The Logierian System Possibly 1818

Curator: This etching, potentially from 1818, is titled "The Logierian System, or Unveiling the True Light to ye Musical World!! with the Discovery of a Grand Serious Bassoon in the Old School." It's the work of George Cruikshank, currently residing at the Art Institute of Chicago. What strikes you most about it? Editor: Total chaos! Like a Hieronymus Bosch painting for musicians. It’s a glorious, slightly terrifying mess of tiny figures and thought bubbles... It’s wonderfully frenetic, as if I’m listening to a badly-tuned orchestra. Curator: The "Logierian System" refers to a controversial method of musical education developed by Johann Bernhard Logier. Cruikshank's print satirizes this system, highlighting anxieties about its mechanical approach to music teaching. Editor: Oh, it's satire? Now those bassoons floating in clouds make so much sense. Like angelic flatulence, wafting over the unfortunates below! I get a strong anti-establishment vibe, like those old school musicians with bassoons as heads aren't liking these interlopers at all. The curtain, the presentation… they really set the scene. What's that golden face supposed to be? Curator: I see the face radiating light, likely representing the perceived enlightenment or the grand promise of Logier's system. Cruikshank questions if this unveiling of the "true light" actually offers a genuine musical education, or simply a superficial method churning out musicians, or… worse. And yes, note the reactions of those “old school” bassoons; they feel genuinely threatened! Editor: Yeah, and look at all the texts coming out of the instruments! Musical treatises. They're screaming from musical history... being shouted over by something new and unwanted! Still, one has to admire the artist's intricate and mad vision. It feels…relevant to the commodification of all learning now! Curator: Indeed. Cruikshank masterfully captured a specific cultural moment of change and upheaval within the world of music education and raises essential questions. The system, then like so many 'innovative' systems now, was under enormous pressure to work—almost too much. Editor: It really does lay bare those contradictions, even now. Okay, I’ll never look at a bassoon in the same way again! Curator: Nor I. An afternoon well spent digging through art!