Hindsight: Difference between revisions

Hindsight (view source)

Revision as of 14:36, 2 February 2021

342 bytes added , 2 February 2021

no edit summary

Amwelladmin

Bureaucrats, Interface administrators, Administrators

82,891

edits

@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 Of the scathing reviews that followed, one at least — in the ''Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung'' — was prescient enough to say the following: “To judge all these pieces after only one hearing, especially considering [...] that so many were performed in a row, and most are so grand and long, is impossible.”
-To the punchline then: the young foreign composer was, of course, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and in that one concert he premiered his ''Symphony No. 6'' (“Pastoral”), his ''Piano Concerto No. 4'', and the aforementioned ''Choral Fantasia'', as well as playing a few choice cuts from his ''Mass in C Major''. If that wasn’t enough — and surely the premiere of the ''Pastoral'', by itself, would have been enough to make the record of humankind’s highest achievements — after the interval, the orchestra debuted the most revolutionary piece of music, bar ''none'' ever written: the ''Disco Theme to Saturday Night Fever'',<ref>I am sorry. I couldn’t resist.</ref> although then known only as ''Symphony No. 5 in C Minor''.<ref>Anyone interested in Beethoven’s symphonies — that is, in Jimi Hendrix’s words, “everybody here with hearts — ''any'' kind of hearts — and ears” — should check out Professor Robert Greenberg’s [https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-symphonies/ lectures about Beethoven].</ref>
+To the punchline then: the young foreign composer was, of course, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and in that one concert he premiered his ''Symphony No. 6'' in F Major (“''Pastoral''”), his ''Piano Concerto No. 4'', and the aforementioned ''Choral Fantasia'', as well as playing a few choice cuts from his ''Mass'' in C Major. If that wasn’t enough — and surely the premiere of the ''Pastoral'', by itself, would have been enough to make the record of humankind’s highest achievements — after the interval, the orchestra debuted the most revolutionary piece of music, bar ''none'' ever written: the ''Disco Theme to Saturday Night Fever'',<ref>I am sorry. I couldn’t resist.</ref> although then known only as ''Symphony No. 5'' in C Minor.<ref>Anyone interested in Beethoven’s symphonies — that is, in Jimi Hendrix’s words, “everybody here with hearts — ''any'' kind of hearts — and ears” — should check out Professor Robert Greenberg’s wonderful [https://robertgreenbergmusic.com/download/beethoven-symphonies/ lectures about Beethoven].</ref>
-Okay, so, hindsight?
+If the [[JC]] could travel back in time — with thermals and a cushion, of course — for one night in all of human history, this is the night he’d choose. ''Imagine being one of those lucky 1,500 who heard the fifth symphony for the first time in history''. There are few profound watersheds in the cultural history of our civilisation, but this was surely one. Music would never be the same.
-If the [[JC]] could travel back in time for one night only, throughout all of human history, this is the time and place he’d choose. He’d take thermals and a cushion. ''Imagine being one of those lucky 1,500 who heard the fifth symphony for the first time in history''. There are few profound watershed in the cultural history of our civilisation, but that is surely one. But it would be imbued with such significance ''only'' because of the two hundred years of subsequent history from which we now benefit. Those lucky 1,500 probably found it quite tiresome. They may well have — most probably did — come in later life to freight that experience with more meaning than they could apprehend at the time.
+Okay, so, ''hindsight''?
-This is the human condition, summarised. Only  ''once it has happened'' — [[past tense]] — and often, only months or years after that, can we ''possibly'' apprehend the significance of unexpected events.
+“Hindsight” because I would choose that night, only thanks to the colossal cultural significance imbued upon it ''by the two hundred years of subsequent history from which we now benefit.'' The “lucky 1,500” probably found it quite tiresome.  You can imagine them complaining to their spouses about it then they got home. To be sure they may well have — most probably did — come, later in life, to freight that endless night with a sacred quality they could scarcely have apprehended at the time. To be there would have been mediocre, without a cultural context is was at the time, categorically impossible to have.
+This is the human condition, summarised. Only ''once it has happened'' — [[past tense]] — and often, only months or years after that, can we ''possibly'' apprehend the significance of unexpected events.
 ===The category error: providing for the future by reference to the past===
 This is where my friend the middle manager makes his [[category error]]. [[Data]] all come from the same place: [[Past results are no guarantee of future performance|the past]]. When we review risks, catastrophes and step changes; when we consider [[punctuated equilibrium|punctuations to the equilibrium]], fair or foul our wisdom, our careful analyses, our sage opinions, our hot takes, our [[thought leader]]ship — ''all'' of these are [[Second-order derivative|derived]] from, predicated on, and delimited by [[data]] which, at the time the event played out, ''we did not have''.