The enclave of the eccentricity of ordinary life

pp. 215-233

in: Frederick Kersten, Galileo and the "invention" of opera, Berlin, Springer, 1997

Abstract

The principle of the compossibility ¹ operative in music, science, painting, sculpture, poetry, architecture on the Baroque formulation of consciousness does not necessarily signify that, for instance, music has an extra-musical meaning, or that painting has an extra-painting meaning, or even that science has an extrascientific meaning (although all of that may indeed be the case, e.g., technology in the case of science, moral instruction in the case of the arts²), or that the one must necessarily entail the other (which in no way rules our their often quite obvious mutual influence). Nor is this to deny that music, science, painting, sculpture, poetry, architecture have a reference to what is going on in theatre, church, court, society required by the listener, viewer, participant, actor on the social, political and religious scene.