Forays into the Repertory
Conception of music rep in the West based on:
-Core rep: the most important music
-Relationships between groups & individuals in society
-Role of music in performance
Principal Works:
-Obligatory songs; "music everybody knows"
-Weddings
-Birthday
-Graduation
-Christmas
-New Year's
-July 4th
-Sports
-Not "good" music, but well known & pedictable
-Associating art music with ritual nowadays is denigrating
--Even if originally written to be functional, we remove that today
-Masterworks
-Considered "normal;" what everyone needs to know
-Surveyed in basic history & appreciation texts
-Greatness generally determined by largeness & difficulty
-Generally from 1750-1900
Society of Musics:
-Music world is structured like outside world
-Music in core rep reflects social structures
Family
-Instruments (string, brass, ww, perc)
-Choir as model (SATB): strings, saxes, clarinets, etc
-4 part harmony taught & idolized in a way
--Like family structure
Work
-Boss & employee
--Solo & accompanist
--Clear hierarchy
Ruling Class
-"Great" music
-Reflects society when written
-Before 1825 is "best," a good balance of content & form
-Opera & concerto prime examples
Priesthood
-Equality in music
-Like social theory, we like equality even if it doesn't always exist
-Fugues: outside constraints of society
-String quartets: pure, equal parts/insts
Performance:
-Commencement example to "defend" Western art music
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Cook 4
"An Imaginary Object"
What is notation for?
-Conservation: "stop time in its tracks & give a stable, visual form" (51)
-Communication: from person to person, eg composer to performer
-Conception: how composers, performers, historians, etc think about music
Many societies have had a desire to preserve their culture, including music. One reason notation developed.
Notation only tells part of the story.
-Medieval chant: no tempo indication, no notes on vocal production, no exact pitch (53)
-"Modern" Western notation has similar issues: how to perform according to standards of when it was written?
-"Notation conserves music, then, but it conceals as much as it reveals" (55)
Notation represents SOUNDS and THINGS performers have to do to make sounds
Notation has meanings fixed by convention.
Example of a "thing" to do: una corda (56)
Tablature: describes what to do to make the sound (57)
-Guitar music
-Renaissance lute music
-Limited by only working for one instrument
--Cultures with many tabs have less sense of "overall musical tradition" (57)
--As in Chinese music, with qin, yangqin & pip music
Westerns generally associate tabs with "amateurs"
-Autoharp, guitarists who can't read notation
-Transfers to pop, jazz, etc tradition, because they aren't as based on notation as Western art music; is it part of the same tradition as Western classical music?
Western notation assumes that all instruments/music is based on the piano - distance between notes, each note is individual and separate
-Leads to controversies with ethnomusicologists who try to transcribe world music
--Can distort world music to Western standards
--Notation can easily distort Western music too (example of computerized performance & importance of performer) (59-60)
All notations miss out on something, simplify the music, otherwise it would be too complex to read & understand
-Depending on tradition: timbre, rhythm, etc.
Conservation is important, but not only function.
Communication important too.
Score sets up a way for us to think about music, "identifies certain attributes of music as essential" (62)
What is "given" in notation & what's up for interpretation defines a musical culture
Talking about music demands the use of metaphor, even just saying "higher" and "lower" pitch (70). Texture. A "piece" of music.
Notation shows music "moving," but it doesn't actually move. "When we say the music moves, we are treating it as an imaginary object" (70)
Paradox: we experience music in time, but to study, appreciate, manipulate, etc., we pull it out of time into notation.
As with paintings, we can "see" in music experiences. When we study music, we aren't just studying "it" but also ourselves, too.
What is notation for?
-Conservation: "stop time in its tracks & give a stable, visual form" (51)
-Communication: from person to person, eg composer to performer
-Conception: how composers, performers, historians, etc think about music
Many societies have had a desire to preserve their culture, including music. One reason notation developed.
Notation only tells part of the story.
-Medieval chant: no tempo indication, no notes on vocal production, no exact pitch (53)
-"Modern" Western notation has similar issues: how to perform according to standards of when it was written?
-"Notation conserves music, then, but it conceals as much as it reveals" (55)
Notation represents SOUNDS and THINGS performers have to do to make sounds
Notation has meanings fixed by convention.
Example of a "thing" to do: una corda (56)
Tablature: describes what to do to make the sound (57)
-Guitar music
-Renaissance lute music
-Limited by only working for one instrument
--Cultures with many tabs have less sense of "overall musical tradition" (57)
--As in Chinese music, with qin, yangqin & pip music
Westerns generally associate tabs with "amateurs"
-Autoharp, guitarists who can't read notation
-Transfers to pop, jazz, etc tradition, because they aren't as based on notation as Western art music; is it part of the same tradition as Western classical music?
Western notation assumes that all instruments/music is based on the piano - distance between notes, each note is individual and separate
-Leads to controversies with ethnomusicologists who try to transcribe world music
--Can distort world music to Western standards
--Notation can easily distort Western music too (example of computerized performance & importance of performer) (59-60)
All notations miss out on something, simplify the music, otherwise it would be too complex to read & understand
-Depending on tradition: timbre, rhythm, etc.
Conservation is important, but not only function.
Communication important too.
