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<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy">Laurel</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy">.
Your student might enjoy reading the first chapter of Clive Bell’s classic book on aesthetics called simply Art. The first chapter is called The Aesthetic Hypothesis, and the best known concept therein is that of “Significant Form.”
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bell</st1:place></st1:City>’s book is perhaps the last great aesthetic statement in which notions such as symmetry can be expressed without qualification (although to my knowledge he doesn’t address symmetry per se).
I use it in my aesthetics class as a last bulwark before structuralism. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">If your student reads German, there is a wonderful book by Wilhelm Werker called Die Symmetrische Aufbau… can’t recall the rest, about
symmetry in Bach Fugues. Schoenberg was very impressed with it, and there is a reprint around. The pictures are fun to stare at.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">Best,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy">Murray</span></font></st1:place></st1:City><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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font-family:Arial;color:navy">Murray</span></font></st1:City></st1:place><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy">
Dineen</span></font></st1:PersonName><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy"><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceType w:st="on"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
color:navy">University</span></font></st1:PlaceType><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">
of <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Ottawa</st1:PlaceName></span></font></st1:place><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy">pdineen@uottawa.ca<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma"> smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org
[mailto:smt-talk-bounces@lists.societymusictheory.org] <b><span style="font-weight:bold">On Behalf Of
</span></b>Laurel Parsons<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Sent:</span></b> December 9, 2010 1:55 PM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">To:</span></b> smt-talk@societymusictheory.org<br>
<b><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject:</span></b> [Smt-talk] Symmetry and Musical Aesthetics</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">Dear colleagues,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">An upper-level undergraduate student at our liberal arts and sciences university is embarking on a long-term interdisciplinary study of the relationship between symmetry
and beauty. She is an accomplished violinist, but is not a music major and has no post-tonal theory background as yet; however, she is both well-versed and interested in calculus, statistics, and other mathematical forms so could pick it up fairly easily.
While there are hundreds of scholarly articles on various kinds of compositional symmetry in the music of Western composers to which I could refer her, I'm wondering if anyone can recommend:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">1) a good historical overview of how symmetry has been used in Western music, and/or<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">2) scholarly writing that addresses the
<i><span style="font-style:
italic">aesthetics</span></i> of musical symmetry rather than (")simply(") the compositional mechanics of its usage in the works of specific composers. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:
12.0pt">Best wishes,<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size:12.0pt">Laurel Parsons<br clear="all">
<br>
-- <br>
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Laurel</st1:place></st1:City> Parsons, Ph.D.<br>
Co-ordinator, Humanities Division<br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Quest University</st1:City> <st1:country-region w:st="on">
Canada</st1:country-region></st1:place><br>
<st1:Street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">3200 University Blvd.</st1:address></st1:Street><br>
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Squamish</st1:City>, <st1:State w:st="on">
BC</st1:State></st1:place><br>
VB8 0N8<br>
<a href="mailto:laurel.parsons@questu.ca" target="_blank">laurel.parsons@questu.ca</a><br>
<a href="http://www.questu.ca" target="_blank">www.questu.ca</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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