Laughter is good for the soul – funniest music videos

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Stay-Tuned

Sometimes we take ourselves too seriously. Not that there aren’t times when being serious is appropriate, but sometimes it’s good to just laugh. Take a look at some of these music video gems.

From Britain’s Morcambe and Wise Show :
Andre Previn

The Beatles

Igudesman & Joo

Korean style piano lesson

Victor Borge

Freddie Starr

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Music Education – Positive Effects on the Brain

Posted on April 11, 2011 by admin
Studies show that music is good for both children and adults. Find out about the “Mozart Effect” and how music affects intelligence and learning in both adults and children.
Website Address Comments
http://esl.about.com/library/lessons/blbrainmusic.htm?terms=Brain+music Mozart, Haydn and Bach for grammar. Ravel, Debussy for imagination. Beethoven, Brahms for “serious issues”. Check out this about.com article.

http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/home_music.html All about music and education – lots of thought provoking info about music and its effect on the mind.

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/dl.html
Music Education Beyond the Mozart Effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain
General information on the brain from the internet’s open source encyclopedia
http://www.guitar-lessons.us/Guitar-Tutors/GuitarTeachers.html The guitar is the best instrument to promote positive brain responses. (No documented proof, but it works for me!)



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Who needs a music teacher when you can learn online?

Posted on April 10, 2011 by Stay-Tuned

Let’s get things straight.  We spend our whole life TALKING to people.  Where did we learn this?  Most folks DON’T take speech lessons and many people DO make a good living just talking to others.  Truth is, if you really WANT to learn anything – you CAN.  Even without lessons.  Then why does anyone need a teacher when many people learn an instrument on their own?

While growing up, there was no Internet, but I learned songs on guitar from vinyl records and tapes. If I wanted to play a song,  I used a tape recording and learned it piece by piece using the rewind and play buttons.   No-one taught me this, but I discovered that listening for the bass note in a song and matching it to a note on guitar, I could figure out what chord was being used.  Most pop songs of that time were “strummers” and used basic chords – either major, minor or basic 7ths.  Anyone who plays a few chords and has a good ear can do that.  However, today there are infinitely more resources available to learn almost anything you want.

I’m a guitar player and I can search online for any song title and probably find either TAB notation or chords and lyrics for free. Then I can watch it played on youtube. Youtube may even have someone giving a lesson on how to play something.

If you want lessons, you can take an online course – often for free.  Then, there are useful forums, blogs  (like this one!) and other sites for advice from experts and enthusiasts. If you REALLY want to learn – you CAN, with or without a formal teacher.   I use these resources all the time and it’s a wonderful thing.  Then, do we still need music teachers?

Hhum hhummm – well, as a guitar teacher, I can say the short answer is, you can make faster progress, learn good habits and techniques from the start, be guided about what’s important and get encouragement along the way.  That’s it!

In my mind, saying that everyone should be self taught doesn’t contradict the statement that you are better off learning music from a good teacher. I learned classical guitar from 8 years old. That was a great foundation to gave me confidence that I can learn just about anything if I’m willing to devote the time.  Of course, those feelings apply to other things in life too. The way I see it, the role of a music teacher is to help the student to use good learning methods and gain confidence through applying a little self discipline.  Of course, kids often need constant support from both teacher and parent, and this process takes years.  So a music teacher’s role is ultimately to show students how to self-teach so that they are able to enjoy and discover things about music on their own.

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Famous Composers of the Western Musical Eras

Posted on April 6, 2011 by admin 
The majority of contents below were copied from http://www.hearts-ease.org
Musical Era Composers Comments
Medieval
1200-1450		 Jacques de Liège
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Magister Leoninus (Léonin) (1163 – 1190)
Adam de la Halle (1238 – 1288)
Philippe de Vitry (1291 – 1361)
Francesco Landini (1325 – 1397)
Perotinus Magister (Pérotin) (~1160 – 1220)
Jean de Muris (~1290 – ~1355)
Guillaume de Machaut (~1300 – 1377)

A large proportion of the music developed in Europe during the medieval period was vocal, both of a religious and secular nature. In church music, this took the form of Gregorian and other types of chants, while non-religious music consisted largely of the songs of traveling minstrels and troubadours.

Vocal music was, until the 9th century, written for one voice part only. Then a second, lower part was introduced, which duplicated the top melody exactly by an interval of a fifth or fourth. A third voice was sometimes added, sounding an octave below. The idea of contrary motion slowly developed, in which the lower part moved in the opposite direction to the top. While the idea of two or more voices, or polyphony, began to influence church music, secular songs continued to be written for one voice, accompanied by various instruments.

