The Opposites in Music
Taught by Barbara Allen and Edward Green, Ph.D.
This class is based on the Aesthetic Realism principle “Art is that which, through an individual, shows the oneness of the permanent opposites in reality.”
Alternate Sundays, 4:00 – 5:30 PM Eastern Time (USA)
Winter 2024 semester is now over. Registration for the Spring-Summer 2024 semester will begin Monday, Apr 22.
WINTER 2024
Our text this semester is Oneness & Manyness in Music: Beginning with Instruments & the History of the Orchestra—a richly conceived 1974 class given by Martha Baird, poet, music critic, and scholar. How do individual instruments played by living, breathing people from the earliest times, come to be increasingly joined together, in such a way that beauty thrives?
What does the composition of an orchestra say about our ethics: do we want to be ourselves through honestly caring for what’s not ourselves—reality in its diversity? Or through curtailing, diminishing the meaning of other things, including people? Do we want our lives to be adventurous, welcoming new things and people, becoming ever more diverse—and at the same time, do we want to have integrity: a purpose in our lives that unifies us, and makes us proud?
The Message of the Orchestra is clear, and we will see careful and technical evidence for the ever-so-immediate value of this principle of Aesthetic Realism: “All beauty is a making one of opposites, and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves.”
- Jan 14 We Begin with Monteverdi — The Birth of the Modern Orchestra
“Monteverdi dared to employ a much greater manyness, and out of it, he made a greater oneness. Here he stands for the hope of every person.” —MB
- Jan 28 Bach to Beethoven — The Orchestra Has What We Want: Greater Individuality through Richer Relation!
“Emphasizing the differences of the instruments brings out the manyness of the orchestra.…The swiftness of these changes is delightful to the ear, for we hear one uninterrupted flow of sound—containing within it a magnificent variety. The woodwinds play a phrase; the violins answer it; the cellos object; the whole orchestra resounds; then a single horn is heard.” —MB
- Feb 11 The Opposites in Instruments Are Our Opposites, Too!
“It is a wonder to me that human beings have been impelled to make and play musical instruments for over 30,000 years….These instruments, from prehistory to the present, are made from materials to be found in the world—wood, bone, ivory, silver, brass, gold. And every instrument must be played by a person. So when we hear a note, what we hear is a successful oneness of a person and the world.” —Barbara Allen from “The Art of the Flute”
- Feb 25 Wagner & Stravinsky — Ensembles Are Grand & Intimate
“Now a very interesting thing happens. After Wagner, there were some attempts to get ever more gigantic orchestras—notably in Mahler’s 8th Symphony….
But after a while, more doesn’t mean better. The orchestra gets too gigantic, and its unmanageable. 120 strings aren’t that much better than 60; they just have more trouble playing together. Beauty is the most manyness that can be with oneness.” —MB
- Mar 10 The Ensemble Principle Continues — Jazz, Rock ’n’ Roll, & “the Worried Self”
“The worried self, however, in its effort to “manage” its questions, will see the One and Many as antagonistic, and will play them off….You want to separate yourself and be single only; music is against this….Aesthetic Realism says to us: Music shows you how to be Many and One: learn from it!” —MB
- Mar 24 The Opposites in the Piano, & Its Magnificent Place in Music
“As soon as we study how notes on the left half of the piano, while different from notes on the right or upper half of the piano—how dissimilar instances of the musical scale—merge in music, merge in the playing of a pianist, we’re in midst of aesthetics.” —Eli Siegel from The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known #1869
- Apr 7 Papers from Students in the Class
Fee: $60 per semester (7 classes)
Auditing fee: $12
FACULTY BIOS: Barbara Allen, flutist; Edward Green, composer