In 2004 the Vatican Museum presented an exhibit called “The Colors of White.” What the exhibit showed, in a nutshell, is that our notion that the beauty of ancient Greek and Roman statues lies in their pure, white form is a relatively modern idea, with no basis in historical fact. Scientists working with electron microscopes discovered vestiges of all sorts of bright paint colors on ancient statues, colors that to modern eyes seem hideously garish, and the curators of the Vatican exhibit commissioned reproductions that were painted with those colors.
The results were shocking, to say the least. Well… from there it’s but a short step to the realization that our notions of “truth” in the history of musical ideas and performance practice may not always be quite as solid as we think, and also, perhaps, to the proposition that even if we could turn back the clock, we might not be comfortable with the results.
This has been A Minute with Miles – a production of South Carolina Public Radio, made possible by the J.M. Smith Corporation.