During the 12th century, vocal music became more rhythmically interesting as added parts began to include more notes than the principal melody, now called the cantus firmus.
Renaissance
1450-1600		 Thomas Morley (1557 – 1602)
John Dowland (1562-1626)
John Taverner (~1475 – 1545)
Thomas Tallis (~1505 – 1585)
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (~1525 – 1594)
Orlande de Lassus (~1532 – 1594)
William Byrd (~1539 – 1623)

The Renaissance was a time of rebirth and massive cultural upheaval. Artists of all kinds in western Europe became more aware of the classical past and the world beyond the narrow confines of medieval theology. Music was nonetheless influenced by the general receptivity to new ideas.

The Flemish composer Lassus and the Italian composer Palestrina were both masters of Renaissance polyphony, in which voice parts are given equal importance and share in the melody. Tomás Victoria, from Spain, was one to the great composers of counterpoint. And, in England, secular music flourished with Byrd, who wrote madrigals, instrumental works, and solo songs in addition to his church music.

The madrigal was one of the most influential and most popular forms of music during the Renaissance. It consisted of a composition for several voices and was generally unaccompanied. The text usually followed amorous or pastoral themes (secular in content rather than religious). The composer Lassus wrote some 150 madrigals, which are highly expressive in their strong rhythms and dramatic mood swings. It was Palestrina’s skillful use of the secular madrigal as a basis for many of his sacred works that gave his music its unique quality.
Early Baroque
1600-1680		 Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562 – 1621)
Claudio Monteverdi (1567 – 1643)
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583 – 1643)
Heinrich Schütz (1585 – 1672)
Samuel Scheidt (1587 – 1654)
Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 – 1687)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (~1634 – 1704)
Dietrich Buxtehude (~1637 – 1707)

The most important figure of the Early Baroque period was the Italian composer Claudio Monteverdi. He transformed music through his imaginative development of traditional forms. In particular, the dramatic styles of his madrigals (vocal compositions) anticipates the solo cantata and operatic recitative (a singing styles that resembles speech) of the Late Baroque period. Monteverdi was also the earliest significant composer of opera.

Other music that flourished during this period was church organ music. Dutch composer Jan Sweelinck pioneered a number of forms, including the fugue, which strongly influenced J.S. Bach. Another leading musician was Dietrich Buxtehude, whose fame inspired Bach to walk two hundred miles just to hear him play.

The early 17th century saw the rise of Baroque monody, where the melody is given to one instrument of voice, while a basso continuo (“continuing bass”), usually consisting of a keyboard and bass melody instrument, supplies the accompaniment. This did much to distinguish it from the polyphony of the Renaissance. The basso continuo was a common device in both vocal and instrumental Baroque music. Its keyboard part was never written out, but each chord change was indicated by numbers written over or under the bass line.
Late Baroque
1680-1750		 Johann Pachelbel (1653 – 1706)
Henry Purcell (1659 – 1695)
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660 – 1725)
François Couperin (1668 – 1733)
Tomaso Albinoni (1671 – 1751)
Antonio Vivaldi (1678 – 1741)
Johann Mattheson (1681 – 1764)
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750)
Domenico Scarlatti (1685 – 1757)
George Frideric Handel (1685 – 1759)

The greatest legacy handed down by the Late Baroque period was its enormous wealth of operas (such as Handel’s Serse) and oratorios, (two of the greatest being the St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach and Handel’s magnificent Messiah). It is perhaps these two oratorios which most typify the sense of opulence and splendor associated with the period. Other major musical contributions of the Late Baroque era were various dance forms, such as the minuet, gigue, courante, allemande, and sarabande. These dances reflected movements that were ornamental, which was another key feature of this particular time in the history of music.

The concerto grosso; the key instrumental form of the Late Baroque period, reflected the contrast between two groups of instruments: One was a small body of string soloists, known as the concertino, concertato, or concertante; the other group, known as the ripieno, formed the larger string section. The two groups would either alternate with one another or, at times, play together. Some of the greatest concerti grossi are those by Corelli, J.S. Bach, and Handel. It was from this early concerto form that the later Classical and Romantic concertos developed.
Classical
1750-1820		 Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714 – 1787)
C.P.E. Bach (1714 – 1788)
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (1717 – 1757)
Joseph Haydn (1732 – 1809)
Luigi Boccherini (1743 – 1805)
Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752 – 1814)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
ErnstTheodor Amadeus Hoffmann (1776 – 1822)
Heinrich Heine (1777 – 1856)

Based on the ideals of Ancient Greece and Rome, the Classical period stressed the importance of symmetry and form in the arts. In music, the elaborate ornamentation of the Late Baroque period gave way to a new simplicity and elegance. Emotional content was still present, but it was never allowed to obscure the clarity and formal structure of the music.

