Ijsbreker

Tim Hinck's thoughts on music and life- There is a lady living across the street from me. She is dying of cancer. I have never seen anyone so full of life and energy. She loves to work outside in the flowers and grass of her yard. I can see her savoring every sunny day... the way she stands up from planting a flower bulb with such satisfaction on her face and claps the dirt from her gloves with resolution. I want to be like that lady.

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Location: Schalkwijk, Utrecht, Netherlands

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Sacbuts and Cornetts and Jew's Harps...


Since Gerald and I like to joke about Sacbuts and Hurdy-Gurdy's and Jew's Harps and other Renaissance musical instruments, I thought it would be a fitting place to begin. But if we really wanted to start at the beginning, I suppose it would be with Pythagoras (565 BC), the guy who told us why music sounds like music (and also gave us a real puzzle that no one since has been able to solve - namely - "why is it impossible to make a musical scale of perfectly tuned pitches?") My favorite thing about Pythagoras is that he invented his own religion which was based upon several principles, including: 1. 'No picking up anything that has fallen over' 2. 'No stepping across a pole' 3. 'No picking flowers' 4. 'No laying hands on a white cockerel'. Well, anyway, I hope some of you will return to read my posts sometime.

posted by Ijsbreker | 9:35 AM

2 Comments:

Blogger An Enlightened Fellow said...

Do those four principles encompass the entirety of Pythagoras's religion?

1/19/2006 3:08 PM  
Blogger Ijsbreker said...

As disturbing as this religions sounds, I think what is even more disturbing is that the writer of the book I was reading didn't really give a complete view of Pythag's religion. The author did, however, list a few more 'principles' but every one was as strange as the ones I named.

2/01/2006 1:00 AM  

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