Monday, March 16, 2009

Ladies and Gentlemen, Elvis has left the building


I’m getting to that stage in my learning this semester where things are starting to make a lot more sense. I’m able to compare the various innovations of American composers and I can identify time periods and specific historical events with their developments in twentieth century music. Often in class, I play very simple ‘word association games’ with myself to make sure I’m still on the ball. Just a snippet…

Ives – Concord, insurance, four musical traditions, quotations, masculinity
Griffes – Debussy
Varese – French, tape recorder, Ionization, Poem electronique
Cowell – polystylism, American 5, inside piano
Partch – new instruments, 43 pitches, talking/singing
Nancarrow – prepared piano, Mexico
Harrison – bang on anything

And when I’m feeling super challenged, I try to find random connections:

Back to resonant sounds:  
Partch new instruments Young  retuning piano
New 43 pitches pure sine waves, drones
Day jobs outside music:  
Ives insurance Griffes teacher
Deep spirituality:  
Cage dadism Young Fluxus
‘Father of electronic music’: Nancarrow
‘Father of minimalism’: Young
Alternative tuning: Young, Harrison, Nancarrow, Partch, Riley

But all that aside, I HAD TO SHARE my most recent memorable American experience with you. On Saturday night I found myself in a small church hall in Harrodsburg with my husband and in-laws. No, I wasn’t at a ‘revival’! I was witnessing my first Elvis impersonator concert. Dressed from head to toe in a bejeweled white jump-suite with bling on every finger, I was serenaded by The King himself singing I can’t help falling in-love with you. Not really knowing a lot of the tunes, I found my mind wondering back to class discussions…. Innovators, traditions, and American music…..So I thought I would consult my newly acquainted associate, Kyle Gann and see if he had ANYTHING to say about Elvis Presley and his influence on shaping American music. Sure enough, I stumbled on an article written in the New York Times by Bernard Holland upon the release of American Music in the Twentieth Century.

“The important events in American music do seem to share a common formula: put two old and very different things on a collision course, and something new often appears. In rock-and roll, black power meets white power (Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry)”

Kyall also wrote a very interesting insert on his blog in 2007 http://www.artsjournal.com/popcorn/2007/09/remembering_elvis.html

But the purpose of me including this is really to explore more of the historical context in which the composers we have focused operated. It's easier for me to recall dates when I have relevant associations with them. Several very significant events that closely preceded the innovations of Partch, Young, and Cage included the influence of European composers domiciling in the USA, the resistance of American public to hear music of Germany and Italy post World War 2, and the patriotism of the American audience, to name just a few. Of course there is also the influence of spirituality, Vietnam, and Freudian thought. All of these can be associated with at least one of the composers we have studied so far and definitely makes it easier for me to understand the context of their work.

I can’t help thinking that perhaps there is a stronger association between developments in genres such as Rock and Roll and Blues with “twentieth century classical music” (for lack of a better term). Perhaps, if anyone else reads this blog, they could shed some light on this for me.

P.S
Thank you to all of you for listening so intently to my presentation last week. That was without a doubt, one of the scariest things I’ve done this year. And now that it’s over, I can continue on my journey of discovering the music of La Monte Young without the pressure of a looming presentation. I am truly fascinated by the man and his music. Thank you to you Dr. Brunner for instigating my journey…
Have a fantastic Spring break Ya'all!!!

4 comments:

  1. I too have wondered about the connection between the development of art music and the development of popular music—especially considering a great deal of art music was popular when it was written.

    I suppose my intuition tells me that as composers wished to write music that was increasingly inaccessible to the vast majority of people, it comes as no surprise that these people turned to music to which they could relate. That, coupled with recording mass dissemination of the burgeoning consumer culture, made for a fork in the road of musical development.

    The interesting element is how these two are coming back together in a lot of music being written now. You have a number of art-music composers (I'm thinking particularly of Eric Whitacre, since I'm getting ready for my presentation) who sometimes blend popular sounds, techniques, and styles into their compositions. You also have popular figures like Josh Groban, whose albums incorporate a great deal of traditional elements and orchestrations into their mass-marketed franchises.

    Maybe that's not where you were going with that thought, but that's where my mind went when I read it. =)

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  2. I think the entire Elvis impersonator culture is fascinating. There have been numerous iconic figures in American music, but who would have thought that the Elvis impersonators would reign supreme? Why is it that The King has retained his popularity 30 years after his untimely death? How come the Sinatra impersonators haven't been as successful. What made impersonating Elvis a legitimate livelihood in this country?

    Some people abhor Wikipedia, but here's an article about this phenomenon:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_impersonator

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  3. I think there are two reasons elvis immitators are more popular than Sinatra innovators:

    1. Elvis's costumes are more fun to watch and mock
    2. Elvis's voice is easier to impersonate AND mock.

    Besides to be a good sinatra impersonator, you need THE VOICE and the ability to look good in a suit and a fedora. As an elvis impersonator, you just need a severe lack of shame.

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  4. "Grotesque transcendence," is how Kyle Gann ended his long and interesting article on Elvis, in talking about Elvis near the end (singing "Unchained Melody" at the piano, looking like "a creature out of a Hollywood monster film"). Perhaps it is the grotesqueness that draws people to imitate "the King?" Or is it the transcendent part? In any case, it is a bizarre American phenomenon that has long since gone global. (I told the class about my trip through the mountains of Ecuador in 1984, and finding a big poster of Elvis in a remote truck stop!)
    I read both Gann's article and the Wikipedia article. Amazing, really, this culture of celebrity and how people get mesmerized by it.
    In any case, I loved your post, Nicola, from the word associations to the King himself. Especially the way you are sharing your learning process with the rest of us. It is very inspiring to me, and I am sure to others in the class--at least the ones who are posting!
    I think I should make a separate post about a learning community (repeating myself, no doubt), rather than just bury it in a comment here and there.
    It would be very interesting to base a class discussion on word associations, as you have done, since when we hear a name of a composer we are even vaguely familiar with, associations pop up in our mind (prejudices? predispositions?). For me Cage: gentle, receptive, Zen, silence, kindness. Wouldn't it be interesting to base a discussion on these collective key words? Well, assuming that everyone was informed about the music and the person. Would "Who Cares if You Listen" sum up Babbitt? That would be a prejudice based on hearsay, or how some wild editor summed up Babbitt's article. Babbitt and Elvis? Whada you know!

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