Les Muses – Clio, Euterpe et Thalia (1652-55), by Eustache Le Sueur (1616-1655)

Euterpe and the spaces of music

Directly from Mount Helicon and the choir of nine Muses presided over by Apollo, Euterpe is the muse that plays the aulos (updated to the flute in the modern era), and to whom the art of music was given per symbol and domain. Today there are many books and websites that discuss music: a lot of information is raised, musical events are commented, artists are exposed to the aficionado interest of the public and the value of art itself is discussed on issues such as the distribution of audio media by the recording industry. And yet, it seems inexplicably rare a space that speaks of music in a special way: talking about the music itself! In Euterpe, we are five music listeners who used to talk about music in golden years of discussion forums like the extinct Allegro, and we want to keep talking about music in a space that has: 1) greater discussion than the reproduction of conventions made by encyclopedias and informational texts; 2) greater dialogue than technical analyses written only for musicians themselves; 3) and greater interest in the relevance of the music itself, not just in what surrounds it! Although it seems a justified interest, it also generates resistance: trying to speak about music itself and finding yourself speaking about the language that composes it is considered preciousness and boring by many people. This issue is also in our interest, and if “why to talk about music?” is the beginning of everything, we can start here.

Euterpe is originally published in Portuguese here: Euterpe – Blog de Música Clássica.

Share