Charles Rosen – The Classical Style

Charles Rosen – The Classical Style

Very good introduction to classical music. Lots of theories and ideas behind the music, that all make listening to the music more interesting and engaging.

 “Sonata aesthetic of tonic – dominant – distant key – tonic resolution.” (Rosen, 1997, p.xxvi).

By building successive triads in both ascending and descending directions we arrive at a structure which is symmetrical and yet unbalanced: “This entails enforcing an equal distance between the twelve notes arranged in stepwise or scale progression (which produces the chromatic scale), and it distorts their relation to the natural overtones: the system is called equal temperament. Modulating around the circle of fiths in either direction will now bring one back to the original starting point. (…) it did not become the theoretical basis for music until the eighteenth century.” (Rosen, 1997, p.25).

“the center of tonal work is not a single note, but a triad.” (Rosen, 1997, p.25). “A passage in tonal work that is outside the tonic is dissonant.” (Rosen, 1997, p.26).

“In any case, the ‘sonata’ is no a definite form like a minuet, a da capo aria, or a French overture; it is like a fugue, a way of writing, a feeling for proportion, direction, and texture rather than a pattern.” (Rosen, 1997, p.30).

The motor of Baroque is harmonic sequence: short melodic harmonic pattern, repeated on different scale steps. The motor of classical music is the periodic phrase: the phrase of music is divided into an open-ended phrase that requires a second phrase as response (antecendent /consequence).

 “The classical style (…) was characterized by its aptness for a dramatic style based on tonality.” (Rosen, 1997, p.57). “the most common Baroque form is one of simple and unified rhythmic texture. When a rhythm has been established, it is generally continued relentlessly until the end. (…) Once the piece is under way an impression of perpetuum mobile is not uncommon.” (Rosen, 1997, p.61). “For the classical composer the perpetuum mobile is only an added challenge to his desire to break up the rhythmic texture, and the tension adds dramatic force.” (Rosen, 1997, p.61). “Baroque dynamics provide a perfect analogy with Baroque rhythm. (…) In the same way a Baroque work may be played at a fairly constant level of sound, or to levels may be superimpose or juxtaposed without any use (at least structurally) of crescendo and diminuendo.” (Rosen, 1997, p.62).

Classical stye: “An articulate movement to the dominant (or its substitute is all that is required harmonically of a sonata exposition: how it is done is completely free, or, rather, bound only by the nature and material of each individual work. There is a movement toward the dominant in most Baroque music, too, even in early Baroque, but it is rarely made either articulate – that is, decisive – or dramatic.” (Rosen, 1997, p.69).

“Material presented outside the tonic must have created, in the eighteenth century, a feeling of instability which demanded to be resolved. (…) Today, our harmonic sensibilities have become coarsened by the tonal instability of music after the death of Beethoven, and the strength of this feeling is perhaps difficult to recapture.” (Rosen, 1997, p.73).

For classical work the drama is not necessarily in the material, but in the structure (Rosen, 1997, p.76). “the simplest way to summarize classical form is as the symmetrical resolution of opposing forces.” (Rosen, 1997, p.83). “it can be seen that sonata form is an immense melody, an expanded classical phrase, articulated, with its harmonic climax three-quarters of the way through and a symmetrical resolution that rounds it off in careful balance with the opening.” (Rosen, 1997, p.87).

“This relation of the individual detail to the large form even in apparently improvisational works, and the way the form is shaped freely in response to the smallest parts, gave us the first style in musical history where the organization is completely audible and where the form is never externally imposed.” (Rosen, 1997, p.93).

Sonata: “The movement begins by establishing a strict tempo and a tonic as frames of reference. The first section , or exposition, has two events, a  movement or modulation to the dominant, and a final cadence on the dominant.” (Rosen, 1997, p.99). “The second section also has two events, a return to the tonic, and a final cadence. Some form of symmetrical resolution (called recapitulation)of the harmonic tension is necessary.” (Rosen, 1997, p.99). “The return to the tonic is generally (but not always) clarified by playing the opening measures again, as they are most closely identified with the tonic. If the return to the tonic is long delayed to heighten its dramatic effect (by modulating to other keys or by sequential progression its dramatic effect (by modulating to other keys or by sequential progressions at the dominant), the the work has an extensive development section.” (Rosen, 1997, p.99).

