I'd like to add my vote for the usefulness of these discussions. I
don't have the benefit of a career studying the field, yet I gain the
benefit of your scholarship. Parasitic on my part, but it
significantly helps to inform my approach to the instrument.
cud
__
From: Monica Hall
To: "Nelson, Jocelyn"
Cc: Vihuelalist
Sent: Fri, February 11, 2011 2:28:39 PM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Re: Virgil, Vergil, & the usefulness of etymology or
bourdon details
That's an interesting summary and very generous of you to say that you
find
Lex's and my discussion important as I often feel I am wasting
everyone's
time and getting very cross in the process. The etymology of the term
"motet" is a fascinating topic in its own right. But we had better not
start a discussion on that.
Best
Monica
- Original Message -
From: "Nelson, Jocelyn" <[1]nels...@ecu.edu>
To: "Vihuelalist" <[2]vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu>
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 6:48 PM
Subject: [VIHUELA] Virgil, Vergil, & the usefulness of etymology or
bourdon
details
> Dear List,
>
>
> I listened to an entertaining talk yesterday afternoon on how
research
> worked in the renaissance (it seems research didn't work so well,
> according to the speaker, who gave us some good laughs during his
> talk). The poet and scholar Poliziano (1454-1494) made a strong case
> for the correct spelling of the Roman poet's name, "Vergil
> (Vergilius)." His evidence, which was better than the evidence on
the
> opposing side according to the professor giving the talk (such as
the
> poet's spelling preference for his own name), has been ignored ever
> since--most of us know the poet as "Virgil." The talk centered on
why
> the truth was ignored and the difference between truth and
influence:
> we consistently sacrifice truth forusefulness and custom, which is
more
> influential. Some classicists in the room did bring up Virgil's word
> plays on his own name, and some other Latin and Italian spelling
> issues, but people generally appreciated his basic premise: that
this
> sacrifice--usefulness over truth--is eventually to our detriment,
even
> when the truth in the short run seems like it doesn't matter.
>
>
> Which brings me back to our conversation about etymology. I was
> surprised to read Ralf eschew the importance of the original meaning
of
> a style, genre, or technique in musicbecause I happen to come to
that
> particular question from the opposite direction: why wouldn't a
> performer or scholar in the field of early music want to understand
a
> term's origins?
>
>
> "Etymology might be interesting in itself and
>
> important in the study of language, but is of no use in a
>
> terminological discurse. In what way is the fact that the top voice
of
>
> a polyphonic piece once was considered a texted version of an
untexted
>
> clausula (and hence named 'motetus' - with words) relevant to the
>
> study of, say, Motets by Marc-Antoine Charpentier?"
>
>
> We could argue the relevance of understanding the origins of the
motet
> to an understanding of Charpentier's motets, and we could each make
> good points (perhaps while entirely convinced the other is wrong).
>
>
> But I'm more interested in how we decide to explore early musical
> techniques and performance practices. If we're brazen enough to
perform
> music of the distant past, every detail and item of evidence we can
> find is vital to an understanding of any certain genre or
performance
> practice, even when the final answer doesn't always seem to include
> many of the details. That's why I wouldn't want to teach the 17^th
> century French motet literature to students who haven't been through
> the earlier lectures on the substitute clausulae; in fact, the
earlier
> course is officially a prerequisite for the later course at my
school
> for just that reason.
>
>
> And that's why I find the evidentiary details in the discussion on
> bourdons between Monica and Lex and others on this list important.
I'm
> grateful to them for taking the trouble to defend their viewpoints
with
> specifics.
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jocelyn
>
> --
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
--
References
1. mailto:nels...@ecu.edu
2. mailto:vihuela@cs.dartmouth.edu
3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/%7Ewbc/lute-admin/index.html
