The Sounds and Stories of Musics

every piece has a story and every composer has a life.

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Phillip Glass and a cat.

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Realism in Music

All of the arts have a history of realism and the copying the natural world except for music. It is something that is hard to define. Rameau claimed that tonality was inherent in nature, which can be backed by an argument of overtones and natural harmonics, but as John Cage would argue, none of the sounds of tonality in music can be heard in nature. Music is an art form that seems inherent only in humans (many would also point to some animals for music, but that's for another time). Sure, tonality is what sounds natural to us, it sounds pleasant and it is ubiquitous around the planet. The problem is the words 'natural' and 'realism'. We can either accept that music is not in itself a natural form of art, or find a way to prove that these sounds that we create is in some way related to the natural order of things. But how? The phrases "real music" has been a buzz for hundreds of years, and making something "real" is the goal of countless musicians, if not all musicians. John Cage's use of sounds looked to mimic the literal sounds that he hears in nature, but his music is not widely appreciated like tonality, although one can make the case that some of his music was more real than anything that came before it. 

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George M Cohan

George Cohan isn't really a name that's too familiar with people today, but at the turn of the twentieth century, there were few names as popular as his in entertainment. The remnants of his success has left us with only "You're a Grand Old Flag" and "Give My Regards to Broadway." In his time, there were several popular playwrights, songwriters, singers, and other performers, but none did it all like Cohan. Cohan was an actor, singer, dancer, playwright, songwriter, director, producer, publisher , and theater owner throughout the main part of his career. 

Cohan claimed he was born on the 4th of July, and while we have no proof that he did or didn't, he made sure that everyone knew it. His productions always celebrated the United States. even writing a show named George Washington Jr. His career technically preceded the Broadway musical, and as such his shows lacked serious and sometimes even coherent plots, even claiming that "the masses don't want it." While to us, that seems almost insulting to his audience, his shows were far more popular than his contemporaries. His patriotism managed to bring the masses together while offending almost no one. North and South alike (although they all tended to be of European descent) the people loved his shows. 

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What to Think of the Da-Da-Da-Dumm

What do we think of when we hear those famous first notes of Beethoven's fifth symphony. It doesn't have the same presence that the ninth symphony, even if it is just as well known in our culture. The two ideas that have been given to this melody have been the "fate knocking at the door" and the morse code symbol for the letter 'v' which was the "victory" signal in WWII. Neither of which have much of an impact to many of us. The idea of fate always being with you isn't much of a burden on our lives these days. Victory isn't the same in present war as media has shown the baggage that comes with victory. 

When I listen to the first movement, I get a feeling of an unstoppable force, but what it is I haven't yet figured out yet. I don't know how this piece of music connects with me. A basic element of music is to connect with the listener, but I just haven't figured out how this movement connects with me, only that I know it does. Maybe the four note motive is fate, maybe there is something that's always lurking at my life that I can't stop or prevent. Perhaps we all have one thing that we can't get out of our heads no matter what the situation is. I don't know, so I keep listening. 

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False Ideas in Richard Strauss

The opening to Also Sprach Zarathustra is labelled by Strauss as the "Riddle of the World." It is a question posed that must be answered by the rest of the piece. Each section is an attempt to answer this question or the shame in the failure to do so. This was Richard Strauss' idea of what his tone poem should convey. 

When the prelude to the tone poem is played in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, it is not Kubrick posing a question to the viewers. It is Kubrick's statement of the big answer to life. It is the the statement of what is to come next and the statement of advancement through time. This newer, incorrect use of the fanfare is the way that it is most often used today for the reason that it fits today's culture better than the original use. While those existential questions occupy our 2am conversations, they're not at the core of what our culture wants. Our culture is constantly looking for what's next, whether it's the next car, president, or judge on American Idol. This is how music evolves in order to fit our culture. Had it never appeared in the film in a way that matches a newer culture, it would have fallen out of the public's ear just as so many other great pieces of music.

