- A brief account of the history of logic, from the The Oxford Companion to Philosophy (edited by Ted Honderich), OUP 1997, 497-500.
- A biography of Peter Abelard, published in the Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 115, edited by Jeremiah Hackett, Detroit: Gale Publishing, 3-15.
- Philosophy in the Latin Christian West, 750-1050, in A Companion to Philosophy in the Middle Ages, edited by Jorge Gracia and Tim Noone, Blackwell 2003, 32-35.
- Ockham wielding his razor!
- Review of The Beatles Anthology, Chronicle Books 2000 (367pp).
- A brief discussion note about Susan James, Passion and Action: The Emotions in Seventeenth-Century Philosophy.
- Review of St. Thomas Aquinas by Ralph McInerny, University of Notre Dame Press 1982 (172pp). From International Philosophical Quarterly23 (1983), 227-229.
- Review of William Heytesbury on Maxima and Minima by John Longeway, D.Reidel 1984 (x+201pp). From The Philosophical Review 96 (1987), 146-149.
- Review of That Most Subtle Question by D. P. Henry, Manchester University Press 1984 (xviii+337pp). From The Philosophical Review 96 (1987), 149-152.
- Review of Introduction to the Problem of Individuation in the Early Middle Ages by Jorge Gracia, Catholic University of America Press 1984 (303pp). From The Philosophical Review 97 (1988), 564-567.
- Review of Introduction to Medieval Logic by Alexander Broadie, OUP 1987 (vi+150pp). From The Philosophical Review 99 (1990), 299-302.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
"Mysterion : music analysis through archetypal theatre" by Jani Christou,1966
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:yMa9NLIrGokJ:cim08.web.auth.gr/cim08_abstracts/151_CIM08_abstracts.pdf+philosophical+works+1966&hl=el&gl=gr&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi4-x3MZBwEmZfrR0iKlBaU7851wLq0JVNelzX_mwgP88XpadDrXkbJ_Q19Wje0GuAGm0CDPs7vxFN0iiNA1v-fyLkqmTKVLkbpSskzMieVfTbapn68dU4mCmlQ1XnNOLvLaPX0&sig=AHIEtbSHIeW6L0tXNcX9ioVFWPbW7Z5YRg
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Mysterion, an oratorio for actor, three choruses, orchestra and tapes, based on ancient Egyptian funerary texts, shows better than any other of Christou’s works the transition from the use of serial techniques and conventional notation to the use of ‘meta-serial’, aleatoric techniques and optical, graphic notation, in combination with new concepts. Christou devises his own music theory and a new semi-graphic notation which conveys the full intention of his music with absolute precision. The combination of those with his highly individual philosophical thinking resulted in a certain difficulty to access his works and in rare performances.
The analytical approach of Mysterion is based for the first time on more than 300 sketches as well as the sectional scores (which contain extra information than the schematic score used by the conductor) and offers a key to an interpretation of the work, which is closer to the composer’s thinking.
It reveals how Christou constructed this massive work through a three-phase pre-
compositional process and explains many peculiarities (such as the co-existence of rather ‘traditional’ and radical elements in the structure) which would be difficult, even impossible, to interpret otherwise. Moreover, many significant theoretical texts included in the sketches (such as the famous ‘Credo for Music’), reveal the struggle, especially in the second and third phase of the pre-compositional process, of a composer to express himself through a new musical
language as well as the common origin of the new concepts and notation.
BACKGROUND IN PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH IN THEATRE
Christou believed that the work of art should be generated out of philosophical necessity.
This immediately places his oeuvre in an extra-musical context that is interconnected with other arts and humanities and especially with psychology and theatre.
As Lucciano rightly observes,Mysterion comes inside of the musical world of The Persians, both as regards the psychological use of the text and in terms of the notion of katharsis (Lucciano 1987: 186).
In this sense, it is possible to address Mysterion’s structure through theatre practice and to articulate how it creates a dream-like journey for its audience through theatrical principles such as precision/spontaneity,continuity/discontinuity,
and impulse-action.
