Intermezzo -- Reflections upon the Light Masculine

You may have heard about something called the Mozart Effect. This was in vogue among yuppies during the early 90s of the last century. It seems that listening to the music of Mozart makes you smarter, or more focussed, or some such -- especially if you get a good ear-full in early childhood. So, a lot of yuppies made sure to pipe Mozart into the nursery.

Well, I'm gonna call bollocks on that one. It has the smell of bunk science and urban legend about it -- although it is just the sort of thing that yuppies would lap up, don't you think so? Now, color me philistine, but Mozart's music doesn't do much for me. It doesn't grab me. At best, it is inspired 18th century ear-candy. Smooth like syrup although (to its credit) not overly sugared. Not disagreeable, mind you, but all in all just "okay". That is the best I can say for it: it's just okay.

As for Mozart, the man himself, he was by most accounts something of an asshole. Flakey, complicated, neurotic as hell, a mama's boy. You get the picture. If Mozart were alive today, I've a hunch that he'd be what some might uncharitably call a "m-ngina". Do pardon my vulgar Latin!

So much for Mozart and the Mozart effect.

Our present musical god, Georg Phillipp Telemann, was a very different sort. Yes, he was a good, solid guy. He was well nailed-together. The master craftsman from whose shop Telemann issued spared nothing in point of either material or workmanship. Nor did the craftsman neglect to add a divine spark to what he'd crafted, and what left the workshop might be described as a Stradivarius in human form.

Telemann, all in all, was a simple man. A consistent man. A man made of the same stuff right through. As a musical craftsman, Telemann could craft a disarmingly simple tune that would make you smile and forget your troubles. But then again, he could write a tone poem that sounded a hundred years ahead of its time. In all ways, he was versatile.

Telemann was also a shrewd manipulator who could make things go his way by the sheer force of energy and charisma. Naturally, nobody held it against him. He was a most worthy and excellent man, and he was universally admired during his lifetime. But after his lifetime, he and his music fell into obscurity and were all but forgotten until the middle 20th century, when the Telemann revival got underway.

I spoke earlier of the so-called Mozart effect, and doubted its veracity. Be that so, but if you wanted to sell me on a "Telemann effect", you just might have a buyer.

In Telemann, I see a disillation, in musical terms, of the Light Masculine.

In feminism, I see a distillation, in political terms, of the Dark Feminine.

And yes, I am aware that a Dark Masculine and a Light Feminine must also exist. But I don't mention them here, because that is not what the conversation is about.

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy today's musical selection.