On 17.01.2007 David W. Fenton wrote:
Well, actually, the discussion went on in Early Music between Joshua
> and Ton Koopman (I believe this was in the year 2000).
You mean the discussion continued then? The original publication of
Rifkin's hypothesis was back in the early 80s, around the time the B
Minor Mass recording came out.
Well, your question shows that you are not fully informed on the
subject. Unfortunately this is a pretty common problem when talking
about this very subject. There is simply a lot of recent research,which
is constantly ignored by those who still claim Joshua was wrong.
> Eventually they
> called in Andrew Parrot as the unbiased mediator, who then ended up
> writing a book which basically completely supports Joshua's view. The
> whole thing is as settled as it can be. There will always be those who
> don't believe the evidence, but it is nonetheless there.
Nothing is *every* settled.
Well, that's why I said "as it can be".
New evidence can emerge, and the
unexamined assumptions of one generation can become blazingly obvious
to a later generation. Were it not so, I never would have gone into
musicology.
Yes, but you can't just insist on your points by simply ignoring all the
more recent research completely. The current state of research strongly
suggests that Joshua was correct all the way. Imo it is highly unlikely
that this will turn around completely. Minor questions might still be
open, some points unclear, but all in all the main points have been proven.
It's a bit like insisting that Mozart was murdered by Salieri, although
there is actually no evidence to support it. Of course you can say new
evidence may emerge in the future. But it is highly unlikely. As settled
as it can be, just as I said it.
As a matter of fact Joshua is a very serious researcher himself. He
found out something and he presented it in a provocative way. That
doesn't de-value the quality of his research. He really knows the
subject, and did his research trying to be as unbiased as possible.
Johannes
--
http://www.musikmanufaktur.com
http://www.camerata-berolinensis.de
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