"Atomic facts" : Pandolfi scores Wittgenstein

Like we were saying, Poetry Scores has various composers setting Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophical prose poem Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) to music.

We'll eventually create an index page where the entire score can be followed as it emerges, but for now, in the beginning, we'll post finished mixes as they arrive, in or out of order.

Next up: "Atomic facts" by Carl Pandolfi, which sets to music Proposition 2 through Proposition 2.0123 of the Tractatus.

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Free mp3

"Atomic facts"
(Wittgenstein, Ogden, Ramsey, Pandolfi)
Carl Pandolfi

Produced, composed, recorded and performed by Carl Pandolfi in St. Louis, Missouri.

Carl Pandolfi plays acoustic guitar, electric bass, piano, snare drum, electric guitar and sings all vocals.

 

Executive producer: Chris King for Poetry Scores

Music (c) 2014 Carl Pandolfi

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We are scoring the first English translation of the Tractatus that C. K. Ogden commissioned and published and took credit for, but F. P. Ramsey actually performed, with benefit of Wittgenstein's corrections, delivered personally, mouth to ear, as Wittgenstein liked to do philosophy (poetry). Their translation is in the public domain and posted on Project Gutenberg, but here is the part Carl scored in "Atomic facts."

Just once, listen to the song while looking at the part of the Tractatus it scores.

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from Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
by Ludwig Wittgenstein

translated from German
by C. K. Ogden and F. P. Ramsey

2         What is the case, the fact, is the existence of atomic facts.

2.01     An atomic fact is a combination of objects (entities, things).

2.011   It is essential to a thing that it can be a constituent part of an atomic fact.

2.012   In logic nothing is accidental : if a thing can occur in an atomic fact the possibility of that atomic fact must already be prejudged in the thing.

2.0121  It would, so to speak, appear as an accident, when to a thing that could exist alone on its own account, subsequently a state of affairs could be made to fit.

             If things can occur in atomic facts, this possibility must already lie in them.
         
            (A logical entity cannot be merely possible. Logic treats of every possibility, and all possibilities are its facts.)

            Just as we cannot think of spatial objects at all apart from space, or temporal objects apart from time, so we cannot think of any object apart from the possibility of its connexion with other things.

             If I can think of an object in the context of an atomic fact, I cannot think of it apart from the possibility of this context.


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"From a philosophical point of view, the translation 'atomic fact' is less fortunate than 'state of things,'" says Jaap van der Does, our resident scholar for our Scoring the Tractatus project, "but so be it ..."

Ah, but "atomic fact" is much more fortunate from a poetic point of view!


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The composer and one-man-band Carl Pandolfi is a veteran contributor to Poetry Scores and countless other creative projects and bands, notably The Lettuce Heads. This is the atomic fact of one of his eyes. Him on SoundCloud too.

"Kind of turned out like a cross between TMBG (They Might Be Giants) and Leon Russell, but still mainly Schoolhouse Rock," Carl said of this score.

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The Ogden/Ramsey translation of the Tractatus is in the public domain. The music is (c) 2014 by Carl Pandolfi. Free sharing of this mp3 is welcome, but please consult Poetry Scores for production-quality audio and composer permission before making any commercial use. Thanks!

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PREVIOUSLY ON "SCORING THE TRACTATUS"

Carl Pandolfi scores the title of Wittgenstein's "Tractatus"

Carl Pandolfi scores the title of Wittgenstein's "Tractatus"

Poetry Scores recently announced that we are going to translate Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) by Ludwig Wittgenstein into other media, starting with music.

We have songwriters scoring Wittgenstein's great philosophical prose poem, in the original English translation that Wittgenstein went over personally with the person who did most of the work on it, F. P. Ramsey. The first English translation was commissioned, edited and published by C. K. Ogden, who took sole credit for the translation; but we are giving Wittgenstein, Ramsey and Ogden a shared lyrical credit.

St. Louis composer Carl Pandolfi has finished the first piece of our poetry score, which sets to music the very first part of the poem, and that is the title, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.

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Free mp3

"Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus"
(Wittgenstein, Ogden, Ramsey, Moore, Pandolfi)
Carl Pandolfi

Produced, composed, recorded and performed by Carl Pandolfi in St. Louis, Missouri.

 

Carl Pandolfi sings all vocals and plays Casio auto drumbeat (from a 1990s-era keyboard), electric guitars, electric bass, synthesizer, snare drum and piano.

Executive producer: Chris King for Poetry Scores

Music (c) 2014 Carl Pandolfi

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Carl Pandolfi described his creative process:

I was playing around with the title words using a cheap songwriting toy that Mike Burgett had that "sings" your spoken words for you. One of the funky rhythmic responses stuck in my head and came out as this dance track after I decided to complete it in the style of a quasi-Gregorian chordal chant (organum, loosely).

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The title of Wittgenstein's book, Latin for "Treatise on Logic and Philosophy," was suggested by the English philosopher G. E. Moore (who, with Bertrand Russell, was an early and primary influence on Wittgenstein's thought). We think Moore deserves a share of the credit for the title song as well, since he came up with the title.

Moore was echoing Spinoza's title Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, but we figured we'd leave Spinoza off the songwriting team. Wittgenstein himself preferred his original German title, Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung.

Moore's title for Wittgenstein's poem was scored by St. Louis composer Carl Pandolfi, a longtime contributor to Poetry Scores, among countless other creative projects and bands.

Carl Pandolfi
 

We understand that Wittgenstein's books are shelved in the philosophy section and taught in philosophy departments, but they certainly can be enjoyed (and scored) as poetry. Wittgenstein himself wrote, "I think I summed up my attitude to philosophy when I said philosophy ought really to be written as a poetic composition" (from his personal notebooks, published in Culture and Value, translated by Peter Winch).

The Ogden/Ramsey translation of the Tractatus is in the public domain. The music is (c) 2014 by Carl Pandolfi. Free sharing of this mp3 is welcome, but please consult Poetry Scores for production-quality audio and composer permission before making any commercial use. Thanks!

NOTE:

The Department of Philosophy at the University of Missouri - St. Louis has thoughtfully organized a Talk about Wittgenstein's Tractatus 5:30-8 pm Tuesday, February 25 in Clark Hall Room 411. Professors Waldemar Rohloff and Rebecca Schuman invite anyone to attend and encourage you to prepare by reading the Preface and Propositions 6.4-7 of the Tractatus.