Got a new book called "Young William James Thinking" by P.J. Croce. Didn't know William James was elder brother of the novelist Henry James until getting this book.
Reply to Corvus Thanks for posting Zucchero's 'Wonderful Life' :sparkle:
Of course, life isn't always wonderful but music can make it so, for a moment at least.
The lyrics talk about magic being everywhere - hmm.
Music helps us be alone with our thoughts. It transports us to a magic world, to a place where everything becomes more tolerable. A place where we can cry until we dry up or smile until we’re sore.
Wonderful Life
Zucchero
Here I go out to sea again
The sunshine fills my hair
And dreams hang in the air
Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes
You know it feels unfair
There's magic everywhere
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
The sun in your eyes
The heat is in your hair
They seem to hate you
Because you're there
I need a friend
Oh I need a friend
To make me happy
Not stand here on my own
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
I need a friend
Oh, I need a friend
To make me happy
I'm not so alone
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to run and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
Wonderful life
Wonderful life
Wonderful life
Songwriters: Colin Vearncombe
For non-commercial use only.
Data from: Musixmatch
At the root of all Western literature is ancient Greek poetry—Homer’s great epics, the passionate love poems of Sappho, the masterpieces of Greek tragedy and of comic theatre. Almost all of this poetry was or originally involved sung music, often with instrumental accompaniment. Scholars are now in a position to reconstruct from surviving documents how Greek music actually sounded. By combining this knowledge with modern analogies and imaginative musicianship we may make a start at understanding why it was thought to exert such extraordinary power...
...Now that we can reconstruct some of the sung versions of this poetry in musical form, we are bound to ask the question: how did ancient Greek music affect or interact with the texts of poetry?
15 mins of video embedded - Greek poetry was accompanied by music. Reconstruction.
At 10.40 - Text on stone with musical notations above. Wow.
Reply to CorvusReply to Corvus
Haven't had a chance to look at these.
They're not exactly 'passing philosophical aphorisms' - why did you include them ?
Not for the first time, wondering about the title and OP of the thread...
Aphorism: a pithy observation which contains a general truth.
On their own - can be thought provoking, so why not include a couple of sentences to express your thoughts ? For example, about:
Good point. Initially wanted it only for aphorisms, but then there were useful links for philosophy, songs and quotes, and they were all thrown in together too. Maybe better to separate them in separate threads?
Combining my recent thoughts re Ancient Greek Music, the lyre and poetry.
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/588322
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/588329
Really, I can't believe I didn't know this. Slowly it dawns.
lyric (n.)
"a lyric poem" (one suggestive of music or fit to be sung), 1580s, from French lyrique "short poem expressing personal emotion," from Latin lyricus "of or for the lyre," from Greek lyrikos "singing to the lyre," from lyra (see lyre). Meaning "words of a popular song" is first recorded 1876.
180 ProofSeptember 02, 2021 at 14:47#5884240 likes
:fire:
[quote=The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music]With this chorus the profound Greek, so uniquely susceptible to the subtlest and deepest suffering, who had penetrated the destructive agencies of both nature and history, solaced himself. Though he had been in danger of craving a Buddhistic denial of the will, he was saved through art, and through art life reclaimed him.[/quote]
:
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/529241
That reminded me that I have a book on the ancient Greek poetry. Will take out, and do some reading on it. The ancient Greek poetry also looks very interesting with rich and deep meanings.
Reply to 180 Proof
Thanks for the reminder. Second time around, another poke with a stick to read that guy...
Your quote from Nietzsche:
Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?
Let's dance :party:
David Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbD_kBJc_gI
Perhaps warm up first:
Fred Astaire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qsnf5pTl1Y
Back twinges and mental fixations to be sorted out :smile:
Start off on your own - others might join in. Or not. Just do it for fun :cool:
Pre-Covid days.
Bristol Zorba the Greek - Flash Mob Dance - Bristol March 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vByc0K1wHes
180 ProofSeptember 03, 2021 at 15:02#5887430 likes
I have not been dancing for years, now I am sure I would feel awkward. :blush:
I used to like dancing when I used to pub crawling and pleasure seeking with the friends years ago. :nerd:
Dance Wherever You May Be, even if not a Shaker :party:
The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
This poem pushes back the earliest appearance of stressed poetry by at least 300 years,” he said. “It has this sort of magnetic rhythm to it, four beats to the bar, a stress on the first beat, and weaker stress on the third beat, which is rock’n’roll and pop music as well.”
The theme of the poem “also feels preternaturally modern”, said Whitmarsh, comparing it to the Sex Pistols line: “We’re pretty a-pretty vacant / And we don’t care.” The poem reads: “???????? They say / ? ???????? What they like / ????????? Let them say it / ?? ???? ??? I don’t care / ?? ???? ?? Go on, love me / ??????? ??? It does you good.”
“It’s the idea of not caring – this strident assertion of your individuality in a world that’s demanding things of you,” Whitmarsh said.
“We’ve known for a long time that there was popular poetry in ancient Greek, but a lot of what survives takes a similar form to traditional high poetics. This poem, on the other hand, points to a distinct and thriving culture, primarily oral, which fortunately for us in this case also found its way on to a number of gemstones,” said Whitmarsh.
