Blog

01/12/2020

B23 Media and educational institutions go astray

Appeal to responsibility

 

The destruction of cultural property is classified under international law as war crime.   (UN-Resolution 2347)

 

How is it to be judged in comparison, if fundamental cultural-historical connections are not published by the media and are not included in the curricula for doubious reasons? 

 

What are the doubious reasons? Here are a few examples:

"I am convinced that our medium is too superfluous for academically interesting materials like this." Editor-in-chief SRF Kulturplatz, mail from March 13, 2015

"An implementation in the curriculum is a Goliath task and unlikely." Directorate for Education and Culture of the Canton of Zug, mail from May 8th, 2015

"Thank you for your contribution. Unfortunately we cannot publish it in the Tagesanzeiger; the musical explanations are too technical to fit in a daily newspaper." Mail from the TA-Kultur editorial team on December 4, 2016

"We have clarified whether a publication would be possible with the feature pages and with opinions and debates. We must now cancel you due to lack of space." NZZ reader letters, editorial secretariat, mail from 15.12.2016

"... due to the heated politic-religious times", DIE ZEIT, Hamburg, e-mail from the editorial team on August 28th, 2017

"The scientific findings flow into politics and teaching with a certain time lag and we see no acute need for action." Department of Education, Culture and Sport, Aargau, Mail of May 30, 2018

"... because the topic you propose is very specialized" SRF editorial director, mail from January 7, 2019

"We have the mandate to produce and program programs that, despite their cultural commitment, appeal to a wide audience." SRF editor-in-chief, mail dated January 7, 2019

"Of course, the elementary school should also impart knowledge about the power and influence of the church, but not in the specific area that you require." Education Directorate Zurich, primary school office, mail from May 21, 2019

"However, there is unfortunately no basis for promoting this area or issuing a letter of recommendation" Federal Office of Culture, letter of 24 March 2020

 

What are the fundamental relationships?

In the West we learned to move musically within a given acoustic corridor. This affects everyone who somehow practices music or only whistles a song.

Western music is very easy to distinguish from Arabic music and the Bosphorus marks the border.

The symbolic content of music - the rediscovery of which is talked abut here - is of early Christian origin and has become an important part of the Christian-medieval world view. There are many comparable references to Holy Scripture in music, architecture and art, so that we can speak of a concordance of the arts. Parallels can be found in liturgy, customs and popular piety. Until the time of J.S. Bach and even beyond was considered music as a gift from God - as if it came directly from heaven - and was therefore highly valued. It was communicated to the people in this and no other way.

Rosette of a Chitarrone, Padua 1609,
God the Father in the Garden of Paradise, woven cross shape,
4 hearts stand for the 4 evangelists,
8 mirrored fields for the 8 bliss,
Hungarian National Museum, inv. 1951.46

Adopting this perspective allows special access to the perception mode of earlier times. Even those who want to understand the serious illogic of the interval names profit from looking at our sound system from the spiritual perspective of its time of origin.

Examples:

Why do we need a "little two"? (minor second)

Why do we need a "big three"? (major third)

Why does an octave (from Latin octavus: the eighth) consist of 5 whole-tone and 2 half-tone steps, although 5 whole and 2 halves make 6?

Music education would have the task of providing an explanation for this. The contents of this page, which include Christian symbolism as cultural heritage, make this possible. The numerous contributions in the blog complement the video presentations to form an overall picture like parts of a puzzle. The underlying working method is poly-disciplinary. Therefore, a dwell time of 15 minutes (measured mean) is far from sufficient to get an overview of the large number of documents presented. Our sound system can only be understood through an excursion into physics, history, art history and theology, but not only that: the entire occidental culture with its numerous interdisciplinary networks is only accessible in this way.

The concordance of the arts is not a nature of the arts - although the Christian worldview interprets it differently, as if it were a gift from the Holy Spirit or a gift from God, the corporate identity of the world manufacturer, if you will - but proof of the Church's influence, because any agreement with the biblical content is clearly handmade. Musicology and cultural science analyze the historical processes and make the connections transparent. It is therefore one of the educational duties to make society aware of the instrumentalization of the arts. In particular, the interplay of sacral architecture and occidental music deserves attention because immense sums of money have been invested in the sensual simultaneous perception of the large space and music (organs).

Barcelona, Sagrada familia, vaulted ceiling

Furthermore, there are also pictorial and sculptural representations as well as stained glass. In combination, the arts act particularly powerful on the human psyche and are able to deeply impress and to move emotionally. As is known, embossing takes place in early childhood and ignorance leads directly into dependence.

Cultural assets enable us to learn from past painful experiences. Therefore, ignorance of them and their destruction do great damage and slow civilization progress. Destruction is undoubtedly a crime, ignorance is gross negligence towards current and future generations - a wanton withdrawal of knowledge, freedom, and identity. In particular, the theory of harmony contains the material that is suitable for questioning strategic thinking, promoting intercultural dialogue and preventing wars.

"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed." [From the preamble to the UNESCO Constitution]. The core task is to deal with different worldviews in an appreciative and differentiating manner, especially here: with those of the Western confessions and those of the Enlightenment. The humanities take an observational standpoint because they do not pursue the goal of designing their own worldview. Rather, they describe the existing worldviews - always in the context of a critical discussion - as they appear and how they change in the course of history. Freedom and the free, uninfluenced thinking of humans have top priority for this.

Science is in the service of society and does not work against it. Therefore, the following also applies here:

UNITE BEHIND THE SCIENCE

 

© Aurelius Belz 2020