 “This sense that the movement, the development, and the dramatic course of a work all can be found latent in the (G: melodic) material, that the material can be made to release its charged force so that the music no longer unfolds, as in the Baroque, but is literally impelled from within – this sense was Haydn’s greatest contribution to the history of music.” (Rosen, 1997, p.119).

“The two principal sources of musical energy are dissonance and sequence – the first because it demands resolution, the second because it implies continuation. The classical style immeasurable increased the power of dissonance, raising it from an unresolved interval to an unresolved chord and then to an unresolved key.” (Rosen, 1997, p.119). “to speak of any of Haydn’s structures without reference to their material is nonsense.” (Rosen, 1997, p.129).

“The unsurpassed stability of Mozart’s handling of tonal relations paradoxically contributes to his greatness as a dramatic composer. It enabled him to treat a tonality as a mass, a large area of energy, which can encompass and resolve the most contradictory opposing forces. It also allowed him to slow down the purely formal harmonic scheme of his music so that it would not outstrip the action on stage.” (Rosen, 1997, p.186).

KV 428: “The opening measure is an example of Mozart’s sublime economy. It sets the tonality by a single octave leap (the most tonal of intervals), framing the three chromatic measures that follows.” (Rosen, 1997, p.186).

Concertos: “once it is accepted that the soloist’s role is to be a dramatic one, the ritornello poses a problem, simply (as I said) that the audience is waiting for the soloist to enter. (…).” (Rosen, 1997, p.197). “To drop the opening ritornello altogether and to have the material presented by soloist and orchestra as almost equal partners (…) is to renounce the classical delight in large-scale effects, to make the contrast between solo and orchestra one of short alternations, losing the breadth of the long sections. On the other hand, to make the opening ritornello overdramatic in an attempt to raise its importance and seize the audience’s attention would be to undercut the dramatic effect of the soloist’s role and to destroy one of the principal advantages of the concerto form.” (Rosen, 1997, p.198).

Mozart K. 271 “the piano participates  - as a soloist – in the first six measures, and is then silent for the rest of the orchestral exposition.” (Rosen, 1997, p.198).  “it is the most crucial misunderstanding of Mozart to think, in this concerto, of his repeating a pattern and adding colour, drama and variety to the individual elements: the entire pattern is what Mozart is dramatizing – the real material is not the individual themes but their succession – and the second exposition is not a repeat but a transformation.” (Rosen, 1997, p.203).

 “there are no more brutal modulations than the ones in the finale of the G minor Symphony or the first movement of the last piano concerto. But their very brutality is a sign of the economy with which they are used, and of their dramatic purpose.” (Rosen, 1997, p.254).

“In expanding that small but resilient symmetrical structure derived from the dance that was later called ‘sonata form’, the problem was always how and where to add weight without undoing the proportions and wrecking the unity. The simplest solution was the addition of a long, slow introduction.” (Rosen, 1997, p.269). An additive concept: “To increase the length of the first half is both difficult and dangerous: the exposition of a sonata is based only on one action, the establishment of one polarity; to delay its arrival too long is to diffuse all the energy, to risk chaos.” (Rosen, 1997, p.269).

“The problem of the Finale is naturally one of weight, of sufficient seriousness and dignity to balance the opening movement, but there would be no problem at all if it were not for the classical conception of the finale as a resolution of the entire work.” (Rosen, 1997, p.275). “But in any case, the thematic material of a finale is always rhythmically squarer than that of a first movement, the cadences heavily emphasized, the phrases well-defined, and the first theme completely rounded off before any movement can take place.” (Rosen, 1997, p.275). “The only exception to this squareness is the contrapuntal finale. (…).” (Rosen, 1997, p.275).

 “an introduction acts as an extended dominant chord within the tonic area.” (Rosen, 1997, p.282). “In fact, no description of sonata form can be given that will fit the Haydn quartets but not the majority of forms in  Mozart opera.” (Rosen, 1997, p.296). “There are no fixed rules, (…) It is a work itself (once its language is understood) that provides its own expectations, disappoints and finally fulfils them” (Rosen, 1997, p.296).