“You didn’t need specialist poets to create this kind of musicalised language, and the diction is very simple, so this was clearly a democratising form of literature. We’re getting an exciting glimpse of a form of oral pop culture that lay under the surface of classical culture.”
Whitmarsh believes the verse, with its lines of four syllables, with a strong accent on the first and a weaker on the third, could represent a “missing link” between the lost world of ancient Mediterranean oral poetry and song, and the more modern forms that we know today. It is, he says, so far unparalleled in the classical world...
“The reason no one has thought about it as a poem before is because it’s not catalogued alongside works of literature, it’s catalogued as an inscription. We’ve got tens of thousands of inscriptions from antiquity, and I just think people weren’t looking for it.”
180 ProofSeptember 08, 2021 at 17:16#5907460 likes
"Every artist is an unhappy lover. And unhappy lovers want to tell their story." ~Iris Murdoch
Why should you read James Joyce's "Ulysses"? - Sam Slote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7FobPxu27M
Have you read it ?
I think it is probably one of those books I thought I should read, but didn't.
This TED-Ed animation ( 6 mins ) almost makes me want to try again...
Almost.
I haven't clicked on to your other vids. More details might encourage...
Like this, as copied and pasted:
James Joyce's “Ulysses” is widely considered to be both a literary masterpiece and one of the hardest works of literature to read. It inspires such devotion that once a year, thousands of people all over the world dress up like the characters, take to the streets, and read the book aloud. So what is it about this novel that inspires so many people? Sam Slote uncovers the allure of this epic tome.
View full lesson: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-should...
This is an et al.
Have you met Frans Hals ?
Years ago, I had a strange attraction to his painting: Verdonck.
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/frans-hals
Later in London - the Laughing Cavalier.
But I'd pretty much forgotten Frans until I read this:
He painted portraits,” wrote Vincent van Gogh of Hals in 1888, “nothing nothing nothing but that!” He goes on in his letter to the French artist Émile Bernard to detail the kind of portraits his compatriot produced: “Portraits of soldiers, gatherings of officers, portraits of magistrates assembled for the business of the republic, portraits of matrons with pink or yellow skin, wearing white bonnets … he painted the tipsy drinker, the old fishwife full of a witch’s mirth, the beautiful Gypsy whore, babies in swaddling clothes, the gallant, bon vivant gentleman …”
Simplicity appealed to Van Gogh. So he responded with feeling to the straightforwardness of Hals. It was an enthusiasm he shared with the radical French artists Courbet and Manet, who painted copies of works by Hals...
Courbet was drawn to Hals’s portrait of an outsider but he didn’t know how radical this painting really was. The work he copied was thought in the 19th century to be an unknown woman or even a “tronie”, a kind of fictional portrait sometimes created as an experiment by Dutch artists. But the name Malle Babbe – “Mad Babs” – is written on it.
Haarlem’s town archives reveal this was probably a real woman, named Barbara Claes, who was a patient in the local hospital for mental illness where one of Hals’s sons is also known to have lived. Courbet and Van Gogh felt her reality without knowing this. [b]Malle Babbe is clearly “the old fishwife full of a witch’s mirth” Van Gogh describes.[/b]...
...another painting that puts Hals at the very forefront of French modern art. La Bohémienne, or The Gipsy Girl, is Paris’s more disreputable Laughing Cavalier. This painting of a young woman in coarsely made, loosely painted clothes that mainly serve to set off her breasts as she grins broadly was left to the Louvre by Louis La Caze in 1869.
The driving force of French avant garde culture was reality. To see and acknowledge the actual world around them in all its filth and glory drove writers and artists alike.
...Hals has a couple of virtues Rembrandt doesn’t. He can make you laugh. And that lightness is the most modern thing about him of all, as we glance at his fast brushstrokes and catch an amused eye looking back.
***
The amused or wicked eye drew me in...even though I knew nothing about the artist, his subject or any kind of categorisation or label.
Imagine that connection...
Capturing a piece of someone's reality.
Nothing, nothing, nothing but painted portraits - Van Gogh.
"Study nothing, except in the knowledge that you already knew it." - Clive Barker
"What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive... scanner... see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better.
Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too."
Comments (70)
An ideal bedtime reading.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-tlZC7IUMQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H4wgcXh1u4
Of course, life isn't always wonderful but music can make it so, for a moment at least.
The lyrics talk about magic being everywhere - hmm.
Quoting exploring your mind - the magic of music
Wonderful Life
Zucchero
Here I go out to sea again
The sunshine fills my hair
And dreams hang in the air
Gulls in the sky and in my blue eyes
You know it feels unfair
There's magic everywhere
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
The sun in your eyes
The heat is in your hair
They seem to hate you
Because you're there
I need a friend
Oh I need a friend
To make me happy
Not stand here on my own
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
I need a friend
Oh, I need a friend
To make me happy
I'm not so alone
Look at me standing
Here on my own again
Up straight in the sunshine
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to laugh and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to run and hide
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
No need to run and cry
It's a wonderful, wonderful life
Wonderful life
Wonderful life
Wonderful life
Songwriters: Colin Vearncombe
For non-commercial use only.
