Partly inspired by this, partly inspired by having been interested in hearing reworkings/covers of Oingo Boingo music from various sources (the first relevant because when music was ported to a different platform, it was often redone to take advantage of the better/different sound on the new platform), I've had a learning experience (obvious in retrospect, like many of the best learning experiences) -- given a reference piece of music, different people who are really into it will still hear it differently, latching onto different relations between the notes (on various levels) as significant. Remakes, intentionally or not, tweak these relations based on what the reworker found significant, which is sometimes surprising to people who found other aspects essential. For musical people, this can be particularly jarring - when I'm listening to familiar music I like, I often hear additional voices that arn't there -- elaborations and extrapolations that fit into "spaces" in the song that are added on, usually without any conscious effort, as the songs play in my head over the months/years/etc. Keeping all these straight becomes next to impossible, and it's amusing to think about the difference in perspectives possible on whether this type of understanding leads to better or worse understanding of the original song (perhaps like some of the old debates on meaning in art -- art as communication versus art as memetic content creation versus ...)
Presently rereading Machiavelli's Discourses. Quote/Summary from the editor/translator's intro (Barnard Crick):
A prince or prince-like power is to be found (necessary) in four circumstances:
- When a man is ruthlessly determined to govern in that way and is not stopped in time
- When a state is so hopelessly lacking in virtue or civic spirit that a republic would not work
- When a republic is to be founded from unsuitable material
- When one is to be restored from corruption
