Chin Stroke at The Disco

Plato wasn't keen on art: he said it's like pretending to be God, and it's only a pale imitation of reality, anyway. 

He thought that the real action was in this spiritual realm, where the perfect form of everything existed. Even the world as we experience it is just a phantasm compared to that.

This is what annoyed Nietzsche, and ought to frustrate materialists and atheists all day long. Plato postulates a spiritual zone that is better than the physical world. No wonder Christianity has a soft spot for Plato.

He didn't mind a bit of music though: he reckoned that good tunes had a positive effect on the soul - if the beats were legit. 

We were saying, when we spoke of the subject-matter, that we had no need of lamentations and strains of sorrow?
True.
And which are the harmonies expressive of

sorrow? You are musical and can tell me.
The harmonies which you mean are the mixed or tenor Lydian, and the full-toned or bass Lydian, and such-like.
These then, I said, must be banished; even to women who have a character to maintain they are of no use, and much less to men.
Certainly.

The big idea here is that listening to Lydian music encourages sorrow, and that doesn't help a man become a become. Unsurprisingly, Plato likes his music to have an educational purpose. 

The Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major (Mozart), as performed in Transatlantic Crossings, probably fits in with Plato's thoughts on 'useful' music. The classical styling - by which I mean the order and zippy melodies that aren't too fussy - and the virtuosity demanded by the score - have a firm manliness. Even when they are played by a woman, Gabriela Montero. 

When I say 'manliness', I'm talking about a notional quality that has nothing to do with willies but probably exists in Plato's World of Forms and is utterly without gender. 

In the next place, drunkenness and softness and indolence are utterly unbecoming the character of our guardians.
Utterly unbecoming?
And which are the soft and convivial harmonies?
The Ionian, he replied, and some of the Lydian which are termed “relaxed”.
Well, and are these of any use for warlike men?
Quite the reverse, he replied; and if so the Dorian and the Phrygian are the only ones which you have left.


I don't think he'd have liked The Novelist, an MC I saw up The Art School. He wasn't do the Ionian thing, but all that shouting he did - mainly to predictable, sparse beats - seemed to require drunkenness to be appreciated. Actually,  Piazzolla's Three Pieces for Piano and Strings sound like they'd fit the Ionian bill. Lively and effusive, they have a relaxed, cool energy, and swayed a bit like a pissed-up invertero.

The Novelist, and Kode-9 who was headlining, might actually fit into Dorian or Phrygian modes... they are kind of macho, and while the MC was shouting his head off to no great end, Kode-9 throws down sinister electronic beats and a rumbling bass that makes me want to watch The Warriors.

Peeking at Post-Modernism: Nietzsche on Kode 9

'I am delighted that my first guest on Peeking at Post-Modernism is a highly influential hypochondriac, thinker and musician. I have been asked by his agent to note that Mr Nietzsche died in 1900 and his subsequent association with Nazism was a result of his sister's deliberate misreading of his ideas.'

'I have no time for the anti-semite - and serious Christians quite like me. Honest.'

'Thank you, Fred. If I may, I'd like to look at a little known aspect of your life: your interest in free jazz. Although it wasn't properly named until the 1960s, you did explore piano improvisation in your later years.'

'I was always a musician, Gareth. And when I went to the brothels, I played the old Johanna. The syphilis was congenital, not caught.'

'Quite. Now, we have a letter here that you sent to your family from university. In it, you tell them that you are composing 'with energetic fury... a song in highest style of the future, with a natural scream and suchlike ingredients of silent madness.'

'I think John Hamilton mentions that in Music, Madness, and the Unworking of Language (p202)'

'Indeed, and he also mentions how visitors would often find you at the keyboard, whacking out a wild tune that could be compared to some Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane. I wonder whether this interest in abusing the musical scales is reflected in your philosophy.'

'I was all about Dionysus, and music, being a big pain in the arse, is a great way of disrupting rational thought. In some ways, I hated this - take Wagner and his infernal racket, put at the service of Christianity and stopping people from thinking. But in my art, rather than my philosophy, I saw the purpose of the chaotic and challenging.'

'Didn't you say that there are no philosophies, only philosophers. Like St Paul, your writing references your physical state as a foundation for your mental processes?'

'It is odd that I would reject Wagner when his music does provide anti-melodic counterpoint to my writings, yes. But I did suffer from headaches... which might explain my love of Berlioz.'

'You describe Berlioz in terms of a flighty young woman, which might reveal some of your thoughts, and needs...'

'It was recognised in the nineteenth century that Wagner could turn a housewife into a slut.'

'In a novel - von Saar's Geschichte eines Weinerkinds.'

'You are quoting Hamilton again.'

'But let's get back to the topic I had hoped to discuss. Kode 9 is coming to the Art School. Apart from being the founder of Hyperdub records, he has written a book about weaponising sound.'

'Anyone who has been trying to read this while listening to the Soundcloud link will know how well Kode 9 uses the distractive qualities of sound.'

'The fascination with extremes of sound - especially the bass - and the chants and calls made his DJ sets

intense.'

'He does have a sense of humour, though. He name checks himself more than I do in How to Philosophise with a Hammer.'

'But do you think he represents a continuation of Wagner's tradition - in which the sound is overwhelming, immersing the audience?'

'He does seem to use music to shift moods - and there is a clear sense of journey in this particular set. I am not a big fan of dub reggae, though. You've pointed out that I probably invented free jazz, and there is a discipline in this music that scares me.'

'The cut and paste technique, which is the aesthetic of all DJs, really, is here used to marshall sound towards an end, rather than release it from context and juxtapose, creating its meaning anew.'

'Yes, but it is there for a purpose: to shake your booty. Those bass lines work in the bowels. And those bits where he chats are very Wagnerian.'

'In what sense?'

'Well, you wish he'd get on with it, and drop the beat.'