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February 15, 2008

Otto Weininger on melody in music

    Otto Weininger believed that melody matters more than rhythm:

In music in particular what matters is the most articulate sensibility imaginable. There is nothing more definite, more characteristic, more urgent than a melody, nothing that would suffer more from being blurred. That is why one remembers what has been sung so much more easily than what has been spoken, arias always better than recitatives, and that is why the sprechgesang takes so much studying by the singer of Wagner. (Quoted from Western Music and Race, edited by Julie Brown, Cambridge University Press. 2007. p. 87; the passage is originally from Weininger’s book Sex and Character, Indiana University Press. 2005. pp. 105-6.) 

For a brief biography of Otto Weininger, click here.

February 15, 2008 |

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Books by H. Charles Romesburg

  • H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit

    H. Charles Romesburg: The Life of the Creative Spirit
    Practically all of the quotations in this blog's posts are collected in "The Life of the Creative Spirit."

  • H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?

    H. Charles Romesburg: How About It, Writer?
    Based on a study of more than 12,000 essays from the very best literary magazines, this book provides writers with lists of thousands of classic forms of opening sentences, titles, transition sentences, ways of saying "for example," and ways of closing nonfiction pieces. When you are writing an essay and want a hint for a better or fresh way of saying what you mean, looking through the lists acts on the imagination, stimulating your creativity. From Lulu Press (ISBN 1-4116-2862-4, 194 pp., softback), it's $16.95 when ordered from Lulu.com/Romesburg , and $22.95 from bookstores. To view its cover, click on www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer.htm To view its title page, contents, and first two chapters, click on: www.cnr.usu.edu/romesburg/how_about_it_writer_preview.pdf

  • H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices

    H Charles Romesburg: Best Research Practices
    The Saunterer’s new book (2009), Best Research Practices explains how to plan and carry out reliable experiments, how to conceive and circumstantially support research hypotheses, how to test research hypotheses with the hypothetico-deductive method, how to discover cause and effect, and more. It’s based on his examination of 5,000 top scientific articles, studying the methods used to produce reliable knowledge. Preview it on-line by going to the following link: http://print.google.com/print?isbn=9780557017836

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