The Classical period has been called the “Golden Age of Music” because it was at this time that the major forms of Classical music–the symphony, concerto, sonata, and string quartet–were fully developed.

The sonata is the most important musical form of the Classical period: It influenced the development of all areas of orchestral and chamber music. Although the sonata was used most often in the opening movements of compositions, it is also found in slow movements and finales.

The sonata is made of of three sections: the exposition, the development, and the recapitulation. Like a story with a beginning, middle, and end, the result is a musical piece that is at once clearly symmetrical and satisfyingly whole, but which conveys a sense of growth as it unfolds.
Early Romantic
1820-1850		 Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840)
Carl Maria von Weber (1786 – 1826)
Giaocchino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868)
Franz Schubert (1797 – 1828)
Gaetano Domenico Maria Donizetti (1797 – 1848)
Vincenzo Bellini (1801 – 1835)
Adolphe Adam (1803 – 1856)
Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869)
Mikhail Glinka (1804 – 1857)
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)
Frederic Chopin (1810 – 1849)
Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856)
Franz Liszt (1811 – 1886)
Clara Wieck Schumann (1819 – 1896)

The early Romantic period was a time of great thinkers, artists, and scientists. It is possible that the wealth of creativity at the time reflected the desire of 18th century philosophers to reassess reality and, in particular, man’s role in the universe.

Early Romantic music was all about emotion and individual expression–the extremes of joy and sorrow, triumph and dejection, passion and despair. The intensity of passion, individualism and the striving for self-expression are central to the Romantic spirit.

In the early Romantic period, the concerto emerged as one of the chief musical forms of the concert platform. The use of a soloist typified the Romantic spirit of individual self-expression. In the Romantic concerto, dynamic contrast could be taken to extremes, with the delicacy of a solo instrument balanced against the full sound of an orchestra. From the performance point of view, too, the concerto exemplified the age of the Romantic spirit. As a result, showmanship and technique became just as important as musical form and content.
Late Romantic
1850-1900		 Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883)
Giuseppe Verdi (1813 – 1901)
Charles-François Gounod (1818 – 1893)
Jacques Offenbach (1819 – 1880)
Franz von Suppé (1819 – 1895)
Franz Strauss (1822 – 1905)
Bedrich Smetana (1824 – 1884)
Anton Bruckner (1824 – 1896)
Johann Strauss II (1825 – 1899)
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829 – 1869)
Anton Grigoryevich Rubinstein (1829 – 1894)
Hans von Bülow (1830 – 1894)
Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin (1833 – 1887)
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 – 1921)
Léo Delibes (1836 – 1891)
Georges Bizet (1838 – 1875)
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch (1838 – 1920)
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839 – 1881)
Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 – 1893)
Emmanuel Chabrier (1841 – 1894)
Antonin Dvorák (1841 – 1904)
Arthur Sullivan (1842 – 1900)
Jules Massenet (1842 – 1912)
Edvard Grieg (1843 – 1907)
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 – 1908)
Gabriel Urbain Fauré (1845 – 1924)
Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918)
Leoš Janácek (1854 – 1928)
John Phillip Sousa (1854 – 1932)
Edward Elgar (1857 – 1934)
Giacomo Puccini (1858 – 1924)
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz (1860 – 1909)
Gustav Mahler (1860 – 1911)
Frederick Delius (1862 – 1934)
Pietro Mascagni (1863 – 1945)
Richard Strauss (1864 – 1949)
Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957)
Franz Lehár (1870 – 1948)
Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 – 1943)

The Late Romantic period saw the blossoming of self-expression in music. This was especially evident in the music of Tchaikovsky, which reflected the inner turmoil and anguish of his life. Many composers felt that by the time Wagner died, Romanticism had reached its limits of expression. Toward the end of the Late Romantic period, many new and diverse musical styles began to emerge – notably, the nationalism of composers such as Sibelius and Elgar, the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, and the atonal modernism of Schönberg.

