Emerging from stupor

Q1 Arts and Humanities

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics Pub Date : 2022-01-01 DOI:10.1086/721447

Nicola Gess

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Abstract

When thunder strikes, Papageno cries out and drops to the ground: “A terrible chord with all instruments. Thunder, lightning, and banging; at the same time two powerful thunderclaps . . . Papageno: ‘Alas! Alas! Alas!’ He falls to the ground.” When asked to get up, he refuses: “I am lying in a faint!” Tamino, however, remains unshaken. Thunder and lightning, fear and terror—nothing can turn the hero of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (1791) from the course of virtue and wisdom. This article will tell the Enlightenment’s story of humanity’s emergence from thunder: from a terrible thunder storm in the German town of Greifswald to despotic rulers on the opera stage and finally to the spectacles of the so-called thunder house. Thunder is not a single acoustic event but an interplay of several sounds that can be distinguished as bangs, rollings, and echoes. The actual thunderclap, which suddenly startles us, is produced by an explosion. When lightning passes through humid air, it heats up very quickly and expands in a shock wave. These shocks can occur in quick succession, and individual components of their frequency travel at various speeds to create the characteristic rumbling of thunder that invites anthropomorphization (as a roar, for instance). This unique sound quality is central to the cultural history of thunder, as is its multimodality: thunder is necessarily preceded by lightning, with its enormous destructive potential. Thus, thunder appears as an acoustic indicator of impending destruction. Even

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从昏迷中苏醒

当雷声响起时，帕帕杰诺大叫一声，倒在地上：“所有乐器都发出了可怕的和弦。雷声、闪电和砰砰声；与此同时，两声强有力的雷声……帕帕杰诺道：‘唉！唉！哎！’他倒在了地上。”当被要求起床时，他拒绝了：“我昏倒了！”但塔米诺仍然不为所动。雷电、恐惧和恐怖——没有什么能让莫扎特的《魔笛》（1791）中的英雄偏离美德和智慧的道路。这篇文章将讲述启蒙运动关于人类从雷电中崛起的故事：从德国格雷夫斯瓦尔德镇的一场可怕的雷雨，到歌剧舞台上的专制统治者，最后到所谓的雷屋。雷声不是一个单一的声学事件，而是几种声音的相互作用，可以区分为刘海、翻滚和回声。真正的惊雷是由一次爆炸引起的，它突然吓了我们一跳。当闪电穿过潮湿的空气时，它会迅速升温并以冲击波的形式膨胀。这些冲击可以快速连续发生，其频率的各个分量以不同的速度传播，产生特征性的雷声，引起拟人化（例如，咆哮）。这种独特的音质是雷电文化史的核心，它的多种形式也是如此：雷电必然先于雷电，具有巨大的破坏潜力。因此，雷声似乎是即将到来的破坏的声学指标。即使

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来源期刊

Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics Arts and Humanities-Visual Arts and Performing Arts

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期刊介绍： Res is a journal of anthropology and comparative aesthetics dedicated to the study of the object, in particular cult and belief objects and objects of art. The journal brings together, in an anthropological perspective, contributions by philosophers, art historians, archaeologists, critics, linguists, architects, artists, and others. Its field of inquiry is open to all cultures, regions, and historical periods. Res also seeks to make available textual and iconographic documents of importance for the history and theory of the arts.