Vienna, Brahms�and�

Persuasion�The Rhetoric of a Good Deal

More Than Allusion���

���In the names of ���

Calliope, Cleo, Orania, Thaleia, Melpomene, ���Polyhymnia, Erato, Euterpe and Terpsichory.���

Kalliope, epic poetry; ���Kleio, history; ���

Ourania, astronomy; ���Thaleia, comedy; ���

Melpomene, tragedy; ���Polyhymnia, religious hymns; ���

Erato, erotic poetry; ���Euterpe, lyric poetry; and ���

Terpsikhore, choral song and dance.������

Exordium�

•  According to long-standing tradition, one begins with an introduction.���

Purposes�•  participation, continuation, and “changing the world” ���•  The nature of scholarly interaction���

–  “From each according to his ability, to each according to their need.”���

•  Ideological Provenance���•  Many Sweeping Generalisations Warning���

Narratio �•  musicians possess the most powerful weapon known to

man, sadly I have seen non-musicians wield it in very un-wholesome manner. ���

•  More regrettably yet, one sees the growth of un-democratic, divisive usages in the 19th cent. coinciding with that period of the “Classical Music” canon Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven etc. and deliberately promulgated by several prominent, if not revered, members of that canon.���

Dead White Guys�•  One can encounter people from all over the world who

haven’t the in-built cultural myth about the personalities behind the Classical music canon to which everyone here seems have subscribed, but outside this room?���

•  That everyone seems to feel a revulsion for expressions of racial and ethnic hatred from some of our most revered musical figures, not just Wagner and Liszt, a definite “the emperor has no clothes” moment.���

Anti-Semiticism �•  new expressions shouldn’t surprise one but they still

do, even the old (19th cent.) ones. Mahler’s flexibility shocks me, still does; I think you had to be there to get the joke.���

•  I’ve added considerably to the list of questions I want to ask Leni Rieffenstahl.���

•  One hears talk of the attraction of Evil. Evil’s only means of appearing acceptable is through eloquent oratory. Wasn’t that Adolf’s only skill, really?���

•  About misuse of rhetoric: Austria seems fertile ground���

•  I’ve always trusted the musicians in my life. It’s never caused me any grief, quite the opposite. That is perhaps the main reason I have trouble understanding the divisive world of Vienna, Bayreuth.���

•  This course reminded me of the ease with which our cherished work gets subverted, and in a historiography I thought I’d already processed. Always expect the unexpected.���

•  In the context of purpose then, a close examination of the pronouncements of the time of our notion of the cultural flowering of Vienna, the years the very canon of our most revered minds and creations was made.  

The Problem of Rhetoric�

We’re all in this Together�

•  Is it possible to discuss the ethics of a work being performed?���– Amongst all the participants?���

•  What part does ethical narrative play out in our performance choices?���– Would the performance be better or worse?  

Why we Love Brahms�

•  Why we love Brahms: ���–  memorable melodies? ���–  Or melodic lines. “if one removes the underlying texture/

continuo line, something vital is lost. thematic expositions, a simple, easily grasped whole, even when the tonicity moves around considerably.”���

•  Elaborate Shifting Tonalities���•  Diatonic Comfort  

Why we Love Brahms�

•  The rhetorical elements in Brahms highly skilled melodic expositions frequently provide a platform for easily ‘grasp-able’ musical statements upon which the transformation of the audience can be viewed in the same way that the thematic material itself that is being transformed.���

The Problem of Rhetoric�•  “The politics of identification, of subjective bonding, like the

politics of certainty, can be a pretty hairy politics. It underwrites all tribalisms, every mindless group identity, every petty or bloody nationalism. Its essence is intolerance.”���

Richard Taruskin Text and Act, page 29���

•  Rhetoric is about creating certainty