Grand opera was perhaps the greatest legacy of the Late Romantic period. In terms of content, there was a world of difference between the deep, psychological subtexts of Wagner’s epic operas, Verdi’s dramas of human passion, and Puccini’s realistic portrayals of everyday life. But there was one element common to nearly all grand opera, namely a dramatic unfolding of events usually ending in tragedy. Wagner’s musical drama Tristan and Isolde is arguably the clearest expression of Late Romantic grand opera.
Early 20th Cent.
1900-1930		 Anton von Webern (1833 – 1945)
Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918)
Erik Satie (1866 – 1925)
Gustav Holst (1874 – 1934)
Arnold Schoenberg (1874 – 1951)
Charles Ives (1874 – 1954)
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Manuel de Falla (1876 – 1946)
Franz Schreker (1878 – 1934)
Ottorino Respighi (1879 – 1936)
Béla Bartók (1881 – 1945)
Zoltán Kodály (1882 – 1967)
Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)
Sir George Dyson (1883 – 1964)
Alban Berg (1885 – 1935)
Ernst Toch (1887 – 1964)
Arthur Honegger (1892 – 1955)
Darius Milhaud (1892 – 1974)
Virgil Garnett Thomson (1896 – 1989)
George Gershwin (1898 – 1937)
Francis Poulenc (1899 – 1963)
Joaquín Rodrigo (1901 – 1967)
William Turner Walton (1902 – 1983)
Elliott Cook Carter (1908 -)
Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)
Frank Loesser (1910 – 1969)
Samuel Barber (1910 – 1981)
Witold Lutoslawski (1913 – 1994)
Milton Byron Babbitt (1916 -)
Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990)

Toward the end of the 19th century, Romanticism reached its limits of expression, which is evident in Wagner’s operas. As a result, diverse and experimental music forms began to emerge, breaking away from the mainstream of Romanticism. These forms included the impressionism of Debussy and Ravel and the surrealism of Satie. The emphasis on irregular rhythms within Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring caused its first audience, in 1913, to riot. Then followed the experimentation in scales and rhythms of Bartók. But possibly the most significant in terms of lasting influence was the atonal and serial approach of Schoenberg and his followers, Berg and Webern.

A key form of music to emerge at the beginning of the 20th century was atonalism (not having any definite key). Schoenberg defined atonalism as the twelve-tone system and developed it into serial music. The twelve-tone system treated all twelve notes of the chromatic scale with equal importance, and no note could be repeated until the series had run its course. The whole series could be moved up or down, inverted or run backward. Serialsim went a step further and formalized the use of rhythm and harmony as well as pitch.
Mid 20th Cent
1930-1960		 Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958)
Edgard Varèse (1883 – 1965)
Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953)
Paul Hindemith (1895 – 1963)
Carl Orff (1895 – 1982)
Ernst Bacon (1898 – 1990)
Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990)
Benjamin Britten (1913 – 1976)
Lukas Foss (1922 -
Andre Previn (1929 -)

During the mid 20th century, music evolved in many different directions. Some composers took Schoenberg ‘s “serial” system to new limits. The rise of jazz, as well as an increasing awareness of non-Western music, provided additional inspiration for many, while others ventured into electronic music by manipulating sounds and noises recorded on tape – a style known as musique concrète. Yet another route was that of “chance” music, notably in the work of John Cage, in which the elements of a composition or performance could be determined by, say, “the throw of the dice”.

In the 1930s and 1940s, many composers returned to forms and techniques of the Baroque and Classical eras. This “Neoclassical” style was a reaction to the emotional, dramatic character of Romanticism. The Neoclassicists turned to past models as a vehicle for expressing their ideas. The Neoclassicists wrote for small chamber ensembles and preferred a tightly knit treatment of thematic material. They did not copy 17th and 18th century forms, but took elements, such as the fugue, and added their own modern harmonies and rhythms. An example of this is Stravinsky’s opera The Rake’s Progress (1951).
Late 20th Cent Dmitry Shostakovich (1906 – 1975)
John Cage (1912 – 1992)
Pierre Boulez (1925 -)
Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928 -)
Stephen Sondheim (1930 -)
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki (1933 -)
Harrison Birtwistle (1934 -)
Steve Reich (1936 -)

The rapid advances in technology during the late 20th century are partly responsible for the emergence of a wide variety of musical forms. Electronics played an important role in the development of music, both classical and popular, from the 1960s onward. The ability of the synthesizer to generate artificial tones and sounds attracted composers such as John Cage, Edgard Varèse, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Beginning in the 1970s, the use of computers, with their ability to memorize and play back whole compositions, discouraged live performances. Many composers turned to writing film scores, for which the precision of computerized music is ideally suited.

