If there can be such a a thing as a ‘ponder,’ that is. I have mentioned here before a SciFi story series I have been reading – the first book in the series is ‘1632,’ by Eric Flint and you can get a legitimately free copy here.
The series is about the effects that might happen if a small American town were to be transplanted whole, by a cosmic accident, back in time to the middle of the 17th Century, in Germany. One of the story arcs concerns the effect on music (and the arts…,) when 17th century musicians and composers are exposed to, firstly, 21st century instruments, the piano in particular, and secondly, the canon of great works written in the golden age of classical music which, in 1632, had hardly begun. (By the way, the author does not fall into the error of making people, of all walks of life,) in the 17th Century any less smart or talented.)
The thought that came to mind was this – born out of reading the books, but not, I hasten to add, a theme in the stories. As a confirmed atheist, I wonder what might have been the inspiration for many of the great composers, absent the overriding presence and influence of the Church(es) in Europe? Whence the great Bach Oratorios, The Mozart Agnus Dei, and the foundations that led to the glories of the greatest of them all, Mr B himself?
Boadicea's Chariot 
Bravo, ‘what ifs’ can be intriguing. I suppose one might ask whether the musical talents you mention might have thrived in any culture or was the ecclesiastical environment the trigger? Chickens and eggs maybe?
Just wondering, ‘s’all – found myself humming a favourite childhood hymn just after I put one of the books down. (I was an altar boy, once upon a time 🙂 )
PS. In the music arc, one of the points made was that it was the pino taking over from the harpsichord or clavichord since the piano is better capable at sustaining a note. There may be something in what you say in that the technology advance gave composers the opportunity to create more dramatic music…?
It is ironic that you should write this today. I was pondering upon very similar thoughts myself as I wandered around the V&A this afternoon. Recently I was in the British Library and I saw a copy of Gutenberg’s Bible, the first mass published book in the Western World 1455. In the V&A, it was explained that the Renaissance was greatly influenced by the new technology of printing. Leonardo, had only been born 3 years in 1452. I think that it is very likely that people of learning and creativity, found much of their inspiration from the most readily available source of literature, i.e. the Bible.
Had Christianity not been so prevalent, there would no doubt have been something else to occupy the minds of great artists, writers and musicians, but I believe that it would have required a trigger, such as the printing press to enable such leaps forward. Without Christianity, I think it would have been some other faith, but lacking any religion at all, it might have been a craze for butterfly collecting that coincided with the acceleration of learning
I suppose other equivalent technological advances might be photography which gave us the cult of the celebrity, and the internet which gave us pornography on a scale that would have made Nero blush.
As for the genius of such people as Mozart, Leonardo, and Shakespeare, I wonder to what extent it is relative. I was recently browsing through a book called ‘Everything is obvious once you know the answer’ by Duncan J. Watts. He cites an example of the Mona Lisa, which until about 1900 was a relatively unknown painting. Following its theft from the Louvre by an Italian patriot, it became the greatest and most valuable piece of art in the world. Its fame lead to it being studied in greater depth and to its being held up as a sublime piece of art. Yes it is very good, but to what extent was the Mona Lisa held used as the criteria by which other art is measured? Who really decides what is the best and what is not? Are Shakespeare’s plays really the greatest literature in the English language or has the fact that they have been lauded as such made us all believe it to be the case. Was Harry Potter really the greatest child fantasy series of all time, or are the thousands of better stories that for whatever reason have never been published or promoted to any great extent. After all, HP was turned down several times before Bloomsbury picked up, just as the Beatles were turned down before they hit the big time.
I have often found it amazing that Elizabethan England with a population of about 2 million produced so many great writers, including Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson, Edmund Spenser,Francis Bacon, and others, not forgetting of course Shakespeare himself. With much higher levels of education, or certainly more widespread, why is it that a British population getting on for 70 million cannot write another Hamlet? Why is it that 2 men who knew each other, Mozart and Beethoven, the latter who took lessons from the former, wrote the greatest music of all?
I have a theory that Van Gogh owes much of his popularity over the past few decades to the 1970’s song Vincent by Don McLean. Alan Bond would never have paid $50 million for one his paintings had the song not been a hit.
In the book mentioned above, Watts describes an experiment whereby thousands of volunteers participate in a website that allows them to download music within ‘4 different worlds’. You can find it in here about page 340. http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3/salganik_watts08.pdf In each world, the same songs were rated differently. Volunteers were shown to prefer the songs with the best ratings and reject those with lowest.
So, when you sing Mozart’s praises or describe Mr B as being the greatest of them all, can you be certain that there are not dozens of other much greater composers whose music never caught the attention of the Bishop of Salzberg or Archduke Rudolph?
Alternative inspiration?
Patronage, and the need to feed and house oneself and one’s family.
The prolific burst of composition of the baroque came in the 1700s not the 1600s. When the art of patronage became highly fashionable in continental Europe, especially Germany and Austria.
1600s were more French composers and Thomas Tallis in the UK.
Most wrote what they were paid to write.
Pianos were invented in the early 1700s, previous to that sustained notes were of course available on the organ.
In 1632 they would have had harpsichords, clavichords, wind, brass and strings, pretty well all the antecedents of a modern orchestra. Suggest you look for some film of the Academy of Ancient Music who play on all these old instruments. The sound has a more mellow sound than the modern equivalents.
At least in 1632 they were mercifully spared electronic music!
It strikes me as a very peculiar subject for a novel especially when they had so much available then anyway!
What the didn’t have was the fashion of patronage.
Have just looked him up, frankly I doubt he knows what he is talking about! Get his stuff on TV here, ie, time to change channels!
Thanks for the link, Bravo, sounds intriguing.
I shall, when the rush is over, read the book. 🙂
While deploring the many of the actions of the Christian Church in previous eras, I can’t deny that it has created a magnificent legacy in the buildings, art and music that it sponsored.
I agree with Christina that most wrote what they were paid to write, and painted what they were told to paint. Nonetheless, I find that their skill sings to my soul a great deal more than the ‘art’ that is produced under the patronage of present day governments.
In the graphic arts there is evidence that design follows technology with attempts by artists to push the envelope as it were. A recent example is Hockney’s work with photocopying and scanning.
Can’t be certain, no, how would that be possible? Perhaps there were a number of people living in slums or subsistence villages in the countryside with equal or greater potential to the ‘greats,’ but who grew up to become pickpockets, prostitutes or ploughmen, who knows? I think though, that when formally trained musicians and the son of a Royal Marine/Gas Board Navvy agree that a piece of music is pretty damn good, there may just be something in it? 🙂