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Ethnic Music

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ETHNIC MUSIC

The Systems of
Order in Music

Tonality

Differences
in Understanding as Reflected by Language

The Beginnings of
Musical History

New Sound Composer
of the 20th Century and the
Range of Intervals

Advancing
to the Transcendental
Play of Music

Musical Insight into the Culture of Peoples

Musical Relationships

The Musical Path
to Self-Knowlegde

Homophony

Polyphony

The Counterpoint

The Threefold Perfect
Form of the Harmony

Relations in Music

 

Peter Hübner
Founder of the
Micro Music Laboratories

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  The Systems of Order in Music
       
 
Homophony


   
 
Ho­moph­ony is analogous to sol­diers marching in step; it has a strong, su­per­fi­cial ef­fect on the outer ear and on the physio­logi­cal as­pects of hear­ing. So much beauty, how­ever, is dis­played in the in­te­grated and har­mo­ni­ous move­ment of even a centipede, com­pared to such an ar­ti­fi­cial, forced march in step!

 
The Musical March in Step
 
 
His­tori­cally, the con­cept of homo­phonic mu­sic arose from the in­abil­ity to think and act from the in­ner­most level of feel­ing in a si­mul­ta­ne­ously dif­fer­en­tiat­ing and in­te­grat­ing man­ner.
In our tech­no­logi­cal age, this con­cept of marching in step cul­mi­nates in rock and pop mu­sic where eve­ry­thing moves in step: the melody, the rhythm, as well as all the ac­com­pa­ni­ment.

 
The Loss of the Musical-Artistic Power
 
 
In ho­moph­ony the melody is ham­pered so much by the mass of sup­port­ing voices, that no one be­lieves its free­dom – in spite of even the most skilled in­stru­men­tal ma­nipu­la­tions. Thus, in ho­moph­ony, the melody re­sem­bles the gro­tesque Don Qui­xote who, clad in full ar­mour, se­ri­ously fights the wind­mills. Amidst a mass of “sup­port­ing voices” the melody sim­ply can­not un­fold it­self natu­rally and thus can­not de­velop any genu­ine origi­nality.

 
The Deterioration of Originality in Music
 
 
Ho­moph­ony in the wid­est sense means “the sound­ing march in step,” and it there­fore finds its cli­max in marches, in party dance mu­sic, and in the en­ter­tain­ment mu­sic of the masses, in­clud­ing the rock and beat mu­sic which, strange enough, aims at en­cour­ag­ing eve­ry lis­tener to move, men­tally and physi­cally, to the same fixed pat­tern.

 
The Historical Climax of Homophony
 
 
Thus, the men­tal-spiri­tual en­er­gies of the mu­si­cians and of the lis­ten­ers do not flow to the head – as would seem ap­pro­pri­ate – but rather down to in­fe­rior re­gions of physi­ol­ogy, thus let­ting the true hu­man quali­ties lan­guish.

 
The Musical Misuse of Mental-Spiritual Energies
 
 
How­ever, ho­moph­ony not only rep­re­sents the marching in step of many peo­ple, but also the mo­noto­nous repe­ti­tion of a sin­gle fixed pat­tern of step.

 
The Dual Musical Glorification of Mental Limitation
 
     
     
                                 
     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                     
                                     
  With kind permission of AAR EDITION INTERNATIONAL
© 1998 –  MICRO MUSIC LABORATORIES



 
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