Minimalism, which emerged in the 1960s, focuses on the development of a single aspect of music, such as pitch or rhythm, while keeping other elements constant. This approach owes much to Indian raga music, in which the pattern of music changes very little. Computers play a large part in minimalist music because they can make fine, precise alterations. Steve Reich, for instance, made tiny changes in pulse by playing two identical patterns at the same time and slightly altering the speed of one of the patterns.
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Music & Art in the 21st Century

Posted on April 5, 2011 by admin

by Gerry Servito

I. Art is the Expression and Transmitter of a Culture’s Values

SH Lee

Culture refers to the totality of the various kinds of human activity, including economy, education, religion, science, and art, among which the most central is art. In other words, art is the essence of culture. – Explaining Unification Thought, p.246

The art a culture creates and consumes affects its soul:

Life elements develop the spirit. They are the spiritual equivalent of physical nourishment for the body. Eat healthy, be healthy; eat poorly, be sickly. Same with our spiritual intake, of which art is a major part. The great thinkers of the world’s disparate cultures knew this.

Pythagoras

The members of his religious society, the Pythagorean Order, lived by a set of religious, and ethical rules. …salvation could be reached through purification, the renunciation of worldly sensuality, and the observance of ascetic abstinence. … The negation of sensuality prior to physical death enables the soul to achieve the ideal of spiritual purification, especially through music and science, and physical purification through the use of medicine and gymnastics. – History of Philosophy, p. 21

Confucius

… rites, music and poetry were fundamental. According to Confucius, rites, as an institution, regulate our mind and direct our desires. Music, as a “civilizing force,” harmonizes our sentiments and restrains our passions, Poetry, as a “moral force,” moderates our nature and inspires our ethical feeling. Thus, the arts are important of themselves, but they are also the foundation of ethical learning. In Confucius’ words (CHAP. VIII.): [Our character] is cultivated by poetry, established by rites and perfected by music. – The Story of Chinese Philosophy, p. 22

  1. ‘It is by the Odes that the mind is aroused.
  2. ‘It is by the Rules of Propriety that the character is established.
  3. ‘It is from Music that the finish is received.’ – Confucian Analects, p. 211

In the Taoist Chuang Tzu (Chapter XXXIII, Tien Hsia), the specific purpose of each of these subjects is given:

Poetry is to teach ideals, History is to teach events; Rites is to teach conduct; Music is to teach harmony; Change is to teach the dual forces of the universe; and Spring and Autumn is to teach the great principle of honor and duty. – The Story of Chinese Philosophy, p. 22

As in the practical application of the arts already noted above, the stress here is on the use of education in the development of personality rather than upon knowledge for its own sake.

Mencius

  1. Mencius said, ‘The richest fruit of benevolence is this, – the service of one’s parents. The richest fruit of Righteousness is this, – the obeying of one’s elder brothers.
  2. ‘The richest fruit of wisdom is this, – the knowing those two things, and not departing from them. The richest fruit of propriety this, the ordering and adorning those two things. The richest fruit of music is this, the rejoicing in those two things. When they are rejoiced in, they grow. Growing, how can they be repressed? When they come to this state that they cannot be repressed, then unconsciously the feet begin to dance and the hands to move – The Works of Mencius, p. 313-314

Plato

…musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful; and also because he who has received this true education of the inner being will most shrewdly perceive omissions or faults in art and nature, and with a true taste, while he praises and rejoices over and receives into his soul the good, and becomes noble and good, he will justly blame and hate the bad, now in the days of his youth, even before he is able to know the reason why; and when reason comes he will recognise and salute the friend with whom his education has made him long familiar. – from The Republic, Book 3

…God takes away the minds of poets, and uses them as his ministers, as he also uses diviners and holy prophets, in order that we who hear them may know … that God himself is the speaker, and that through them he is conversing with us. …God would seem to indicate to us and not allow us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man, but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the interpreters… Was not this the lesson which the God intended to teach when by the mouth of the worst of poets he sang the best of songs – from Ion

‘Those who are pregnant in the body only, betake themselves to women and beget children–this is the character of their love; their offspring, as they hope, will preserve their memory and give them the blessedness and immortality which they desire in the future. But souls which are pregnant …conceive that which is proper for the soul to conceive or contain. And what are these conceptions? – wisdom and virtue in general. And such creators are poets and all artists who are deserving of the name inventor. But the greatest and fairest sort of wisdom by far is that which is concerned with the ordering of states and families, and which is called temperance and justice. And he who in youth has the seed of these implanted in him and is himself inspired, when he comes to maturity desires to beget and generate…and naturally embraces the beautiful …he who would proceed aright in this matter should begin in youth to visit beautiful forms; and first, if he be guided by his instructor aright, to love one such form only–out of that he should create fair thoughts…search out and bring to the birth thoughts which may improve the young, until he is compelled to contemplate and see the beauty of institutions and laws, and to understand that the beauty of them all is of one family, and that personal beauty is a trifle; and after laws and institutions he will go on to the sciences, that be may see their beauty, being not like a servant in love with the beauty of one youth or man or institution… but drawing towards and contemplating the vast sea of beauty, he will create many fair and noble thoughts and notions in boundless love of wisdom; until on that shore he grows and waxes strong, and at last the vision is revealed to him of a single science, which is the science of beauty everywhere. – from Symposium

