24.08 quotes

If the cry of a crying baby wasn't, in some sense, too much for us - something we have to respond to, something we need to stop, if possible - the baby wouldn't survive. And all parents at some time feel overwhelmed by their children; feel that their children ask more of them than they can provide. One of the most difficult things about being a parent is that you have to bear the fact that you have to frustrate your child, have to make your child suffer more than he wants to: and this means every parent has to bear being hated by their children, and hatred between parents and children always feels excessive.

Adam Phillips, On Balance

Hara Papatheodorou What prompted you to post this aphorism, I wonder!

Konstantin Gemenetzis As it is the case with most of my quotes, the feeling that I would have said it myself!

07.12 the orchestra as a figure of the society

The other day, while attending a piano concert Beethoven's, suddenly the orchestra seemed to me as a figure of the society - the society of that time, and especially the society of the courtiers, the aristocrats, in the service of whom, if I am not wrong, most of the musicians were engaged. The strings, the winds, the percussion instruments and their subgroups as social classes, the conductor-leader governing the whole thing, and all elements being weld together in an undisputable harmony.

And now the question: Does anybody know if there exists any relevant literature? And, in case all this makes some sense, how would todays society manifest itself in the layout of a modern ensemble?

DE

07.12 das Orchester als eine Figur der Gesellschaft

Neulich an einem Klavierkonzert Bethovens schien mir auf einmal das Orchester als eine Figur der Gesellschaft - der damaligen Gesellschaft und insbesondere der Gesellschaft der Höflinge, der Aristokraten, in deren Kreisen, wenn ich mich nicht täusche, die meisten Musiker weilten. Die Streicher, die Bläser, die Schlaginstrumente und ihre Untergruppen als soziale Schichten, der Dirigent-Anführer, der das Ganze steuert, und alle Elemente fest in einer unumstrittenen Harmonie zusammengeschweisst.

Und nun die Frage: Weiss jemand, ob etwas Relevantes in der Literatur vorliegt? Und, sollte das oben Erwähnte überhaupt einen Sinn haben, wie würde die heutige Gesellschaft an der Einrichtung eines modernen Ensembles erscheinen?