First Post for 2015

A belated Happy New Year to all readers. I hope everyone has had a good break!

Firstly, I would like to thank the small but growing number of readers of a rather a niche blog dealing mostly with more abstract philosophical issues relating to musicology. Along the way, I have ended up spending a great deal of time discussing issues relating to history. In particular, the history and background of the Dritte Reich era.

Yet the topic of history has proven itself a highly philosophical one. How do we interpret history? What is the relationship between art and history? These are question that occupied minds such as Herder, who first coined the phrase Zeitgeist (Herder first used the term in his essay Kritische Wälder). The term Zeitgeist is most associated with Hegel, who thought is indebted to Fichte as well as Schelling. Hegel's philosophy of history was a decisive influence on Marx and Engels. 

I've certainly found it a huge eye-opening exercise doing the background reading for the posts here. Even where I thought I understood something, to actually go out, do ground research and then put it all together meant that it was all an immensely rewarding educational process. I certainly do hope that readers also found the critical process equally enlightening.

I certainly wouldn't expect a blog that is so philosophical in its orientation to music to attract much of a readership. However, it is quality that matters, and depth of insight we share. That means you are not going to get entries on what I had for breakfast here. Some may feel that makes it difficult to relate to the blogger, however, once again it is the quality of posts that matters. That is my focus. 

That means that I try to make the posts close to academic publication standard. This means a lot of work goes into preparing the groundwork for many posts. I also find I have to constantly update and edit posts to ensure they are as good as can be. I endeavor to make every post something that could be read years later and still be rewarding. 

In the coming year, I hope to talk more about broader issues in musicology, including more on semiotics and music as it relates to Derrida and post-modernism. I still have a little bit more to say about the history and politics that swirl around the name of Wagner, but I feel that one is slowly beginning to exhaust itself.

I may also wander off onto topics totally unrelated to music from time to time, including psychology or even photography. I am reading Derrida on photography now. It might just help to keep things refreshing and eclectic.