What are you reading now?

[Peter]

Have not been reading books lately, just information on the internet. I have been reading about the Hurrians and the Hurrian hymn.

Also, about Thales, an ancient Greek philosopher. Very smart man. Is anyone familiar with him?

I'd be wary of a lot of information on the internet! The Hurrian Hymn has the earliest known musical notation 1400BC and was found at Urgarit in Syria. There are several realisations of this piece and they are completely different - there is a real problem in interpreting ancient music yet there are plenty of cds out there of ancient Greek music for example which are dubious to say the least!

[Peter]

Having just finished a fascinating biography of Shelley have moved on naturally to Byron.

[susanwen]

I meant that Thales was one of the first of the major Greek philosophers who enjoyed enquiry for its own sake, rather than as a practical application. I apologize for not being clearer.

[Preston]

Thank you for the clarification.

[Quijote]

I am currently reading Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum (The Study of Counterpoint). I was vaguely aware that Haydn used this "method" when teaching the young Beethoven, but not that Beethoven himself used it for preparing an extensive set of lessons for the Archduke Rudolph.

[Peter]

I am currently reading Johann Joseph Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum (The Study of Counterpoint). I was vaguely aware that Haydn used this "method" when teaching the young Beethoven, but not that Beethoven himself used it for preparing an extensive set of lessons for the Archduke Rudolph.

Curious bed-time reading Philip - is it turning you into a new Bach?! Currently reading Fiona MacCarthy's biography of Byron which I seemed to inadvertently have timed with Rupert Everett's interesting BBC documentary on the naughty boy!

[Preston]

Who is Byron? Seems I have heard the name before but not sure.

[Peter]

Who is Byron? Seems I have heard the name before but not sure.

From Wikipedia:

George Gordon Byron, later Noel, 6th Baron Byron FRS (22 January 1788– 19 April 1824) was a British poet and a leading figure in Romanticism. Amongst Byron's best-known works are the brief poems She Walks in Beauty, When We Two Parted, and So, we'll go no more a roving, in addition to the narrative poems Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and Don Juan. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential, both in the English-speaking world and beyond.

Byron's notabilty rests not only on his writings but also on his life, which featured upper-class living, numerous love affairs, debts, and separation. He was notably described by Lady Caroline Lamb as "mad, bad, and dangerous to know". Byron served as a regional leader of Italy's revolutionary organization, the Carbonari, in its struggle against Austria. He later travelled to fight against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence, for which Greeks revere him as a national hero. He died from a fever contracted while in Messolonghi in Greece.

[Preston]

Thank you for that Peter. He sounds like a very smart individual. Have you read any of his writings?

[Quijote]

Curious bed-time reading Philip - is it turning you into a new Bach?! [...]

Perhaps, as I'm also reading Bach, Chorale Harmonization and Instrumental Counterpoint (William Boyd, Kahn & Averill, 1999). Who said I read this stuff in bed?

[Quijote]

This thread has gone quiet, of late. Well, here is a book I am tempted to offer myself this Christmas : The Muse as Eros : Music, Erotic Fantasy and the Male Creativity in the Romantic and Modern Imagination, Stephen Downes, Ashgate 2006.

Here is the blurb : "The muse has long been figured as a divine or erotically charged consort to the virile male artist, who may inspire him or lead him to the edge of madness. This book explores the changing cultural expressions of the relationship between the male artist with a beloved, imagined or desired muse, to offer new and penetrating perspectives on musical representations and transformations of creative masculine subjectivity, and important aspects of the shift from the styles and aesthetics of Romantic Idealism to Modernist Anxiety in music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each of the chapters begins with explorations into male artists' relationships with their Muse, and moves to analysis and interpretation, which uncovers cultural constructions of masculine artistic inspiration and production, and their association with creatively inspiring and erotically charged relationships with a Muse. New insights are offered into the musical meaning and cultural significance of selected works by Rossini, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Schumann, Wagner, Sibelius, Mahler, Bartok, Scriabin, Szymanowski, Debussy, Berg, Poulenc and Weill."

[Peter]

Yes not much reading here I fear! I've just finished Stendhal's 'Red and the Black' and have on order 'The Aesthetics of Music' - Roger Scruton. If I like this I may go for his 'Modern Culture'.

[Quijote]

Yes not much reading here I fear! I've just finished Stendhal's 'Red and the Black' and have on order 'The Aesthetics of Music' - Roger Scruton. If I like this I may go for his 'Modern Culture'.

Scruton is also on my wish list. Right-wing philosopher, if my memory serves me?

[Peter]

Scruton is also on my wish list. Right-wing philosopher, if my memory serves me?

I thought you'd rise to the bait! I couldn't really care what wing he leans on if he talks sense or at least raises interesting points. Be interested to hear your reaction after reading!

[Quijote]

I thought you'd rise to the bait! I couldn't really care what wing he leans on if he talks sense or at least raises interesting points. Be interested to hear your reaction after reading!

I always rise to the bait, which is why you love me! Actually, I have already read some extracts from the 'Aesthetics'. I'm sure we'll have much to talk about, Peter !!
Merry Christmas to you, by the way.