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False Ideas in Mahler

The Andante movement of Mahler's sixth symphony sounds like a lullaby with gross, crude interruptions of dissonance and painful cries. Mahler's five year old daughter died around the time of the first performance of the piece so audiences have always listened to this movement as the sorrow of Mahler's exploding at the grief over the loss of his daughter. The problem is that his daughter was alive and well at the time he composed the movement. To say that it is his grief over the loss would be demonstrably false, but audiences do not seem to care about the facts when it comes to this piece of music. The myth of his daughter's death inspiring this terrific movement destroys the truth of the sound of innocence being attacked by harsh sounds of reality. 

Audiences want to hear the pain of loss in this movement, not because they get a giggle out of Mahler's struggles (like I do), but because deep down, people want to connect with the composer on a personal level. The loss of a loved one is an experience that most people understand and the feelings are easily provoked. The soul crushing story of Mahler's daughter allows the audience to hurt in a way that brings the listener together with the music and the composer. That connection is what the audience needs to keep listening to this music and to love the music. If that connection is not there, then it remains far away from the audience, behind the glass cover and next to the "do not touch" sign. It is because people have connected with the music that it is able to survive in this commercial world. 

My opinion is to allow this myth to burn into the hearts of the masses. Our job is not to give the audience the facts if they don't know better, our job is to connect ourselves to the audience, to communicate something that can't be done any other way. If by doing that we lose the truth, then so what? If we are able to bring together an audience of complete strangers through a historical myth, then we have created something more meaningful than historical fact.

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hi there! if i may ask, who is your favourite composer and why? also, are there any composers that you would recommend and maybe highlight some their works to check out? thank you so much and have a wonderful day!

Hi! Sorry about the late response here; school is rather hectic these times. So, I always have trouble answering "favorite" questions, because I have a hard time picking favorites for anything. I'm not above having favorites, I'm just a little indecisive with most things in life. That being said, the composers I'm generally the most interested in are the ones I'm currently thinking about or writing about. For right now, that would be Richard Strauss, because I'm writing a paper on the changing receptions of Also Sprach Zarathustra from before its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey and after. Strauss is a great composer for most of the genres that he attempted throughout his life. He's also a breath of fresh air when you study him from the angle of romanticism. When you go through Brahms, Chopin, and Mahler, it's rather refreshing to study a composer that didn't try to unveil the inner workings of his soul into the music; he tended to compose things that centered around whatever he was fascinated by at the time he was working on it. This isn't a black and white thing, however, he would compose his feelings every so often. He would also employ small bits of atonality and polytonality but only for color purposes and I think he was very tasteful in doing so. I'm not against either, but his use is among my favorites. 

For your other question: I think you should check out any modern day composers. Some of the more prominent older ones are John Adams(Transmigration of Souls), John Luther Adams(anything), Tan Dun(water passion), and Chen Yi(anything). I don't know your feelings on Eric Whitacre(Water Night), but I think he'll go down as one of if not the most important composer today for garnering interest in classical music, and especially choral music. Check out the New Music Box blog and Alex Ross' blog as well. They will direct you to so many composers past and present better than I can. For past composers, check out Louis Moreau Gottschalk (Banjo and Caribbean Nights),John K Paine, George Chadwick, and Amy Beach. You'll find that each of these are American composers from the 19th century, it's sort of my favorite time. 

Let me know if these work out for you, or if you want me to recommend composers from other parts of the world!

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Myth Vs Reality

Most of us don't remember when we first heard of Beethoven. He's been a figure that's been present our entire lives like George Washington or Dracula. We know he was deaf and we know he wrote the "Ode to Joy" but most people don't know all that much more about him. 

The most important thing about Beethoven is that our image of Beethoven isn't correct, but that's why he is so important. The heroic god of music Beethoven will forever be more important to society than will the old jerk that played his music too loudly in a duplex. Mahler was not intimidated by the man that wrote music constantly to make a living, he was horrified at having to compose with the god of all composers looming, casting a shadow on all future attempts at writing music. 

