[Ads-l] When Bach [was: God] plays the organ, even God comes to Mass

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Mon Dec 8 00:17:21 UTC 2014


At 12/7/2014 10:43 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>Year: 1972
>Book Title: Rhythms of Western Art
>Author: John P. Sedgwick
>Quote Page 35 and 36 (GB Page numbers)
>Publisher: Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New, Jersey
>Database: Google Books (snippet view; data may be inaccurate and
>should be verified on paper; text partially visible in two snippets; a
>probe for "1972" shows the publisher name and 1972 year.)
>
>[Begin excerpt]
>No remark such as "when Bach plays the organ, God goes to the mass"
>describes the attitude of Renaissance art; it is a remark that could
>have been conceived only in a modern mind. To the Gothic mind it would
>have been ludicrously impious, and to Bach himself it would have been
>offensive at the very least.
>[End excerpt]

The fallacy of the excluded middle -- the writer offers only two 
choices, Gothic mind and modern mind.

I can easily imagine a long-eighteenth-century mind saying 
this.  Many were impious, both seriously and ludicrously, and  I 
think many would not have seen the statement as impious.

Joel

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