I agree and yes, of course, they (can) emerge in different sectors at different times, and possibly in a particular sequence - I discussed this with Emil at the hub when I shared the course materials with him back in Autumn 2023.
One of the things we discussed was whether they follow the exact sequencing suggested here - but it does seem plausible that âartists are there firstâ â hence the importance of art in the second renaissance efforts
Overall i think there is much potential for (more) rigorous empirical efforts here to trace the emergence of cultural paradigms like modernity, post-modernity etc. The crude graph i posted at the start was simply to indicate the non-linearity and âbumpinessâ of this â and was inspired from discussions with Joe Henrich.
Overall I suspect that the emergence of a new cultural paradigm is not âequally distributedâ in a variety ways: it is almost certainly not spatially homogenous, nor is it âprofession homogenousâ etc. The interesting question is what are the patterns of this variation.
Indeed, thank you Rufus. I foresee, letâs say, a certain amount of difficulty in reconciling different peopleâs senses of the patterns of cultural paradigms. Most of us have a general sense, whether itâs in line with Kegan, Wilber, âHanziâ or some other player. Where it undoubtedly gets trickier is when trying to pin down how exactly to detect or classify the patterns of paradigms. I doubt we will get hard-and-fast âscientificâ definitions that work, and if that is not going to happen, weâre back with trying to agree our subjective understandings. We could do that; but I havenât seen any great enthusiasm here for trying to clarify and agree on cultural paradigms in music.
Two ways forward that I would be interested inâŚ
Actually going through the process of trying to reach some kind of agreement around diagnosing the occurrence of the various paradigms in the different spheres of life.
Stepping back a little and asking ourselves, why are we trying to define âmodernityâ in any case?
To me, the second is more likely to be fruitful than the first. And the clearer we are on why we want to define any of the cultural paradigms that we perceive, the more likely I see us as being able to put together some kind of working agreements on how to diagnosing paradigms.
And then (perhaps only then) on to charting out the variable patterns of cultural paradigm shift.
Just come across this really interesting essay, tying music into other cultural paradigms.
As a taster, the first two paragraphsâŚ
Compare these two pieces. First, one of Henry Purcellâs fantasias for viols (1680). A short figure is imitated between voices, summoning a detailed web of melancholy counterpoint. The idea is spun out in elaborate developments: upside down, the entries piling up closer together, the tail extended into a sequence. The music contorts itself into harmonic paradoxes and clashes, perhaps reminiscent of the wit and double meanings of poetry by those other 17th-century Englishmen, John Donne and Andrew Marvell. This is music of great beauty and sophistication, but where does the piece as a whole take us? It falls clearly enough into large-scale sections (beginning at 1:38, 2:30 and 3:15) differentiated by a new character, tempo and theme. But their sequence feels additive rather than cumulative, with little sense of an overall narrative arc. To us modern listeners, the effect is something like looking at a richly embroidered tapestry, as if each line of counterpoint were a thread in a seamless, two-dimensional foreground.
Now try the first movement of Haydnâs 47th symphony (1774). Everything about it sounds in motion, from the level of each phrase to the piece as a whole â more like telling a story than seeing a static object from multiple angles. Each phrase is clearly directional, carefully proportioned, and distinct from its neighbours. Like a tour of the rooms and gardens of a rococo palace, the piece as a whole has a strongly differentiated beginning, middle and end: setting off, passing through varied surroundings, and returning to an altered version of where we began (from 4:16) with the benefit of experience. (Both halves of the movement are themselves repeated â if you want to hear it all through once, listen from 1:24 to 5:26). The music seems to evoke not just linear time but something like spatial depth; events in the musical foreground whose succession feels compelled by a purposeful underlying structure.
I agree and yes, of course, they (can) emerge in different sectors at different times, and possibly in a particular sequence - I discussed this with Emil at the hub when I shared the course materials with him back in Autumn 2023.