amount of geniuses grew proportionately, maybe there are more geniuses per billion capita today.
My guess is that there are vastly more geniuses today but that they are spread out more geographically and to many more types of art.
Today, maybe Beethoven would be making techno in Rotterdam. Goethe might be making movies in Hollywood or computer games in Copenhagen. Who knows.
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#4This was arguably the golden age of German culture. Even if Kant just passed away, you had philosophers such as Hegel in Berlin, Fichte, Schelling living at the same time and the younger Schopenhauer actually meeting with Goethe, although that did not turn out well. At that time, Romanticism was taking off in Germany, after the Weimarer Klassik around Goethe, Schiller and people such as Herder and Wieland was coming to an end. Goethe had a reputation of protecting his status and suppressing other talented artists. It should also be said that Beethoven's ninth uses text from the Ode to Joy, from Schiller, who was a friend of Goethe and one of the few he might have seen as equals. Overall, a giant, intricate network of historical figures.
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#5The population then was about 1 billion. With 7.6 billion people, greater access to education, and more travel, how many meetings of comparable people happen today?
Maybe the amount of geniuses grew proportionately, maybe there are more geniuses per billion capita today. My guess is that there are vastly more geniuses today but that they are spread out more geographically and to many more types of art. Today, maybe Beethoven would be making techno in Rotterdam. Goethe might be making movies in Hollywood or computer games in Copenhagen. Who knows.
Still, culture operates on a "hubs and authorities" basis -- there are people whose job it is to be hubs (curators, publishers, music programmers and promoters) and people who become known for their genius ("authorities").
The interdisciplinary issue is interesting. There's probably enough of it happening to offset fragmentation of culture into specialisations.
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#6 Beethoven would be making techno
A genius would be horrified by the trivial repitition of the same that is modern pop-music.
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#7Beethoven would be making techno Why? Given that making techno, or modern pop music in general, is basically trivial. Just spin up Ableton, press a few buttons ... boom, 10 minutes later you've got a competitive techno-track that doesn't sound all that different (apart from mastering maybe) from what's being played in the clubs. There is no art left in pop-music -- trivial and generic. A genius would be horrified by…
Link to your tracks?
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#8Beethoven would be making techno Why? Given that making techno, or modern pop music in general, is basically trivial. Just spin up Ableton, press a few buttons ... boom, 10 minutes later you've got a competitive techno-track that doesn't sound all that different (apart from mastering maybe) from what's being played in the clubs. There is no art left in pop-music -- trivial and generic. A genius would be horrified by…
Link to your tracks?
Why would a "link" be interesting or relevant? My point that modern pop-music is extremely generic stands/falls whether I have "tracks" or not.
It's hard to deny that modern pop-music is to an extremely good approximation all in the 4/4 time signature for example, so to an extremely good approximation all modern pop-music has less rhythmic variety e.g. many/most single classical pieces.
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#9Beethoven would be making techno Why? Given that making techno, or modern pop music in general, is basically trivial. Just spin up Ableton, press a few buttons ... boom, 10 minutes later you've got a competitive techno-track that doesn't sound all that different (apart from mastering maybe) from what's being played in the clubs. There is no art left in pop-music -- trivial and generic. A genius would be horrified by…
Come on, art is not measured by how complex or technically intricate it is. It's a matter of feeling and atmosphere. Techno is a sensibility and a culture, not a celebration of individual masterpieces by "geniuses".
Re: When Beethoven Met Goethe
#10Beethoven would be making techno Why? Given that making techno, or modern pop music in general, is basically trivial. Just spin up Ableton, press a few buttons ... boom, 10 minutes later you've got a competitive techno-track that doesn't sound all that different (apart from mastering maybe) from what's being played in the clubs. There is no art left in pop-music -- trivial and generic. A genius would be horrified by…
Aphex Twin.