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PBS! Is Dubstep Avant Garde Musical Genius?

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JS Bach - Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Almost always done on the organ, the Toccata and Fugue was popularized by Leopold Stokowski and his transcription for orchestra. It raises the question of whether this is a creation of Bach's after it has been changed so much.

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Where does the music exist?

This question of how much authority should be given to the score is vital to answering how music exists in the world. If music is a "sound art" that relies on the passing of time, is it so that the art is recreated every time it is performed and ceases to exist while it is not being performed or heard? Technically, the existence of Brahms' first symphony can manifest itself an infinite number of times anywhere in the universe. The score is a guide to create the art, but if the art is something entirely separate from the pieces of paper on a stand, then how much credit do we give to the score? In an instance in which the conductor learns the piece by ear and never uses the score, does he learn in incorrectly? If he knows every second of every part but never looked at the score, can it be that he really gives any credit or authority to the score at all? It is standard and custom for conductors to study the score for a performance, but is it fully correct to study something that is not the actual art, to study the art? Lastly, is music something that cannot be studied by its own inherent nature of being an art of sound and time?

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NPR

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The Score

The score is what we use to know which sounds to produce to create the music the composer wanted to make. The twentieth century saw a time in which the score was the centerpiece of the entire composition. Twelve-tone and total serialism elevated the importance of the score above individual interpretation; Stravinsky claimed that all interpretive material needed was explicitly noted on the score. This changed how people, especially musicians, chose to perform the music. When performing Beethoven, the conductor might stick to every note on the page and create a perfect metric order to the piece that to many, has robbed the spirit of the piece. To other, the simplicity of the interpretation has given the music a whole new meaning. This change in thinking shows just how important we view the score versus the actual music that it represents.

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NPR

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Pavane pour une Infante Défunte (1910) – Maurice Ravel

Translated as “Pavane (type of courtly dance) for a Dead Princess,” the Pavane is not actually dedicated to a deceased princess as the title might suggest (the title was picked simply for its alliterative sound when spoken); Ravel said it was “an evocation of a pavane that a little princess might, in former timers, have danced.” While it is not an homage to a dead individual, it is more for a dead idea or time, a longing for an unattainable past existence that Ravel would never be able to experience. The music itself carries the weight of nostalgia, a lament for this lost time. The pavane is still a dance, however, and carries an image of a young princess peacefully dancing in a hall without any cares of the world burdening her, and the memory of her dancing lives on through this music.

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First Attempt for Symphony No. 9 - Ludwig van Beethoven

There are very few people that would pick Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as their favorite piece that they’ve heard or performed, but it does not change the fact that it is the one that everyone knows. For whatever reason, throughout history people have hovered around the symphony in awe and worship. The “Ode to Joy” melody is hummed by children that don’t know where they learned it. It is a melody ubiquitous in our culture and is without doubt the most famous classical melody ever crafted.  The symphony has been used as propaganda for the Nazis, a call for world peace, the anthem for the European Union, the great masterpiece of A Clockwork Orange, and for credit card commercials. There is simply no other piece of music that calls to the masses and asserting its presence to be heard.

The first movement seems to start as almost a genesis story, as the orchestra creates an atmosphere similarly heard during tuning. The open fifths create an ambiguity of the future, though the piece is technically in D minor, it is not known to the listener yet. This allows for a key to grow from the sound, as if the life of the symphony is beginning and gaining an identity. The arrival of the D minor sounds an alarm that was not expected, and in contrast to the opening peace. The opening open fifths return but this time we are prepared for the upcoming turmoil, and the music forces itself through the struggle. A newer section of bliss comes but it is not to be trusted, the turmoil was never resolved, it just left and it has to return whether we want it or not. The movement continues through a struggle of bliss and adversity, but the presence of the struggle always seems greater, as if Beethoven is telling us “such is life.”

