At 1:32 AM -0500 1/29/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
In order to stretch beyond the already-familiar, audiences need to
do some work, which starts with arts education in the schools,
public funding, and all the rest of it. And it's the job of music
educators to motivate people to exercise their brains a little, and
accept that that's part of the process of experiencing art. This is
not the same thing as saying that all "difficult" art is worth the
effort. But some of it is, and in any case, "relaxation" is not the
goal.
--David A. Lawrence
David, with all respect for your opinion and your belief, I believe
you just put your finger on the single biggest problem with 20th
century "art" music. It's like "take Latin because it develops your
mind." It's the mindset that (a) anything worthwhile requires hard
work, and that (b) anything that doesn't require hard work is not
worthwhile. As an example of circular reasoning it is brilliant. As
a description of reality it is not.
Music's power is its ability to speak directly to the emotions, not
in the metaphysical way put forth by the ancient Greek philosophers
with their doctrine of ethos ("Well, ya got trouble my friends, right
here in River City"), but through the composer's and performers'
ability to push both the emotional buttons that are hard-wired in our
brains and the emotional buttons that we learn within our culture.
It is the composer's responsibility to find ways to do this. It is
not my responsibility to take over his responsibility when he proves
unable to do so.
Each and every style period in our view of music history has ended by
becoming more complex, more convoluted and involuted, and more
difficult for the average listener to understand and enjoy. And
each and every style period has begun in reaction to that by
returning to simplicity and emphasizing melody. And at each
transition point in history it could be--and probably was--argued
that the listeners simply weren't doing their homework and would
understand the complexities if they would only work at it. But it
has always been simplicity and melody that has won out, because
complexity was only for the small in-group. It happened in the early
15th century, with the beautiful soaring melodies of DuFay and
Binchois. It happened in the early 17th century, with the
introduction of monody. It happened in the mid-18th century with the
Pre-Classical and Classical return to accompanied melody. And I
believe that it happened again in the early 20th century, but we're
still too close to see it.
My premise is that the entire 20th century in "art" music is simply
an extension of the complexity of late Romanticism, kept on life
support by an "arts" industry and an academic culture that held the
power to extend the life of various kinds of complexities which
clearly, at this remove, did lose the ear and the appreciation of the
average listener. And to what did the middle classes turn in this
situation? (And Andrew's comment on the explosive growth of the
middle classes, not only in North America but certainly as an
important and unprecedented social phenomenon here, is well taken and
absolutely true.) The audience turned to simplicity and to melody,
in the form of American Popular Music and the melodies of Irving
Berlin, the Gershwins, Cole Porter, and all the other giants of the
Golden Age of Tin Pan Alley.
What is happening to that Popular Music in the early 21st century
would make an interesting study. Commercialism rules, of course, but
it always has. Modern communications simply makes it easier and
quicker for it to act. Already jazz--at least the cutting edge of
it--has lost its middle class audience and become too complex for
that audience either to understand or to enjoy. And enjoyment is the
key. People are attracted to music they enjoy. They always have
been and they always will be. Note that this is not a value
judgement as to whether the music they enjoy is "good" music or "bad"
music, a mistake which too many apologists for "art" music do make.
The market is the market, and the public votes with its feet and with
its credit cards for the music it enjoys. And in terms of income
generated and seats filled, "art" music is what, less than one
percent of that market? Sounds pretty close. A sub-sub-sub-culture
at best. That I happen to be a member of that sub-culture is
irrelevant. I can still see and interpret what is happening. And
no, I don't want to know that a new piece uses quartal harmonies or
the world's cleverest tone row or calls for the Theremin in a new
way, I just want that music to speak to me and invoke a response in
me. Some music's got it, and some don't!
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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