Vanitas Vanitatum Omnia Vanitas
Monday, August 04, 2014
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| Vanitas Naturaleza Muerta - August 1, 2014 |
Monday I gave a talk at Gessler Hall in the UBC School of Music called The Most Transitory of Things. With the projection of some rose scans I attempted to somehow connect the baroque music being showcased in this year’s 2014 Vancouver Early Music Festival. The last concert of the festival is this August 9 and the title is Vanitas Vanitatum.
A few weeks ago that double Latin would have left me flummoxed. But that is not the case now.
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Adriaen van Utrecht (Antwerp, 1599–1652) c. 1642
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I was further impelled
to write this today Tuesday as in today’s NY Times Science Times (every
Tuesday) I read the following introduction and two first paragraphs:
Books – Jascha Hoffman
Working in the Medium
of Science
Colliding Worlds
How Cutting- Edge
Science is Redefining Contemporary Art
By Arthur I. Miller
An argument that the
passion of artists is little different from the quest for data and logic.
Scientists are
logical, making observations and running experiments, then building theories
that explain the data. Artists are emotional, working in solitude and by
intuition. Or so we are told.
In Colliding Worlds,
the historian and philosopher Arthur I. Miller argues that artists and
scientists have always had the same mission to “fathom the reality beyond
appearances, the world invisible to our eyes.” And he argues that after
drifting apart during the Enlightenment, the twin branches of understanding
have been coming back together over the last century, a reunification that is
accelerating in the digital age.
At one time that last
paragraph might have confused me or left me cold. That was not the case.
In trying to find a
connection between my rose scans which are mostly of complex multi-petalled old
or ancient roses and baroque music I thought of the Age of Enlightenment.
This period of history
that began somewhere in the middle of the 17th century and saw the
light (el siglo de las luces) in the 18th century was brought on by
Copernicus, Newton, Leibnitz, Descartes, Voltaire, Hume and a volley of
explorers. They believed that reason (the period is sometimes called the Age of
Reason) would make a better world.
I found that at odds
with the complex baroque music. Some of it was mathematical but a lot of it,
particularly the French Baroque was emotional. I thought of Mexican Baroque
churches in the Churrigueresque style (named so because Catalan architect José
de Churriguera had pioneered this overly elaborate baroque sometimes called Spanish
Rococo.)
How could the elaborate and serpentine (particularly
Bach’s canons) live side by side with the logical, mathematical and direct?
I found my answer in two quarters. One was
to note that the so-called 30 Year’s War (1618-1648) with about 8 million
deaths had left what was then what we would call Germany
today in shambles along with most of the rest of Europe.
The Dutch saw this as a kind of hopelessness. Religion had failed and earthly pursuits were useless. It was almost as
these Dutch (many were artists) prefigured Søren Kierkegaard’s proto existentialism
by almost 200 years. This movement was called Vanitas. This Latin word means "vanity"
and loosely translated corresponds to the meaninglessness of earthly life and
the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.
Vanitas art showed
still lifes in which death was always present in some sort of decay. It could
be a plant and flower or a skull. All put there to remind us of the
impermanence of life.
A few days ago I
decided to make my own Vanitas using my Fuji
b+w Instant film. I threw in some roses, past their prime to represent that
decay.
I look forward to being wonderfully depressed and marvelously inspired by the music of the August 9 concert Vanitas Vanitatum.
The composers will be for me new kids on the block:
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580-1651)
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1538-1643) him I know!
Marco Marazzoli (1605-1622)
Luigi Rossi (1597- 1653)
Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665)
Biagio Marini (1594-1663) him I know!
I look forward to being wonderfully depressed and marvelously inspired by the music of the August 9 concert Vanitas Vanitatum.
The composers will be for me new kids on the block:
Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674)
Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580-1651)
Girolamo Frescobaldi (1538-1643) him I know!
Marco Marazzoli (1605-1622)
Luigi Rossi (1597- 1653)
Domenico Mazzocchi (1592-1665)
Biagio Marini (1594-1663) him I know!