Molto Vivace is the famous scherzo, starting with two blows from the orchestra, disturbingly reminiscent of the first movement’s struggle. The movement charges forth with a jovial vitality that is lacking in the first movement, but its forced forward motion is obsessive and refuses to break. The music even attempts a rest, but fails and is followed by a hushed fugue on the main melody and attacked by blows from the timpani and overtaken by the melody in a panicked state. For remainder of the movement there exists a struggle to stop and rest, but the music has to continue exhausting the theme that only continues to survive out of force of will. Life goes on and we are forced into the time that we’re allotted and forced into the world that we were never able to choose.

The Adagio Molto e Cantabile finally achieves rest. The orchestra is in a tranquility that cannot be disturbed. The melody is slow and sings to the air of its own peace not needing any confirmation of its state. The movement is only disturbed by its juxtaposition following the previous two movements that ended with panic and dismay. The movement remains in peace, not bothered by the horrors of life, it is an instant in life in which all problem are not ignored, but irrelevant, that there is nothing that can disturb this period of time. Again, Beethoven is saying “such is life,” there will always be times of solace amidst times of struggle. It is not in denial, the pain will come back in time, but for now nothing will intrude in this oasis of time.

The fourth movement shatters the peace that brought such warmth and shoves the music into the harshness of its own reality. It was only a matter of time before realities make themselves known. Each of the previous three movements are present in this part of the movement, going through all the stages of life once again, from birth through maturity and all of the struggles that were associated with those times of grief and peace alike. A new melody appears, the famous “Ode to Joy” melody appears from all of this struggle and conflict, coming to take charge of all that is happening. The theme is so different from the rest of the symphony that it is almost as if it is coming from elsewhere from one’s own self, and a savior is here. The shattering theme from the beginning of the movement attempts to take over once again, but is quickly admonished by a declaration from the baritone solo: “O friends, not these tones! Rather, let us tune our voices in more pleasant and more joyful song.” Freude is the word heard the most clearly in chorus: Joy. The soloists and the chorus sing together in the melody of salvation that we have already heard, preaching joy to the sorrows of life. The mood created by the chorus with the new melody and conviction is euphoric. There is nothing that can contend with the power of this newfound joy. A victory march follows with the salvation theme, making it known that victory is already at hand. There are remaining hints of darkness attempting to plague the joy, but each attempt is thwarted by progressively transcendent themes and chorales, showing that the salvation is beyond a change in attitude or even a life, but that it is gloriously divine and cannot be broken. The movement continues in like manner until the soloists sing a slow quartet of peace, announcing to the world its presence and its final victory with no fear, anxiety or doubt. The piece concludes with a fanfare sound signaling that there is a future but that all is well. It is mostly unneeded as the result of the story is known, but life will go on and that must be known.

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How Important are Music Critics?

It seems that throughout history there have always been people that society has agreed upon as being knowledgeable about the arts. Even as far back as Socrates and Aristotle were there people that considered themselves knowledgeable enough to tell people what is good and bad art. Throughout history there have been people were famous for their reviews of compositions and performances from John S Dwight, ETA Hoffman, Robert Schumann to today with Alex Ross. Are these critics useful? Is there really a standard by which we must look to to critique music? Or are our modern critics aware of the subjectivity of judging art these days? These are questions that we ask and really have to wonder about who we let sway our opinion, or if we allow our opinions to be swayed in the first place. It doesn't have to be a music critic, it can be our band teachers, friends, professors or just some guy that looks like he knows what he's talking about. Generally, the people we listen to says more about ourselves and our own ideas than it does about any actual standard of art. If we're really into contemporary music, we're going to listen to music journalists advocating for performances of new music. If we really hate new music, you're going to tend towards older critics and journals, maybe just some younger people that love the classics. Sometimes you go against the grain from what you enjoy, but generally only for somebody that you believe can justify his/her own judgments.