 “A finale is an opera in miniature: the same tonl unity that reigns there may be found more loosely understood as is appropriate to its greater length – within the opera as a whole.” (Rosen, 1997, p.304). “only after the age of twenty did Mozart invariably finish an opera in the key of the overture.” (Rosen, 1997, p.304). “The most highly organized and the most highly brilliant of the finales is never the last (or second of the two large ones) but the first: it is, like a development section, the extreme point of tension within the work. It is also placed harmonically as far away from the tonic of the whole opera as Mozart could go.” (Rosen, 1997, p.304). “In every one of the opera finales, without exception, the last number does not modulate, but remains firmly fixed on the tonic. It serves as a cadence to the finale.” (Rosen, 1997, p.304).

 “Beethoven transformed the musical tradition he was born into, but he never challenged its validity.” (Rosen, 1997, p.380). ”For example, in his frequent evasion of strict dominant-tonic relations within a single movement, Beethoven may seem to be closer to Schuhmann, Chopin, and Liszt in their most successful, least academic forms than to Haydn and Mozart. (…) Haydn and Mozart: (…) an increase of tension at the opening almost always implies the imminent establishment of the dominant as a secondary tonality; the more remote harmonies are played, not only against the tonic, but against the polarity of tonic-dominant as a continual area of reference; resolution always goes to the tonic through the dominant. This polarity has a much less fundamental role in the work of the first generation of Romantic composers, and sometimes disappears completely.” (Rosen, 1997, p.382).

“Almost from the beginning of his career as a composer, Beethoven attempted to find substitutes for the dominant in the classical tonic-dominant polar relation.” (Rosen, 1997, p.382). “After the Waldstein sonata, Beethoven is almost as likely to use the more remote median and submediant keys to employ a straightforward dominant. (…) only chromaticism could further enlarge the field.” (Rosen, 1997, p.382). “His expansion of the large-scale harmonic range took place within the limits of the classical language, and never infringed on the tonic-dominant polarity or the classical movement towards a greater tension away from the tonic. These secondary tonalities to his work, mediants and submediants, function within the large structure as true dominants. They create a long-range dissonance against the tonic and so provide the necessary tension for a move towards a central climax.” (Rosen, 1997, p.383).

“Beethoven: “He started with a late and diluted version of classicism and gradually returned to the stricter and more concise form of Haydn and Mozart.” (Rosen, 1997, p.385).

“The use of the simplest elements of the tonal system as themes lay at the heart of Beethoven’s personal style from the beginning. It was only little by little, however, that he realized its implications.” (Rosen, 1997, p.389).

“It is clear that such an increase in size without altering the fundamental classical proportions (the placing of the climax, the ratio of harmonic tension to resolution) could not start from the long, regular and complete melodies of Mozart but had to base itself on Haydn’s treatment of tiny motifs.” (Rosen, 1997, p.394).

“the repeat during the Baroque period is a way of accenting the regularity of a dance form. (…) In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, the repeat was above all the opportunity for expressive ornamentation.” (Rosen, 1997, p.395). “It is largely in the music of Haydn nd Mozart after 1775 that structure replaced ornamentation as the principal vehicle of expression.” (Rosen, 1997, p.395).

“Thoughout his life, Beethoven increasingly relied directly upon the fundamental tonal relationships for material. His continuous attempt to strip away, at some point in each large work, all decorative and even expressive elements from the musical material – so that part of the structure of tonality is made to appear for a moment naked and immediate.” (Rosen, 1997, p.435).

“Bach’s method is to isolate one element of the original theme, the bass, and build upon that. Beethoven’s system is to make an abstract of the total shape of the theme; the form implied by his first variation, a form which supports the variation and relates to what follows, is not the melodic shape alone (…) nor the bass alone, but a representation of the theme s a whole.” (Rosen, 1997, p.436).

 “The fourth variation reaches almost undifferentiated pulsation, enforced by the continuous pianissimo and by the omission of the melody note from the opening of every beat. The trill represents the complete dissolution of even this rhythmic articulation: the movement reaches the extremes of rapidity and immobility (Rosen, 1997, p.448).“It is in this way that the most typical ornamental device is turned into an essential element of large scale structure.” (Rosen, 1997, p.448).

Yet: “To the end of his life he continued to employ and even revive many musical procedures that he had known as a child in the 1770s and that younger contemporaries, like Weber, Schubert, and Mendelssohn, had abandoned as banal and old fashioned.” (Rosen, 1997, p.449). “In general one may say that Beethoven’s originality reveals itself most often not by frustrating the conventions tht he learned as a child but by magnifying them beyond the experience or expectation of any of his contemporaries.” (Rosen, 1997, p.460).

