[SydPhil] Elective Affinities: Schubert's Meditatio Mortis - Sydney Conservatorium March 31 - 6.30 pm

[Goetz Richter]

Elective Affinities: Schubert’s Meditatio Mortis
Tuesday, March 31 2015 – 6.30 pm | Sydney Conservatorium of Music | Recital Hall West

“Elective Affinities” seeks to understand the important connections between music and philosophy. The urgency of such an understanding has been articulated by a number of thinkers responding to German Romanticism in particular, Theodor Adorno and more recently Lydia Goehr. The search has experimental, developmental and dialogical characteristics: it is directed at a transformation of listening through philosophical attention and at a transformation of thinking through musical listening. Musical performance, often conceived as artful entertainment or entertaining artistry, contributes here to a sustained enquiry and reflection about fundamental human phenomena. In response, philosophy returns from its preoccupation with academic calculation and intellectual technology to an authentic concern informing contemplative life.  
 
An all-Schubert program is introduced with reflections on the philosophy of music and listening by Sydney musician and philosopher Goetz Richter who argues for a conception of Schubert’s music as a meditation on transience completing a historical definition of music itself as meditatio mortis. The works in this program variously lead our contemplation and perplexity about time and transience in life, nature and society. In the context of romantic art and thought, Schubert’s works are seen as musical narratives of contemplation on time and as reflections on listening itself.

Schubertiade
Schubert, Sonatina g minor, D 408 
Schubert, Introduction and Variations D 802 on a theme from the “Müllerlieder” op 25 for violin (flute) and piano
Schubert, Trio in Bflat major op 99 for Piano, Violin and ‘Cello D 898
Jeanell Carrigan, piano | Goetz Richter, violin | Minah Choe, ‘cello
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Further information on the performance March 31
http://music.sydney.edu.au/events/chamber-works-schubertiade-31-03-2015

Further information about Elective Affinities
http://www.goetzrichter.com/pages/ElectiveAffinities.html