Aristotle

Enough has been said to show that music has a power of forming the character, and should therefore be introduced into the education of the young. The study is suited to the stage of youth, for young persons will not, if they can help, endure anything which is not sweetened by pleasure, and music has a natural sweetness. There seems to be in us a sort of affinity to musical modes and rhythms, which makes some philosophers say that the soul is a tuning, others, that it possesses tuning… And now we have to determine the question which has been already raised, whether children should be themselves taught to sing and play or not. Clearly there is a considerable difference made in the character by the actual practice of the art. It is difficult, if not impossible, for those who do not perform to be good judges of the performance of others. Besides, children should have something to do, and the rattle of Archytas, which people give to their children in order to amuse them and prevent them from breaking anything in the house, was a capital invention, for a young thing cannot be quiet. The rattle is a toy suited to the infant mind, and education is a rattle or toy for children of a larger growth. We conclude then that they should be taught music in such a way as to become not only critics but performers. …they who are to be judges must also be performers, and that they should begin to practise early, although when they are older they may be spared the execution; they must have learned to appreciate what is good and to delight in it, thanks to the knowledge which they acquired in their youth. … freemen who are being trained to political virtue should pursue the art, what melodies and what rhythms they should be allowed to use, and what instruments should be employed in teaching them to play; for even the instrument makes a difference. Let the young practise even such music as we have prescribed, only until they are able to feel delight in noble melodies and rhythms, and not merely in that common part of music in which every slave or child and even some animals find pleasure. … The vulgarity of the spectator tends to lower the character of the music and therefore of the performers; they look to him–he makes them what they are, and fashions even their bodies by the movements which he expects them to exhibit. … In education the most ethical modes are to be preferred … But for the purposes of education, as I have already said, those modes and melodies should be employed which are ethical… – from Politics

II. Beauty

A. Views of Beauty

Beauty is the emotional stimulation that the object gives to the subject. It is the object’s value grasped emotionally. Also, the value of an object is latent, until it is judged as beautiful by a subject. – Explaining Unification Thought , p. 251

Before this interaction, its value is essential, potential, not fully realized.

1. Plato

…But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty the divine beauty, I mean, pure and clear and unalloyed, not clogged with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life — thither looking, and holding converse with the true beauty simple and divine? …beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities, and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may. Would that be an ignoble life?’ – - from Symposium

2. Plotinus

Beauty addresses itself chiefly to sight; but there is a beauty for the hearing too… in certain combinations of words and in all kinds of music, for melodies and cadences are beautiful; and minds that lift themselves above the realm of sense to a higher order are aware of beauty in the conduct of life, in actions, in character, in the pursuits of the intellect; and there is the beauty of the virtues. – from Ennead 1 | Sixth Tractate

…the Soul-by the very truth of its nature, by its affiliation to the noblest Existents in the hierarchy of Being — when it sees anything of that kin, or any trace of that kinship, thrills with an immediate delight, takes its own to itself, and thus stirs anew to the sense of its nature and of all its affinity.This, then, is how the material thing becomes beautiful — by communicating in the thought that flows from the Divine…. in the Soul’s becoming a good and beautiful thing is its becoming like to God, for from the Divine comes all the Beauty and all the Good in beings…. Therefore the Soul must be trained — to the habit of remarking, first, all noble pursuits, then the works of beauty produced not by the labour of the arts but by the virtue of men known for their goodness: lastly, you must search the souls of those that have shaped these beautiful forms. - from Ennead 1 | Sixth Tractate

Everywhere, doing and making will be found to be either an attenuation or a complement of vision — attenuation if the doer was aiming only at the thing done; complement if he is to possess something nobler to gaze upon than the mere work produced. - from Ennead 3 | Eighth Tractate

3. Kant

…the beautiful is the symbol of the morally good, and that it is only in this respect … that it gives pleasure…. By this, the mind is made conscious of a certain ennoblement and elevation above the mere sensibility to pleasure received through sense, and the worth of others is estimated in accordance with a like maxim of their judgment. – Critique of Judgement, 1st division, 1st book