“One of the most basic relationships of triadic tonality is that the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant – in other words, a move fom tonic to dominant in the first half of a piece can be reproduced by going from subdominant to tonic without any other change. A simple transposition of the second half of the exposition up a fourth will give us the rest of the recapitulation without the necessity of any further thought or invention.” (Rosen, 1997, p.463).

“It has been said about certain sculptors (most often probably Michelangelo) that they do not so much invent forms as reveal those hidden within the stone. In a similar way, Beethoven seems to discover the meanings and emotions buried within the musical language.” (Rosen, 1997, p.483).

“The techniques of inversion, augmentation, and diminuition are among the most traditional in writing fugues: Beethoven gives them a totally new significance. Inverting the upward-moving theme became a symbol of exhaustion, the meaning enforced by texture and dynamics. Transforming the theme played at half tempo back to the original tempo renders the experience of a return of energy, and the diminuition at triple tempo beginning softly represents the source of new life. For the first time in history of music these commonplace elements of fugue take on a narrative content.” (Rosen, 1997, p.505).

“he rejected no part of the eighteenth-century tradition. He continued to employ the contrast within a theme (…) the fundamental force of the dominant (…) while his younger contemporaries preferred chromatic shifts. To the end of his life, he preserved the classical balance of dominant and subdominant. (…) He never abandoned the long final section in the tonic and the insistence on final resolutions. His greatest innovation – and they cannot be overestimated – lay in the unprecedented expansion of the style.” (Rosen, 1997, p.508).

 “In harmony and rhythm, as well as formal outline, there is a return to the principles of Baroque.” (Rosen, 1997, p.515).  “Like the homogeneous rhythmic texture of the Baroque, the rhythmic forms of the first generation of the Romantics are not syntactical (i.e. they do not depend on balance and ordering) but cumulative in their effect.” (Rosen, 1997, p.515). “The impulsive energy of the Romantic work is no longer a polarized dissonance and an articulated rhythm, but the familiar Baroque sequence, and the structures are no longer synthetic but additive. The music of Schuhmann in oarticular (…) comes in a series of waves, and the climax is generally reserved for the moment before exhaustion.” (Rosen, 1997, p.515).

“There are phrases by Beethoven, particularly in the Diabelli Variations and in the late quartets, which display a chromaticism as radical as anything outside Gesualdo, but they all imply a firm diatonic structure as a background. With Chpin it is the background that shifts chromatically as well.” (Rosen, 1997, p.516).

 “post classical style, in which the melodic flow is essentially more important than the dramatic structure. (…) the very looseness of organization prevented the dramatic concision, the close correspondence of part to whole and the consequent richness of allusion f the classical style.” (Rosen, 1997, p.517).

Ernest Hemmingway – The old man and the sea

The old man and the biggest fish of his ilfe are connected by the fishing line – for many days. Besides the physical connection there is also a stronger connection.
This strange relationship, where one is trying to kill the other, yet they both need each other to exist is what is at the heart of the book. It is described as a noble existence. Everything else, is ‘slave work’.

“’Fish,’ he said softly, aloud, ‘I’ll stay with you until I am dead.’ He’ll stay with me too, I suppose, the old man thought and he waited for it to be light.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.38).

“’You’re feeling it now, fish,’ he said, ‘And so, God knows, am I.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.41).


“Imagine if each day a man must try to kill the moon, he thought. The moon runs away. Bu imagine if a man each day should try to kill the sun? We were born lucky, he thought. Then he was sorry for the great fish that had nothing to eat and his determination to kill him never relaxed in his sorrow for him. How many people will he feed, he thought. But are they worthy to eat him? No, of ourse not, there is no one worthy of eating him from the manner of his behaviour and his great dignity. I do not understand these hings, he thought. But it is good that we do not have to try to kill the sun or the moon or the stars. It is enough to live on the sea and kill our true brother.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.57).

“The punishment of the hook is nothing. The punishment of hunger, and that he is against something that he does not comprehend, is everything.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.58).

“How simple it would be if I could make the line fast, he thought. But with one small lurch he could break it. I must cushin the pull of the line with my body and at all times be ready to give line with both hands.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.58).

“You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother, come one and kill me I do not care who kills who. Now you are getting confused in the head, he thought. You must keep your head clear. Keep your head clear and know how to suffer like a man. Or a fish, he thought.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.71).

