Wow, this guy is the real deal. I confess that have found Björn's writings difficult to understand, and his interpretations difficult to warm to--maybe because I'm precisely the kind of conservative musicologist whose views he would like to question. But I'd rather have a conversation with him than with many people I know. I'm sure it would blow some of the cobwebs away. Maybe the grain in your voice, Björn, is not just Barthian but like a real grain that sprouts to something beautiful in fertile earth. May the world be fertile both in welcoming and resisting the challenges you issue.
Really enjoying the moment halfway through when the Arnolfini Portrait, as used by one of my two favourite microtonal black metal composers (and one-time Last Things guest) on their first 24-tet album's cover, is discussed, and my other favourite microtonal black metal composer immediately pops up in the live chat. Charlie you have fostered a Nexus. (and please get Vivian on a Last Things!!) As for this chat, very cool. Would be remiss of me not to mention that I was in Brussels and Liege - yes, Wallonia, not Flanders, I know - last week, and both of them were notable for also being 'unfinished' in a sense - Liege was cut through with the scar of an under-construction tram network, and in Brussels the Palais de Justice, one of the most brilliantly abysmal buildings in the world, was covered in scaffolding. Both of these things enhanced the experience, I thought. And so the notion of Antwerp's cathedral as a magnificently unfinished edifice makes perfect sense. I'll have to visit some day. I wish I had more to say about the musical discussion, but as a pure amateur I can only promise to listen to some of Björn's conductions, because early music polyphony is almost as beautiful to me as radical problematisation of vocal performance. "The more a singer starts to eat the line" - ornamentation as consumption! Sickos at the window, begging for more!
Yeah this was one of my favorites so far, on the short list. It's crazy that I only encountered Bjorn's work recently. Such a cool guy. Thanks for the good words on the channel Louis!
unusually relevant musicological discourse, or ethnomusicological . . . interestingly, ancient music seems to "ethno-" independent of its national origin.
Yeah that seems to be the implication, and I like it. If we had had another hour, I might have asked more specifically if there were any overt overlaps between the early music scene in Europe and ethno-nationalist activists.
Well done, gents! A fascinating discussion, I'll have to try to find Bjorn's book.
Wow, this guy is the real deal. I confess that have found Björn's writings difficult to understand, and his interpretations difficult to warm to--maybe because I'm precisely the kind of conservative musicologist whose views he would like to question. But I'd rather have a conversation with him than with many people I know. I'm sure it would blow some of the cobwebs away. Maybe the grain in your voice, Björn, is not just Barthian but like a real grain that sprouts to something beautiful in fertile earth. May the world be fertile both in welcoming and resisting the challenges you issue.
Really enjoying the moment halfway through when the Arnolfini Portrait, as used by one of my two favourite microtonal black metal composers (and one-time Last Things guest) on their first 24-tet album's cover, is discussed, and my other favourite microtonal black metal composer immediately pops up in the live chat. Charlie you have fostered a Nexus. (and please get Vivian on a Last Things!!)
As for this chat, very cool. Would be remiss of me not to mention that I was in Brussels and Liege - yes, Wallonia, not Flanders, I know - last week, and both of them were notable for also being 'unfinished' in a sense - Liege was cut through with the scar of an under-construction tram network, and in Brussels the Palais de Justice, one of the most brilliantly abysmal buildings in the world, was covered in scaffolding. Both of these things enhanced the experience, I thought. And so the notion of Antwerp's cathedral as a magnificently unfinished edifice makes perfect sense. I'll have to visit some day.
I wish I had more to say about the musical discussion, but as a pure amateur I can only promise to listen to some of Björn's conductions, because early music polyphony is almost as beautiful to me as radical problematisation of vocal performance. "The more a singer starts to eat the line" - ornamentation as consumption! Sickos at the window, begging for more!
Yeah this was one of my favorites so far, on the short list. It's crazy that I only encountered Bjorn's work recently. Such a cool guy. Thanks for the good words on the channel Louis!
unusually relevant musicological discourse, or ethnomusicological . . . interestingly, ancient music seems to "ethno-" independent of its national origin.
Yeah that seems to be the implication, and I like it. If we had had another hour, I might have asked more specifically if there were any overt overlaps between the early music scene in Europe and ethno-nationalist activists.