B. The determination of beauty

1. Object requisites

Unification Thought explains that, to have potential value, an art object must possess: purpose of creation, harmony of physical elements within the object (i.e., harmony of physical elements with the artist’s underlying purpose, theme, and plan). – Explaining Unification Thought , p. 253

a. Aristotle

The chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry and definiteness – from Metaphysics, Book XIII

b. Augustine

Beautiful things please by proportion, numero, and here as we have shewn equality is not found only in sounds for the ear and in bodily movements, but also in visible forms, in which hitherto equality has been identified with beauty even more customarily than in sounds. Nothing can be proportionate or rhythmic, numerosus, without equality… – from De Musica, Book VI

c. Kant

Genius is the talent (or natural gift) which gives the rule to art. Since talent, as the innate productive faculty of the artist, belongs itself to nature, we may express the matter thus: Genius is the innate mental disposition (ingenium) through which nature gives the rule to art. – from Critique of Judgement , 1st division, 1st book

… art always supposes a purpose in the cause…, there must be at bottom in the first instance a concept of what the thing is to be. And as the agreement of the manifold in a thing with its inner destination, its purpose, constitutes the perfection of the thing, it follows that in judging of artificial beauty the perfection of the thing must be taken into account… - from Critique of Judgement , 1st division, 1st book

Genius

…For beautiful art, therefore, imagination, understanding, spirit, and taste are requisite. – from Critique of Judgement , 1st division, 1st book

2. Subject requisites (in Appreciation only)

…The appreciator must lead an ethical life, approacing art with a pure mind…(he) must also have his own way of thinking, individuality, interests, hobbies, view of life, ideas, education… He needs a basic understanding of culture in order to understand art in any real depth. – Explaining Unification Thought , p. 271

a. Plotinus

Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease chiselling your statue, until there shall shine out on you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the stainless shrine… To any vision must be brought an eye adapted to what is to be seen, and having some likeness to it. Never did eye see the sun unless it had first become sunlike, and never can the Soul have vision of the First Beauty unless itself be beautiful. … Therefore, first let each become godlike and each beautiful who cares to see God and Beauty. – from Ennead 1 | Sixth Tractate

b. Augustine

..But when the soul has properly adjusted and disposed itself, and has rendered itself harmonious and beautiful, then will it venture to see God, the very source of all truth and the very Father of Truth…. to us is promised a vision of beauty — the beauty of whose imitation all other things are beautiful, … and he will see it, who lives well, prays well, studies well – from De Ordine, chap. 19

c. Kant

…we often describe beautiful objects of nature or art by names that seem to put a moral appreciation at their basis. We call buildings or trees majestic and magnificent, landscapes laughing and gay; even colors are called innocent, modest, tender, because they excite sensations which have something analogous to the consciousness of the state of mind brought about by moral judgments. Taste makes possible the transition, without any violent leap, from the charm of sense to habitual moral interest… pleasure is derived which taste regards as valid for mankind in general and not merely for the private feeling of each. Hence it appears plain that the true propaedeutic for the foundation of taste is the development of moral ideas and the culture of the moral feeling, because it is only when sensibility is brought into agreement with this that genuine taste can assume a definite invariable form.- from Critique of Judgement, 1st division, book 2

Conclusion

Art is to improve our present lives, and the future as well.

…If it is our aim to construct a new culture, we must pay attention to art, for art is the essence of culture. First, we must protect the cultural heritage we already have. This heritage includes architecture, sculpture, music, painting, industrial design, and so on…. When we consider such things, we feel responsible not only to inherit our own culture, but to keep it alive, and on this foundation, to develop a new culture. This new culture will come about through the integration of the best elements within the cultures of various nations and racial groups. So, keeping our national cultural heritage is a sine qua non for building a new culture. – Explaining Unification Thought , p. 271

Bibliography

  1. Explaining Unification Thought, by Dr. S. H. Lee, Unification Thought Institute, 1981, ISBN 0-960640-0-3
  2. Philosophies of Art and Beauty, edited by A. Hofstader & R. Kuhns, The University of Chicago Press, 1964, ISBN 0-226-34812-1
  3. History of Philosophy, by W.S. Sahakian, Barnes & Noble, 1968, SBN 06-460002-5
  4. The Story of Chinese Philosophy, Chu Chai, Washington Square Press, 1961,
  5. The Works of Mencius, by James Legge, Dover Publications, 1970, ISBN 0-486-26375-4
  6. Confucius, by James Legge, Dover Publications, 1971, ISBN 0-486-22746-4

Gerry Servito was always surrounded by music at home, since his dad especially was a fan of the Big Band Era. Later, the Ventures got him started playing guitar and he played around New York, occassionally building guitars, and attended art schools until post-grad, where he studied religious education. Email comments to