“’There is very much slave work to be done now that the fight is over.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.73).

“Then his head started to become a little unclear and he thought, is he bringing me in or am I bringing him in? (…) But they were sailing together lashed side by side and the old man thought, let him bring me in if it pleases him. I m only better than him through trickery and he meant me no harm.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.76).

Then they got hit by sharks, who eat the dead marlin. “He did not look at the fish any more since he had been mutilated. Whenthe fish had been hit it was as though he himself were hit. But I killed the shark tht hit the fish, he thought.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.79).

“You were born to be a fisherman as the fish was bron to be a fish.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.81).

“You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed him for pride and because you re a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.81).

“Besides, he thought. Everything kills everhing else in some way. Fishing kills me exactly as it keeps me alive.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.82).

then the sharks come in groups and he knows there is no chance to bring the fish into the harbour: “’Ay,’ he said aloud. There is no translation for this word and perhaps it is just a noise such as a man might make, involuntarily, feeling the nail go through his hands and into the wood.” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.83).

“He could not talk to the fish any more because the fish had been ruined too badly. Then something came to his head. ‘Half-fish,’ he said. ‘Fish that you were. I am sorry that I went too far out. I ruined us both. But we have killed many sharks, you and I, and ruined many others. How many did you ever kill, old fish? You do not have that spear on your heal for nothing.’” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.89).

“It is easy when you are beaten, he thought. I never knew how easy it was. And what beat you, he thought. ‘Nothing,’ h said aloud. ‘I went out too far.’” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.3).

“’They beat me, Manolin,’ he said. ‘They truly beat me.’ ‘He didn’t beat you. Not the fish.’ ‘No. Truly. It was afterwards.’” (Hemmingway, 1952, p.96).

Shakespeare - Henry V:

The central theme of the book seems to be whether Henry is a good heroic king or just pretending to be good, in order to achieve his goals. Just as in life, the question remains unanswered, but this makes the reading of Henry more interesting. There are a couple of themes that illuminate this question: the morality of the war, Henry’s cruelty, and how Henry addresses his subjects.

The moral grounds of the war against France are extremely shaky: Henry’s claim to the crown of France are solely based on the judgement of an archbishop. This archbishop tries to engage Henry in his war, so he can’t introduce a tax on church income – as the bishop openly admits in the beginning of the play. Thus the morality of everything that follows, the whole war and whether Henry is behaving like a good king or not, is put in doubt right form the beginning. Henry does not acknowledge that: he demands complete obedience, no matter whether the cause of war is right or wrong:
King (disguise as a common soldier): “Methinks I / could not die anywhere so contented as in the king’s company, / his cause being just and his quarrel honourable.
Williams: “That’s more than we know.
Bates: (…) If his cause be wrong our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.
Williams: But if the cause be not good the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at such a place’ (…)
King: So if a son that is by his father sent about merchandise d sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him. Or if a servant, under his master’s command transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers and die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the business of the master the author of the servant’s damnation. Bu this is not so. The king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of his son, nor the master of his servant, for they purpose not their death when they purpose their services.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.163).

Moreover, Henry behaves extremely cruel: “And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his / Hath turned his balls to gun-stones, and his soul / Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance / That shall fly with them; for many a thousand widows / Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands, / Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down, / And some are yet ungotten and unborn / That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin’s scorn.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.96).

Henry to the Governor of besieged Harfleur: “If not, why, in a moment look to see / The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand / defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking aughters, / Your fathers taken by the silver beards, / And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls, / Your naked infants spitted upn pikes / Whiles the mad mothers with heir howls confused / Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry / At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen. / What say you? Will you yield, and this avoid? / Or guilty in defence be thus destroyed?” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.135).

And this cruelty doesn’t stop, when it comes to his own people (i.e. luggage):
King, still unsure whether the battle is won: “But hark, what new alarm is this same? / The French have reinforced heir scattered men. / Then every soldier kill his prisoners. / Give the word through.
Llewellyn: Kill the poys and the luggage! ‘Tis expressly against the law of arms.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.185).

And Henry clearly calls his subjects brothers when he needs them, but sops doing so, once the battle is won: “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more / Or close the wall up with our English dead!” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.125).

Chorus: “O now, who will behold / The royal captain of this ruined band / Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent? / Let him cry ‘Praise and glory on his head!’ / For forth he goes and visits all his host, / Bids them good morrow with a modest smile, / And calls them brothers, friends and countrymen.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.156).

