Music to Hear on Here: Scat Singing

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Scat Singing

I was thinking about this in relation to words/music for Schopenhauer - in thinking about the Rossini video as well. Scat singing as wordless vocables conforms in some ways to Schopenhauer's stance on acceptable singing/wording in music, but is also problematic in that it is a style of singing - which entails that instrumentation is not necessary. There need not be a "language" between the singing and the instrumentation, because the voice as instrument is the prime emphasis...

1 comment:

Aaron BenavidezFebruary 10, 2011 at 6:19 PM
Hey Alex, feel free to "listen" to my comment above.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Course Description

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." Martin Mull (or Elvis Costello)

Thinking about the meaning and value, intellectual, affective and neurological experiences, and aesthetics of music has occupied an important position in modern and contemporary philosophical writings. Central to the philosophy of music is a questioning of what music is insofar as it is an art form and practice, akin to but different from other arts, such as drama, literature, painting, sculpture, to name but a few examples. Claims have been made, in fact, that music’s effect, when performed and listened to, surpasses those of the other arts because of its abstact purity, of its universality, and of its singular capacity to express, represent and incite emotions. This course will explore such issues in 19th-20th century philosophy. We will begin with introductory readings of what composes the field and discipline of the philosophy of music. We will read—among other philosophers, novelists, critics and musicologists—Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Barthes and Adorno’s writings on music. Finally, we will have the occasion to read about and listen to specific musicians, both high and low, and explore the contexts of their work, concentrating on the historical and political dimensions of the practice, performance and art of making music.