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Avoiding and Healing Cracked Hands

Posted on April 5, 2011 by admin

Like many other people I have suffered from recurring dry cracked fingers that often split open and this report is about my quest for a solution. For musicians relying on their hands, cracked fingers can be a big problem that can be especially acute during the winter season.     I have tried different products and methods in my search, and recently have had some major breakthrough with something that you you may not expect.   Many years back I was told by a dermatologist to put Eucerine cream on 10 times a day.  I’ve tried that as much as is practical  but still experienced the problem.  The same doctor gave a prescription for a steroid based product that was effective at healing the cracks for a while.  That was expensive and didn’t work well over an extended period.  It would be nice if there was one product to fix the problem permanently.  I’ve had good experience using certain products and methods.

Eucerine Intensive Care Cream (as well as the store branded alternatives), recommended by the doctor, is one of those products that actually helps and does not irritate the skin. I did some internet surfing to find out what other users have tried and purchased a number of products.  I tried Porter’s Lotion and their Sweet Porters Lotion. I also tried two different types of products, Gloves in a Bottle and TheraSeal .  At home I already have Aquaphor that sometimes yields results.  Someone also gave me a sample of T-tree oil.   I have also tried some remedies using household products.  The following are my experiences with each of the products on my shelf.

Eucerine Intensive Care Cream creams are still favorite. Our house also has the bottles of Intensive Repair Lotion that my wife likes.  For me they are less effective.  These products contain water, petrolatum, mineral oil, mineral wax, lanolin alcohol and a few other things.  I have experienced no irritating even when applied directly into cracks. That makes them good to help soften the skin in those areas. They are also fragrance free. This is not true of other products. One product that looked particularly attractive to me was Porters.

Porter’s Original Lotion uses old time ingredients and the fact that the company is now owned by a doctor gives some credibility to the products. I ordered both of their Original Lotion and the Sweet Porters Lotion.  As a guitar player, let me tell you that the Original is better because it leaves less residue on your fingers.  Also, it does have a smell that I like and that other people will notice, but when you shake hands it’s a little sticky (not good!).  So I prefer the original and both have a similar effect.   One negative thing is that this is not good if you already have cracks.  It seems to irritate probably because of the alcohol content. Speaking of irritation, some products that disappointed with  “Gloves in a Bottle” and TheraSeal.

Gloves in a Bottle is supposedly a cream to create a barrier.  The problem I experienced is that it makes my finger tips wrinkle.  This is especially annoying with cracks because that effect seems to stretch the hard skin making the cracks worse. These products must work with many people or they couldn’t keep selling them, but they are not for me.  So what really works?

Another winter has past since I began writing this and I’ve now had a major breakthrough.  My car is not garaged and every day as I left home I would put on gloves.  About a mile down the road I realized that my hands were actually more cold with the gloves on!  So I would took them off.  The reason is that the steering wheel having an internal steel core was actually drawing all of the heat from my gloves.  The gloves were then becoming more cold than the surrounding air.  The solution to this has been to try better gloves.  This has made a noticeable difference and I can now get farther down the road before the gloves get too cold.  By that time the heater has warmed up and I can remove the gloves and warm one hand at a time with the heater vents.  It also gives more time for the steering wheel to warm up.  I also wear gloves a lot more often, even when it doesn’t seem all that cold. There is also another part of the solution.

Our body is an incredible design and there are often natural solutions to problems. Realizing that the human body carries nutrition and heat to the hands through the blood vessels I now make it a point to self massage the hands and arms to stimulate blood flow.  Have you noticed that when someone hurts their fingers, the natural reaction is to vigorously shake the hands?  I believe that this quickly gets the blood flowing to the damaged parts.  This seems to be an incredible miracle of the human body that  has this automatic mechanism to cure itself.  So why not do this shaking to help blood flow and give the skin nutrition to self repair itself? I do this regularly now and believe that it has also helped the problem.

Finally, I can report that my own conscientious approach to keeping hands warm and stimulating blood flow have really paid off.  I still sometimes see the fingers begin to crack but have been able to stimulate self healing through warming the hands and trying to increase blood flow. It takes effort to do this, but it’s important enough to make that effort.  One more habit I have developed is to rub on some skin cream before washing.

Skin cream on the hands before washing seems to prevent the drying effects that regular soap has. Washing in warm water seems to help the cream absorb into the skin and also the cream will get onto the face which is also not a bad thing.  I hope that these experiences and tips will help others who have faced similar problems.

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