King: “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers - / For he today that sheds his blood with me / Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile / This day shall gentle his condition.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.176).

When counting the dead he makes a clear difference between those of name and the rest. (p.196).
French Montjoy (ambassador): “To sort our nobles from our common men, / For many of our princes – woe the whie - / Lie drowned and soaked in mercenary blood, / So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs / In blood of princes, while the wounded steeds / Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage / Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters, / Killing them twice.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.188).

King: “For I am Welch, you know, good countryman.” (Shakespeare, 1992, p.189).

Advertising Works 20 – Charlie Snow.

Enjoyed it, as usual. This is a year for low budget cases, which is very interesting, as it demands more creativity in proving the effectiveness. The most interesting cases are the first direct case, where the whole advertising idea was to advertise the existing customers’ opinion about the brand. A similar strategy was used to promote tourism in Iceland. Instead of advertising to potential tourist, it was advertised to Icelanders so that they advertise via social media to potential toruists. “the most successful participation-led entries have used consumer participation as a platform for reaching out to less engged consumrs or non-users.” (Mc Kerr in Snow, 2011, p.22).

The Organ Donor Register is another extremely clever case: instead of trying to convince people that they should donate an organ, they were asked by the campaign whether they would b willing to accept an organ in an emergeny. Since 96% agree on this question, they become aware of their hypocrisy of not registering for donation.

And in the introductory papers there is some very clever thinking:
“So how does advertising work then? The answer is that it largely works without forcing people to consider and change their opinions. And this is why much advertising can get away with being very ‘soft sell’.” (Waters and Sharp in Snow, 2011, p.7).

“People have a tendency to see advertising for brands that they already use, and are less likely notice advertising for brands that they do not use. It’s very common for people to report, with some surprise, that after buying a car they notice lots of advertising for thebrand they bought that they did not see previously. This is because we have a tendency to pay more attention to things we like, and we have more developed memory structures for brands we use so it takes kess mental effort to process advertising fr brands we buy. Consequently users of a brand are two to three times more likely to recall its advertising than non-users of the brand (Sharp et. al., 2001). This means that advertising is particularly good at refreshing existing memories; I can do this rather quickly and without us giving the advertising much dedicated attention or deep mental processing.” (Waters and Sharp in Snow, 2011, p.8).

“the effectiveness results that could be claimed by participation-let awards entries were largely related to market share defence. Participation appeared to work best as a means of engaging existing loyalists, soring up or enriching their relationship with the brand.” (McKerr in Snow, 2011, p.20).

Dostoyevsky – The Devils.

The book begins with Like vii 32-36:
“And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the man, and into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled,nd went an told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind: and they were afraid. They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devild was healed.” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.0).

A story that is often used by Rene Girard as an example for the scapegoat mechanism as opposed to Christ’s forgiveness: “If it is by the spirit of god that I cast out demons, the soon there will be no more demons or expulsions for the kingdom of violence and expuslion will rapidly be destroyed. (…) Instead of casting it out he (Jesus) is himself cast out, thereby revealing to men the mystery of expulsion” (Girard, 1986, p.190).

Dostoyevsky’s characters in the Devil try to ‘cast out the demons’ by accepting their own suffering and make themselves suffer as much as possible. Stavrogin, for example:
“’I want to forgive myself. That is my chief purpose, my only purpose!’ Stavrogin said suddenly, with gloomy rapture in his eyes. ‘I know that only then will the apparition vanish. That is why I seek boundless suffering. Seek it myself.’ (…)
‘If you believe,’ Tikhon exclaimed rapturously, ‘that you can forgive yourself and obtain forgiveness for yourself in this world through suffering, if you set that purpose before you with faith, then you believe in everything already. Why, then, did you say that you did not believe in God?’
Stavrogin made no answer.
‘God will forgive you for your unbelief, for you respect the Holy Spirit without knowing him.’” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.703).

There is another stream of thought in the book, most prominently declared by Shatov: he suffers as well, but only to prove his free will over God:

“’What deters people from committing suicicide in your opinion?’ I asked. (…) ‘I-I’m afraid I don’t know much yet. Two prejudices deter them. Two things. Two only. One a very little one, and the other a very big one. But the little one is also big.’
‘What is the little one?’
‘Pain.’ (…)
‘Well, an what is the second reason, the big one?’
‘The next world!’
‘You mean punishment?’
‘Makes no difference. The next world – just the next world.’” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.125).
“’He who conquers pain and fear will himself be a god. And that other God will not be.’
‘So, according to you, the other God does exist, after all?’
‘He doesn’t exist, but He is. There’s no pain in a stone, but there is pain in the fear of a stone.’” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.126).