Especially theatre which questions notions of time, space, action and character through the concept of archetype bears extensive points of contact with Christou, given that Christou’s musical philosophy is essentially, if not entirely, Jungian in concept and that the notions of the ‘collective unconscious’ and the ‘psyche’
pervade the structure of the whole work. We believe we can explore these overlaps and gain a fuller understanding of Mysterion by engaging in dialogue principles from the field of music with discoveries regarding archetype made through practical research in the theatre. The specific areas in which we feel this mode of exploration is significant are: a ‘lived’ understanding of the musical structure akin to the structure of dreams, analysis of potentially ambiguous structural
choices, the use of the human breath, and what Christou called ‘ritual-solemnisation-mystery’.
Mysterion introduces the last period of Christou’s oeuvre;
the boundaries of art are extended still further and he begins to write a ‘meta-music’ in a much more complex and integrated way than mere ‘mixed’ media. The general aim of this paper is to show that an interdisciplinary approach is indispensable for an interpretation and a contextualisation of Christou’s creative thinking.
We offer an analytical approach of Mysterion (structure and pitch organisation), informed by the examination of the composer’s sketches and separate scores which reveal a philosophical, as well as musical, three-phase pre-compositional process: at the final stage, he decides to work with rough, ‘primitive’ forces (five basic pitch categories and a ‘non-category’ -‘Metapraxis’- are defined). The work is a collage of older and new techniques: altered forms of ‘isochrone’ tables are substituted by specified clusters; a mass counterpoint is constructed based on patterns,CIM08 Abstract Proceedings, Thessaloniki, 3-6 July 2008,which –from now on- owe more on chance and psychology than on systematic organisation. We
show how the musical structure and the pitch organisation are indissolubly linked with Christou’s philosophical ideas (Jungian psychology) and the decisive influence of theatre as a mode of performance.
For Christou’s intention is to take the listener and performer beyond music as we
normally perceive it into a state of ‘ritual reenactment’ (in this case the Egyptian myth) and in doing so, to create a situation, where even the most ordinary of every day actions, are viewed and experienced as a ‘solemnisation’. We try to bring together musical analysis with theatre performance, in order to better understand how ritual is present in Christou’s work.
Up until now Christou’s work has not been fully appreciated, as a great amount of his works has not yet been thoroughly analysed. We believe that this is the case, because, on the one hand,Christou died very young, and on the other hand, Christou’s work can only be sufficiently analysed through interdisciplinary research. Mysterion introduces a new period in Christou’s work and it includes the germs of his subsequent musical and philosophical evolution. Thus, the approach presented here can also be applied to the structural analysis of the more recent works.
..
References :
Angermann, Klaus, (ed.) 1994: Jani Christou, im Dunkeln singen, Conference Proceedigs
‘Symposion Yani Christou’, Hamburg 1993 (Hofheim: Wolke).
Hillman, James, 1973: The Dream and the Underworld (London: Harper Perennial).
Jung, Carl G., 1969: The structures and dynamics of the psyche, vol. 8, (London: Routledge &
Lucciano, Anna, 1987: Jani Christou: The works and temperament of a Greek composer
(Athens: Vivliosunergatiki).
=================================================================
http://web.auth.gr/cim08/cim08_abstracts/151_CIM08_abstracts.pdf
=================================================================
========================================================================
Mysterion, an oratorio for actor, three choruses, orchestra and tapes, based on ancient Egyptian funerary texts, shows better than any other of Christou’s works the transition from the use of serial techniques and conventional notation to the use of ‘meta-serial’, aleatoric techniques and optical, graphic notation, in combination with new concepts. Christou devises his own music theory and a new semi-graphic notation which conveys the full intention of his music with absolute precision. The combination of those with his highly individual philosophical thinking resulted in a certain difficulty to access his works and in rare performances.
The analytical approach of Mysterion is based for the first time on more than 300 sketches as well as the sectional scores (which contain extra information than the schematic score used by the conductor) and offers a key to an interpretation of the work, which is closer to the composer’s thinking.
It reveals how Christou constructed this massive work through a three-phase pre-
compositional process and explains many peculiarities (such as the co-existence of rather ‘traditional’ and radical elements in the structure) which would be difficult, even impossible, to interpret otherwise. Moreover, many significant theoretical texts included in the sketches (such as the famous ‘Credo for Music’), reveal the struggle, especially in the second and third phase of the pre-compositional process, of a composer to express himself through a new musical
language as well as the common origin of the new concepts and notation.
