Wednesday, September 9^th, 2015.

There are people whose day—whether or not their day is good—depends on the number of these things they get. (Likes and dislikes on Facebook.)

If a tree falls and no one’s around to hear it, does it make a sound? Of course it does. Who are you to say that you’re so important that if you’re not around to hear the tree then it won’t fall, or if it does then it won’t make a sound? It’s selfish thinking. There are many bad philospphers out there. Descartes was one. “I think therefore I am.” As if his thinking is what cause him to exist.

Bach must be in your top five. If he’s not then there’s no point even having a conversation. It’s like how Shakespeare must be in your top five. If Shakespeare’s not in your top five—“J. K. Rowling is the greatest author ever!”—then your opinion doesn’t even matter.

Listening log. A recorded, annotated list. Listen to music and make comments on them. Listen to the pieces, meaningfully, and give a meaningful paragraph. Honest reaction. “This piece makes me feel like eating chocolate cake.” The power of music on emotions.

“Shut up Marty. Everything you have, you stole from the Catholic Church.”

What do you give your friends? Flowers, champagne, chocolate, and so on.

Get your mother chocolate for no reason. Is that emotional manipulation? Yes. Is it a good thing? Yes, it’s for the good of the other person.

Metaphysical friendship. A composer called Elgar wrote a piece called the “Enigma Variations”, depicting a bulldog falling into a lake. He depicted his friends in his music. There’s one friend called Nimrod.

Chesterton said, “God had no need for you. ··· He has given you an intellect to know Him. ···”

“Nimrod” was the last of the good pieces. There are still good pieces now, but not everything is good. Good music went away, and bad music took its place.

Aristotle speaks of music’s role in education and moral formation.

Do you know your moral theology? No, you do not. There are certain books you should not read. You are the ideal state of human being. Bodies in heaven will be young. Love poetry is about you. It’s not about old people.

Aristotle said, “Music is pursued not only as an alleviation of past toil but also as providing recreation” (Politics VIII.v 1339b). If it provides recreation, can’t it be used for a higher purpose? (Rhetorical question, arguable.)

440 Hz is “concert A”.

Harmony and melody are based on absolute, immutable mathematical truth. They are not changing. Not evolutionary. The ancients were very great thinkers but they did not have revelation. Music. The foundational stuff comes from the Greeks.

Harmony falls into two camps: the happy stuff and the sad stuff.

Played marching into battle.

Contemplative.

Chant is melodic and has harmony. It’s based in the ancient foundations. Chant is the sung prayer the Church. Gregorian chant. Pope Saint Gregory the Great. Gregory I, A.D. 590–604. The amount of time from the beginning of the Church to Gregory I is greater than the amount of time between us and Luther. Gregory I collected hundreds of years of chant.

On a plane you get so high that you forget there are real people down on the ground. If you get too far from history you forget that there were real people involved. People wrote the sounds down and preserved it.

Mozarabic chant sounds like it’s from the Near East. You can hear the Muslim, Arabic, Moorish influence. That’s okay because were Catholics. It’s good and if it’s good then it belongs to God. And what belongs to God belongs to us. What is good belongs to us.

A.D. 995–1050. Guido of Arezzo. He’s the first to figure out how to notate this stuff.

Do re mi comes from Ut re mi which is from the Saint John chant, as taught by Guido.

The sound not remembered is like the tree in the forest. God will remember these sounds, but if they are lost to history then they’ll do you no good. That’s why notation is crucial.