“’If there is a God, then it is always His will, and I can do nothing against His will If there isn’t, then it is my will, and I am bound to express my self-will.’
‘Self-will? And why are you bound?’
‘Because all will has become mine. Is there no man on this planet who, having finished with God and believing in hs own will, will have enough courage to express his self-will in its most important point? It’s like a beggar who has inherited a fortune and is afraid of it and does not date to go near his bag of gold, thinking himself too weak to own it. I want to express my self-will. I may be the only one, but I’m going to do it.’
‘Do it!’
‘I’m bound to shoot myself, because the most important point of my self-will is to kill myself.’
‘But you’re not the only one to kill yourself. There are lots of suicides.’
‘Those have a motive. I’m the only one to do it without any motive, but simply of my free will.’” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.613).

At the end of the book both character, Stavrogin and Shatov, commit suicide. The latter to declare his free will over god, and the other to finally suffer enough, to overcome his guilt.

Both do not manage to overcome the scapegoat meachnism: one simply tries to suffer for his already committed sins. Thus he can’t reveal the scapegoat mechanism – since he is guilty. Only an innocent vicim canreveal the mechanism. Shatov, on the other hand commits suicide to prove his free wil. He is so self interested in his ‘perfect free will’, that he doesn’t care, what other think of him. To prove that he signs a letter saying he was responsible for a murder. Being completely egocentric, no one will ever know of his innocent suicide (his innocence is perversely only know to the murderers)and thus his disinterest in other people makes him fail to reveal the scapegoat mechanism.

The both are close to unvealing the scapegoat mechanism, and there are passages in the book, that indicate that they found it.

“’Perhaps I haven’t been fair to them! We are all to blame, we are all to blame and – if only we were all convinced of that!’” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.580).

But the tragedy of the book is, that none of the characters finally reveals it. “My desires are never storng enough. They cannot guide me.” (Dostoyevsky, 1953, p.666).

The seven basic plots / Why we tell stories – Brooker 2004

A book that aims to explain to us why we tell stories. It gives a nice summary of the 7 basic plots of stories.

“But in fact there are certain things we can be pretty sure we know about our story even before it begins. For a start, it is likely that the story will have a hero, or a heroine, (…) in the story ultimately rests; someone with whom, as we say, we can identify. (…) We are introduced to our hero or heroine in an imaginary world.” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE).
“Then something happens: some event or encounter which precipitates the story's action, giving it a focus. (…) This event or summons provides the `Call' which will lead the hero or heroine out of their initial state into a series of adventures or experiences which, to a greater or lesser extent, will transform their lives.” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE).
“The next thing of which we can be sure is (…) that the action which the hero or heroine are being drawn into will involve conflict and uncertainty,” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE).
“Finally we shall sense that the impetus of the story is carrying it towards some kind of resolution. (…) Either they end, as we say, happily, with a sense of liberation, fulfilment and completion. Or they end unhappily, in some form of discomfiture, frustration or death. (…) The plot of a story is that which leads its hero or heroine either to a 'catastrophe' or an `unknotting'; either to frustration or to liberation; either to death or to a renewal of life.” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE).

For all types of story holds:
“(1) This begins with an initial phase when we are shown how the hero or heroine feel in some way constricted. This sets up the tension requiring resolution which leads into the action of the story.
(2) This is followed by a phase of opening out, as the hero or heroine sense that they are on the road to some new state or some far-off point of resolution.
(3) Eventually this leads to a more severe phase of constriction, where the strength of the dark power and the hero or heroine's limitations in face of it both become more obvious.
(4) We then see a phase where, although the dark power is still dominant, the light elements in the story are preparing for the final confrontation. This eventually works up to the nightmare climax, when opposition between light and dark is at its most extreme and the pressure on everyone involved is at its greatest.
(5) This culminates in the moment of reversal and liberation, when the grip of the darkness is finally broken. The story thus ends on the sense of a final opening out into life, with everything at last resolved.” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE, L 3913).