BACKGROUND IN PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH IN THEATRE
Christou believed that the work of art should be generated out of philosophical necessity.
This immediately places his oeuvre in an extra-musical context that is interconnected with other arts and humanities and especially with psychology and theatre.
As Lucciano rightly observes,Mysterion comes inside of the musical world of The Persians, both as regards the psychological use of the text and in terms of the notion of katharsis (Lucciano 1987: 186).
In this sense, it is possible to address Mysterion’s structure through theatre practice and to articulate how it creates a dream-like journey for its audience through theatrical principles such as precision/spontaneity,continuity/discontinuity,
and impulse-action.
Especially theatre which questions notions of time, space, action and character through the concept of archetype bears extensive points of contact with Christou, given that Christou’s musical philosophy is essentially, if not entirely, Jungian in concept and that the notions of the ‘collective unconscious’ and the ‘psyche’
pervade the structure of the whole work. We believe we can explore these overlaps and gain a fuller understanding of Mysterion by engaging in dialogue principles from the field of music with discoveries regarding archetype made through practical research in the theatre. The specific areas in which we feel this mode of exploration is significant are: a ‘lived’ understanding of the musical structure akin to the structure of dreams, analysis of potentially ambiguous structural
choices, the use of the human breath, and what Christou called ‘ritual-solemnisation-mystery’.
Mysterion introduces the last period of Christou’s oeuvre;
the boundaries of art are extended still further and he begins to write a ‘meta-music’ in a much more complex and integrated way than mere ‘mixed’ media. The general aim of this paper is to show that an interdisciplinary approach is indispensable for an interpretation and a contextualisation of Christou’s creative thinking.
We offer an analytical approach of Mysterion (structure and pitch organisation), informed by the examination of the composer’s sketches and separate scores which reveal a philosophical, as well as musical, three-phase pre-compositional process: at the final stage, he decides to work with rough, ‘primitive’ forces (five basic pitch categories and a ‘non-category’ -‘Metapraxis’- are defined). The work is a collage of older and new techniques: altered forms of ‘isochrone’ tables are substituted by specified clusters; a mass counterpoint is constructed based on patterns,CIM08 Abstract Proceedings, Thessaloniki, 3-6 July 2008,which –from now on- owe more on chance and psychology than on systematic organisation. We
show how the musical structure and the pitch organisation are indissolubly linked with Christou’s philosophical ideas (Jungian psychology) and the decisive influence of theatre as a mode of performance.
For Christou’s intention is to take the listener and performer beyond music as we
normally perceive it into a state of ‘ritual reenactment’ (in this case the Egyptian myth) and in doing so, to create a situation, where even the most ordinary of every day actions, are viewed and experienced as a ‘solemnisation’. We try to bring together musical analysis with theatre performance, in order to better understand how ritual is present in Christou’s work.
Up until now Christou’s work has not been fully appreciated, as a great amount of his works has not yet been thoroughly analysed. We believe that this is the case, because, on the one hand,Christou died very young, and on the other hand, Christou’s work can only be sufficiently analysed through interdisciplinary research. Mysterion introduces a new period in Christou’s work and it includes the germs of his subsequent musical and philosophical evolution. Thus, the approach presented here can also be applied to the structural analysis of the more recent works.
..
References :
Angermann, Klaus, (ed.) 1994: Jani Christou, im Dunkeln singen, Conference Proceedigs
‘Symposion Yani Christou’, Hamburg 1993 (Hofheim: Wolke).
Hillman, James, 1973: The Dream and the Underworld (London: Harper Perennial).
Jung, Carl G., 1969: The structures and dynamics of the psyche, vol. 8, (London: Routledge &
Lucciano, Anna, 1987: Jani Christou: The works and temperament of a Greek composer
(Athens: Vivliosunergatiki).
=================================================================
http://web.auth.gr/cim08/cim08_abstracts/151_CIM08_abstracts.pdf
=================================================================
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