Philistinism-Lite

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Friday, July 27, 2007

Who the Hell is Fr. Horn?

I found a great quote in the September, 1802 issue of Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung (AmZ, 788), but I'm not familiar with the contributor. The quote is one of many "musikalische Fragmente" submitted by Fr. Horn. The only name I can think of is Carl Friedrich Horn (aka Charles Frederick Horn), an organist from Germany gone Handel in England.



The quote reads as follows:

"Der Charakter der Nationen redet deutlich in ihren Künsten, und besonders in ihrer Musik, von der man noch bei allen Völkern, wenigstens leise Spuren und Andeutungen gefunden hat."

So simple, yet so deep. Horn then goes on to characterize the national characteristics of Italian, Spanish, French, English, and German music in more fragments. Interestingly, in an "ungenannte" article, "Fragen eines Layen über musikalische Gegenstände," published in two parts in the prior two issues in 1802, there is a more specific discussion of German opera, although this time rhetorically as a posed question followed by a detailed answer:

"Woher kömmt es, dass wir Deutschen, trotz aller Lauten und von Jedermann gerecht befundenen Klagen und Beschwerden, noch immer so viele ganz schlechte, kaum einige leidliche, und fast gar keine wirklich schönen Operntexte erhalten?" (642)

Quite the predicament.

1 Comments:

  • At 3:32 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Um. . . translation, please. German readings class was too long ago for me to decipher the Horn comments (especially since I don't have my German dictionary here in England).

     

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