“The essential pattern underlying all this, the pattern of any properly constructed story, is therefore that of a threefold ebb-and-flow, in which the swings between the two poles become more pronounced until the climax is reached.” (Brooker, 2004, KINDLE, L 3920).

Thus far, it is a very interesting book. But when it tries to go one step beyond the mere categorization, it wasn’t that convincing at all. When it tried to explain why we tell stories, Brooker argues (in a Jungian framework), that we learn form stories the archetypal roles we can/ should play in life, seems to me quite simplistic. That the archetypes appear in books, no one can deny. But why it should be only those roles, and why there can’t more (less stereotypical) roles is less convincing.

Moreover, being able to find these roles in most stories, doesn’t necessarily add explanatory power – so there is always a feeling, that it is a rather descriptive an not very analytical or even new argument.

And the last step, that we tell stories s we can learn to play these archetypal roles, I finally find patronizing.

So overall, a very interesting first part of the book. Disappointing part 2-end.
PS: i switched to kindle for my business books. hence less good-looking pictures of business books. the good news is: i will buy proper novels only as hardcovers . better pictures of better good-looking books.

Andrew Cracknell – The Real Mad Men 2011

It starts with an interesting forewaord by Sir John Hegarty, that reminds us, why it is important to look at advertising history: “’history isn’t about the past, it’s about the future’.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.7).

And if this book wouldn’t do anything else, it shows why it is worth working in advertising, despite all the bad things it does: the problem is not advertising itself.

“Actually, he problem so many ad people had with Reeves was not so much the USP itself, it was the way he went about implementing it and his utter indifference to the wider effect of his advertising on the public.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.26). “But many inside advertising would argue that this soulless hard-sell approach was working for its advertisers at the expense of advertising as a whole.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.30).

This book shows, that advertising doesn’t have to make the world a worse place. Just as it has the potential to make the world a horrible place, it can also make it a little better: “his (Bernbach’s) beliefs were not just about performance, efficacy and success, but about the role of advertising as an intrusive force for better or for worse in the life of contemporary society.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.12).Bernbach: “All of us who professionally use the mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarise that society. We can brutalise it. Or we can help lift it onto a higher level.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.13).

For example the campaign for Mazzen: ‘You don’t have to be Jewish’: “In one large picture and one simple line they linked one minority - the Jews – to all the other emerging minorities making their presence felt.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.66). “What these ads were doing was signalling a changed relationship between those who would sell and those who would buy. A relationship based not just on respect for the people’s taste but for their intelligence and ability to discern what really mattered in their lives from the purely transitory.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.68). “Hey, we’re (advertiser and consumer) all in this together; you know we’re going to try and sell you something – let’s both enjoy the process.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.13).

The respect for the consumer, brings with it that you should not bore him or her: “Gage, too, carried into DDB this almost neurotic desire to be fresh every time.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.60).

And this brings pride in what the agency does: “There was a new pride – the obsequious ad hustler was dead. In his lace was the assertive new ad man who would happily tell you tha you may know all abou your product, but don’t even think about telling him anything about advertising.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.122).

To sum up:
“You didn’t drive a VW or a Volvo, smoke B&H 100s, holiday in Jamaica, eat at Horn and Hardert or rent a car from Avis because you aspired to it or because you got the girl made you the envy of your neighbours. You did it because it was the clever thing to do. Advertising (…) where it used to flatter your status or your apparent wealth, now I flattered your intelligence. (…) DDB and PKL and Carl Ally and the many that followed removed banality and aspiration from advertising.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.219).

Last but not least the book gives an interesting account of the rise of the holding company by Marion Harper: “So when one advertising agency acquired another, any conflict would have to be resolved, and usually this meant that the smaller of the conflicting accounts would be resigned. This immediately reduced the value of the merger, with two plus two often making no more than three. Then Harper, in his words, ‘turned the management ladder sideways’ and started a practice where the acquired agency would operate independently of the acquiring agency, but they would be financially bound by a holding company above them, the beneficiary of their joint profits. Ridiculously simple. But, amazingly, for advertising it was completely original. (…) Harper figured that though agencies supplied clients with ancillary services like research, promotions advice and publicity, they never charged for them. Because they were located within the agency and were delivered largely by the same team who delivered their advertising, the client perception was that they weren’t a separate service and there should not be a significant fee for them. So his idea was that specialist companies (…) should be set up.” (Cracknell, 2011, p.184).