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On the Death of Ideas - retrospectively, I don't know how to feel about this one
Prefatory note: This is a pretty long (~6000 words) - and mediocre - essay about mediaeval music called: 'Was Secularism the Catalyst for Musical Innovation in the Ars Nova?'. It's quite academic but not impenetrably so. My major problem with the piece was its central question being semi-impossible to answer. I came to a conclusion that secularism was a factor that caused notational, rhythmic and other developments in the music of the Ars Nova, but not a 'catalyst' - this isn't a particularly revolutionary discovery to have come by! I did get a near-perfect mark on it (it was a piece of schoolwork, long story short), but to be honest I don't think I deserved it! I began writing with a very rudimentary understanding of mediaeval 'music theory' and notation, which definitely didn't help me !!!!!!
Notes on Ivrea Codex Vague timeline of mediaeval music Was Secularism the Catalyst for Musical Innovation in the Ars Nova?
Prefatory Note: Both of these pieces of flash fiction were rejected during literary magazine submission periods for vague reasons (though I can certainly make a guess as to what was wrong with them), and - to put it bluntly - if I were a litmag editor I would now also reject them. My overly-flowery use of language doesn't make the impact I at the time was hoping it would, the dialogue (which, to my credit, is used rather sparingly) is clunky and unrealistic, et cetera, et cetera... So, you may ask, why exactly am I making available these writings online? They showcase the beginnings of my obsession with madness and the surreal (I can almost confidently say every time I start a new fiction piece that by the end of it there will have been some sort of head-spinning, (purposefully) confused, nonsensical breakdown incorporated into it... does this say something more about me as a person or my writing style?): topics that I'd like to explore both fictionally and non-fictionally. No matter how badly written they are, I do see something in them...
The Melodies of Fear My Sister Conserves Us