Data from: Musixmatch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzyo-X7NVLw
Plato's Theory of Forms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TissHzEG_JY
Plato's Form of the Good
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNqevDrh1TM
Plato's Analogy of the Cave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d71tYwcpHNM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1BGmuZ6PO8
“Nobody has ever made head or tail of ancient Greek music, and nobody ever will. That way madness lies”—Wilfred Perrett
Wrong !!
Quoting Rediscovering Ancient Greek Music
15 mins of video embedded - Greek poetry was accompanied by music. Reconstruction.
At 10.40 - Text on stone with musical notations above. Wow.
Haven't had a chance to look at these.
They're not exactly 'passing philosophical aphorisms' - why did you include them ?
Not for the first time, wondering about the title and OP of the thread...
Quoting Corvus
Aphorism: a pithy observation which contains a general truth.
On their own - can be thought provoking, so why not include a couple of sentences to express your thoughts ? For example, about:
Quoting Corvus
Good point. Initially wanted it only for aphorisms, but then there were useful links for philosophy, songs and quotes, and they were all thrown in together too. Maybe better to separate them in separate threads?
I don't know.
I see some members have a single thread full of 'stuff' they enjoy...
I was able to edit the title. :D
yeah, will see how it goes.
Nothing quite like an 'et al' :wink:
Always reminds me of eat all you can get !
:grin:
Combining my recent thoughts re Ancient Greek Music, the lyre and poetry.
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/588322
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/588329
Really, I can't believe I didn't know this. Slowly it dawns.
Quoting Origin and meaning of lyric
:fire:
[quote=The Birth of Tragedy from the Spirit of Music]With this chorus the profound Greek, so uniquely susceptible to the subtlest and deepest suffering, who had penetrated the destructive agencies of both nature and history, solaced himself. Though he had been in danger of craving a Buddhistic denial of the will, he was saved through art, and through art life reclaimed him.[/quote]
:
https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/529241
That reminded me that I have a book on the ancient Greek poetry. Will take out, and do some reading on it. The ancient Greek poetry also looks very interesting with rich and deep meanings.
Thanks for the reminder. Second time around, another poke with a stick to read that guy...
Your quote from Nietzsche:
Let's dance :party:
David Bowie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbD_kBJc_gI
Perhaps warm up first:
Fred Astaire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Qsnf5pTl1Y
Back twinges and mental fixations to be sorted out :smile:
Can you dance at the same time ? :wink:
Zorbas Dance (Sirtaki) - Greek wedding Volos - ????? PALACE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_kele6tedo
***
Start off on your own - others might join in. Or not. Just do it for fun :cool:
Pre-Covid days.
Bristol Zorba the Greek - Flash Mob Dance - Bristol March 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vByc0K1wHes
"The shrieking of nothing is killing ..."
I have not been dancing for years, now I am sure I would feel awkward. :blush:
I used to like dancing when I used to pub crawling and pleasure seeking with the friends years ago. :nerd:
Dance Wherever You May Be, even if not a Shaker :party:
A movement from Aaaron Copland's Apalachian Spring based upon the Shaker hymn The Lord of the Dance provides the mood for the bird video.
Dance, dance, wherever you may be!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sch4eqwizQU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frD1EeP4cGY
The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.
Charles Baudelaire :wink:
'They say
What they like
Let them say it
I don't care
Go on, love me
It does you good'
Quoting the guardian - classics - I don't care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbJiriEol44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DOnKJ232M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDhdbt-l5eI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSXw2mJTF-Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7FobPxu27M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AHUeXkCw3o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMTDAHK-tkE
Have you read it ?
I think it is probably one of those books I thought I should read, but didn't.
This TED-Ed animation ( 6 mins ) almost makes me want to try again...
Almost.
I haven't clicked on to your other vids. More details might encourage...
Like this, as copied and pasted:
Quoting Sam Slote - TED-Ed animation
I haven't. It is on my reading list. Seems quite a challenging book to read, but looks interesting.
Have you met Frans Hals ?
Years ago, I had a strange attraction to his painting: Verdonck.
https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/artists/frans-hals
Later in London - the Laughing Cavalier.
But I'd pretty much forgotten Frans until I read this:
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/sep/16/frissons-filth-frans-hals-laughing-cavalier
Quoting The Guardian : Van Gogh’s hero: there’s more to Frans Hals than The Laughing Cavalier
***
The amused or wicked eye drew me in...even though I knew nothing about the artist, his subject or any kind of categorisation or label.
Imagine that connection...
Capturing a piece of someone's reality.
Nothing, nothing, nothing but painted portraits - Van Gogh.
"What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart? Does a passive... scanner... see into me - into us - clearly or darkly? I hope it does, he thought, see clearly, because I can't any longer these days see into myself. I see only murk. Murk outside; murk inside. I hope, for everyone's sake, the scanners do better.
Because, he thought, if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we'll wind up dead this way, knowing very little and getting that little fragment wrong too."
- Philip K. Dick