It is my feeling that we as musicians should be more supportive of every kind of music, and to a larger extent the arts in general. Just like everyone else, I don’t have time to go to every recital and every event that Singletary hosts. But, when I do get to experience things such as the music we listen to in class, I try to absorb and appreciate as much of it as I possibly can. It just astounds me that throughout my career, I have met so many people that have expressed their disliked/hatred for certain types of music. How can a musician say, “I like everything but country music?” Blanket statements like that are just ludicrous. If someone says something similar to that statement, I find that it’s not because they don’t like whatever particular subject they’re talking about, but it’s that they don’t appreciate that type of music or are ignorant of it. And in these rough economic times, how can we as students of the arts not appreciate every other type of art that we are exposed to (especially music!). Because after all, if we can’t appreciate all of music, then how can we expect people that don’t love music the way we do to at least tolerate music (and hopefully to support and patron the musical arts).
I, for one, don’t listen to a lot of country, but I do appreciate it and have a couple of country songs that are in my favorites. But I would never say I dislike/hate country just because I don’t listen to it as much as some other music genres I am more accustomed to listening to. I’m sure if I had grown up with it, I would absolutely love country, but since I have a lack of experience with it, I can only appreciate it and wish I had the time to find even more country songs that I would like.
Hopefully, I haven’t missed the point by using country music as a reference, but as we listen to all these great pieces throughout this class, I’d hate to think that someone would walk away from this class referring to something we’ve listened to any of these pieces in a derogatory way. And I’m not saying that music can’t be described as painful, as long as you appreciate the music that was created that helped you experience pain, because, after all, if you had no reaction to the music that was played, then you probably shouldn’t be a musician.
Paraphrasing John Cage, if you don’t like a 5-minute piece of music, listen to it for 15-minutes. If you still don’t like that piece, listen to it for an hour. If you still don’t like that piece of music, listen to it for 5 hours, etc. Eventually, after enough exposure to a piece, you will appreciate it and possibly even love it.
It’s not that people don’t like a certain type of music; I think that people are just not as experienced with some genres of music. This isn’t uncommon, I’m still ignorant of hundreds of musical genres myself, but when I hear a new/different genre of music, I can no longer say I dislike/hate it, because in the end, I would be saying I dislike/hate the very thing that I love, art.
Anyways, I just hope that I’m not starting a blog-war with this, but I do hope that everyone tries to expand the size of their 2nd circle and try to eliminate their 3rd circle altogether.
I agree with you on many levels however, by saying
ReplyDelete"It’s not that people don’t like a certain type of music; I think that people are just not as experienced with some genres of music"
aren't you denying people the simple right to like/dislike various genres, musicians, and works? In reading several of Duckworth's interviews with various American composers, I have seen examples of composers who clearly state their dislike for a specific genre. Lou Harrison for example says that he hardly listens to records anymore, purely because of his dislike for equal temperament. I may have chosen the exception to rule for this example but I thought I would step up to your challenge to commence a 'blog war'!!!
Niiiice :o)
ReplyDeleteI believe in my heart that, or at least just hope, that these composers didn't dislike the other genres, but were strongly encouraging people to try to expand their 2nd circle to include their own compositions/sounds. I could be completely wrong, but I think that if we were in a musical society that listened to every type of genre, then nobody would be able to dislike any genre.
As for people like Harrison who disliked equal temperament, I think that he was taking a stand against equal temperament to push his style of music. Because, it's much harder to push an idea through to the general public as a pacifist, as opposed to being an instigator. Could his vocalization of not liking the equal temperament system have been a call to arms for people to fight his new system (in thus doing so, they would have to listen to his music to fight it...which, wouldn't that make him the victor in the long run?).
In the end, I try to have a world view of music that I try to have with different cultures, if everyone could appreciate and love everyone else, then there wouldn't be as much fighting. So, maybe the musical world could be the same? I'm not sure. It would take a lifetime to become familiar with every genre of music, but man, what well-spent life-time that would be!
I like the term "blog war," seems like it could of been an episode of Star Trek...you know, how they sometimes show the title of a particular episode before a show starts (like they do in Fraiser).
Good point!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Harrison perhaps made that statement as a sort of 'promotion of his own works'. Funny though, there seem to be several composers who leaned toward this. I mean, just the concept of just intonation seemed to rear its ugly head quite a lot in America during the mid 1900's (Harrison, Harry Partch, La Monte Young, John Adams, Terry Riley). I wonder how much these composers opinions of various styles of music changed with the use of just intonation. I mean, switching between the two has to be a bitch on the ears. I'm sure Gann would know.
I also agree with your world view which I basically summarized as 'Make love not war', or more appropriately, 'make music, not war'.
...and with that pasifist statement...I declare A TRUSE!!!!
Steve Reich:
ReplyDelete" Believe it or not, I have no real interest in music from Haydn to Wagner" (Taruskin Chapter 67 p. 351)
Blanket statement? Ignorance? Self promotion? Mmmmm, tough one
(little white flag blowing in the wind......)
I do enjoy that quote, "Make music, not war." That would be a good bumper sticker for my scooter :o).
ReplyDeleteThat's quite a shocking quote from Reich, I figured he'd love everything...bummer.
I don't know if anyone else is actually reading this particular thread anymore, but I like being able to talk on this forum. In other forums that I was on in high school like Drum Corps Planet, you couldn't have an opinion about anything, and if you did, then someone would just cuss you out for thinking whatever you thought.
Side note: we definitely need to do the "Bring 2 Songs" party with the whole class. That would be much fun!
ABSOLUTELY!!!!! I love the idea of the 'bring a song party', I can't imagine it being anything less than memorable. Of course, liquid courage may be required for this experience considering the extremely wide array of characters in the class.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think anyone else is reading this thread so it gives us free range to say whatever but considering it is accessible, I'll be nice.
Looking forward to hearing about The Cage from The Meyer.