The Birth of Perspective in the Spirit of Music

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WORK DATA

Lecturer:
Category:
EVENT
Type:
presentation
Keywords:
music / perspective / renaissance / theory
Creation Date:
1999-07-03
Language:
German
Description:
Our way into the musical past is ruled by an unusual inverted perspective: the older music is, the slower it is played or sung – and this slowness of musical tempo is indeed of visual origin; thus, the word perspective has not been chosen at random. The old music sheet was, as a matter of fact, larger than that of today, and sound followed the picture – to put it simply, if we take a crotchet of the 16th century it appeared as a modern semibreve – and this visual deception had a very persistent acoustic impact. The big white minims, incidentally, also had an influence on the most praised purity of old classical polyphonic musical composition. This state of affairs is certainly not unknown any longer to the musician. The so-called historical practice of presentation has overcome many tempo prejudices – and still one might feel while listening to someone playing Beethoven following his speedy tempo directions, that he is not following Beethoven at all but imitating Karajan. (...) (M.B.)

More Information

Original Title (German):
Die Geburt der Perspektive aus dem Geiste der Musik
Location:
Budapest, Műcsarnok, Törley-terem / Kunsthalle, Törley Hall
Part of Collection: