Re: kafka and rilke

Jim writes:
<< I don't think it's wise to draw that sharp a distinction between "song"
and "chant" if we want to discuss the common use of the word "song" these
days -- most people probably see chant as a special type of song. >>

I expect that most people associate a vague image of monasticism to "chant"
and thus might arrive at the word if they hear some men singing in a manner
that strikes them as especially monastic; but that most people have neither
a clear idea of what chant is nor of what it usually sounds like.

The people who own full CDs of chant, on the other hand, and the people who
themselves sing or have even tried their hand at composing chant, probably
see it a bit differently. In the sense that chant praises God in song,
chant is song. But in the sense that one might introduce a chant by saying
"This is a little song written by St. Gregory," chants are not songs.

The former is the sort of song that, as you say, had a long life without
clear distinction from poetry (though I'm not prepared to agree with your
generalization that early poems had to be sung because they were by
illiterate poets and performed for illiterate audiences). The latter is the
modern sort of song that I was talking about, and whose overwhelming
popularity I called a relatively recent development.

-robbie
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Received on Sun Jun 29 16:21:09 2003