9/7 9/12 and 9/14

9/7/11 After reading Davies’ piece I came to the conclusion that he does not believe John Cage’s 4’33” to be music but rather an artful performance. Part of this, I believe, is because the piece calls for instruments but does not actually use them as Davies points out. While Davies looks at 4’33” from several angles, He does not in his own opinion seem to think it is a piece of Music.

Levitin, on the other hand seems to have a more classical, technical definition of music. He talks about aspects of music such as: pitch, harmony, timbre. Because of the way in which Levitin analyzes music I do not believe that he would consider 4’33” to be music. My reasoning for this is 4’33”, the way Cage “composed” it, does not have any pitch, tone, notes, or rhythm, neither does the piece emit sound unless preformed (in which cause the background noise would be considered music in Cage’s opinion). In my opinion it depends on what you believe music is and more so, what you consider 4’33” to be, the silence, or the ambient noise.

9/12/11 The most prominent basis on which Plato selects music for the “guardians-in-training” to be exposed to is based on emotion. Plato strongly believes that they must listen to “good” music, music which will affect the guardians-to-be in a positive way, such as marching music that is steady. For example, Plato would disprove of Jazz music which is very improvisational and irregular. Plato wants the guardians to be pure and therefore they must listen to only the good music. He relies strictly on the guidelines that “good” music will evoke only good emotions and “bad” or evil music will evoke only bad emotions. Plato is therefore assuming several things: 1. A single piece of music will evoke only one emotion 2.That piece of music will affect all humans in the same way 3.The emotion it evokes will be the same as that which is evoked from him.

9/14/11 The way in which Plato is looking at music in books VI and VII are very different. In books II and III the guardians-in-training are vulnerable to both negative and positive effects of music, but in books VI and VII the guardians are now mature and must study harmonics to achieve knowledge as it is the only way to reach the Form of the Good. In these books he reveals a mathematical approach to music (i.e. the ratios 2:1, 3:2, and 4:3). This piece of information is crucial as the Pythagoreans believed mathematics to be the basis of all things. The study of music in a mathematical way will not hinder the guardians but rather expand their knowledge. In fact, in Plato’s academic plan harmonics is the last step before understanding of the Forms and is preparing them for reality.