GRGR(28): Gustav vs. Saeure

[Jeremy Osner]

More from my brother; I sent to him a transcript of the whole Beethoven
- Rossini thing. Here's what he thinks:

An interesting bit.  They're very well worn arguments, to the point that
it seems Pynchon is using these two as stand-ins for larger idiological
positions, or perhaps social classes.  The thing that strikes me is taht
they're both blind to the failings of their positions.  Neither can see
that the row is not so different from the "rules" of tonality (though
more
consciously arbitrary).  Saure's quip that the row is also a game is on
target, but he misses the point, that, like the games inherent in really
sophisticated tonality (not Rossinni or Sphor or the like, but certainly
Brahms), the game is only one level of listening.  Gustav, for his part,
misses that the ongoing addition of notes to the available repertoire of
tonality from diatonicism to chromaticism, perhaps the most obvious
teleology of classical music history is really a myth.  Bach, Mozart,
Gesualdo, Monteverdi, all used chromaticism, and in a really advanced
way.
I think Pynchon has the arguments of mid-century aesthetic debate in
Germany on the money, though.  No doubt about that, and not just Germany
either.  These guys could have been French or American too.

Best,

Gabriel