Score sets up a way for us to think about music, "identifies certain attributes of music as essential" (62)
What is "given" in notation & what's up for interpretation defines a musical culture
Talking about music demands the use of metaphor, even just saying "higher" and "lower" pitch (70). Texture. A "piece" of music.
Notation shows music "moving," but it doesn't actually move. "When we say the music moves, we are treating it as an imaginary object" (70)
Paradox: we experience music in time, but to study, appreciate, manipulate, etc., we pull it out of time into notation.
As with paintings, we can "see" in music experiences. When we study music, we aren't just studying "it" but also ourselves, too.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cook 1
"Musical Values"
-What makes music matter to us?
-"Humanly generated sounds that are good to listen to, and that are so for themselves and not merely for the message they convey." (4)
-Cultural context
-National ID
-Youth Culture
-Etc.
-What you listen to can determine who you are (in today's society)
-Music is a "multiplicity of activities & experiences" (5)
-To most people, being a musician does not equal being a listener
-Authenticity (pop/rock/etc world)
-"Covers" aren't authentic
-Bands are expected to develop their own style
-Pop music = bad/inauthentic
-Based on the performer & the work/piece
-Authenticity (Classical world)
-Based on a personal vision
-Same idea of authenticity as in the pop world (music industry)
-Books generally state: music = the composition and the work itself, not the performer
-Value system
-Innovation over tradition
-Creation over reproduction
-Personal expression over marketplace
-"Music must be authentic, for otherwise it is hardly music at all" (14)
-The inherited way of thinking from the past is inadequate today
-ie "music" = Western art music
-Can't do justice to the multiplicity of music & experiences
-Language constructs reality rather than reflecting it
-Idea of music being "works" reflects the industrial society focused on consumer goods
-Production --> distribution --> consumption
-Compose --> perform --> experience (listen/attend concerts)
-Our assumptions on music (17):
-done by highly qualified professionals
-innovation is essential to musical culture
-key players are composers who "generate core product"
-performers are middlemen, between composer & listener
-a select few performers are good enough and become "idolized" as composers for their interpretations
-listeners are passive consumers
-What makes music matter to us?
-"Humanly generated sounds that are good to listen to, and that are so for themselves and not merely for the message they convey." (4)
-Cultural context
-National ID
-Youth Culture
-Etc.
-What you listen to can determine who you are (in today's society)
-Music is a "multiplicity of activities & experiences" (5)
-To most people, being a musician does not equal being a listener
-Authenticity (pop/rock/etc world)
-"Covers" aren't authentic
-Bands are expected to develop their own style
-Pop music = bad/inauthentic
-Based on the performer & the work/piece
-Authenticity (Classical world)
-Based on a personal vision
-Same idea of authenticity as in the pop world (music industry)
-Books generally state: music = the composition and the work itself, not the performer
-Value system
-Innovation over tradition
-Creation over reproduction
-Personal expression over marketplace
-"Music must be authentic, for otherwise it is hardly music at all" (14)
-The inherited way of thinking from the past is inadequate today
-ie "music" = Western art music
-Can't do justice to the multiplicity of music & experiences
-Language constructs reality rather than reflecting it
-Idea of music being "works" reflects the industrial society focused on consumer goods
-Production --> distribution --> consumption
-Compose --> perform --> experience (listen/attend concerts)
-Our assumptions on music (17):
-done by highly qualified professionals
-innovation is essential to musical culture
-key players are composers who "generate core product"
-performers are middlemen, between composer & listener
-a select few performers are good enough and become "idolized" as composers for their interpretations
-listeners are passive consumers
Cook 5
"A Matter of Representation"
-"Picture" theory of meaning: language represents an external reality
-Aesthetics attempts to apply this idea to art/music.
-Leads to "art for art's sake"
-The idea the music represents a reality outside of itself, an absolute truth.
-Wittgenstein & others: language and music constructs reality rather than represents it
-This is antithetical to aesthetics: music's meaning is in what is does, not in what it represents.
-Music is a performing art, not anything static.
-Music is a part of society. It contributes to and is affected by society.
-Aesthetics isn't enough. It leaves a lot out. It's exclusive, elitist, non-participatory.
-Constructivist view: art's purpose is to construct & communicate new perceptions; studying music is also studying your participation in it
-We need both views together, to work in "counterpoint."
-"Picture" theory of meaning: language represents an external reality
-Aesthetics attempts to apply this idea to art/music.
-Leads to "art for art's sake"
-The idea the music represents a reality outside of itself, an absolute truth.
-Wittgenstein & others: language and music constructs reality rather than represents it
-This is antithetical to aesthetics: music's meaning is in what is does, not in what it represents.
-Music is a performing art, not anything static.
-Music is a part of society. It contributes to and is affected by society.
-Aesthetics isn't enough. It leaves a lot out. It's exclusive, elitist, non-participatory.
-Constructivist view: art's purpose is to construct & communicate new perceptions; studying music is also studying your participation in it
-We need both views together, to work in "counterpoint."
Cook 7
"Music & Gender"
-Critical theory works to expose ideologies in everyday life.
-Music institutions construct culture through canonization of repertoire and the importance of Western art music.
-Gender studies in music has brought more attention to women composers & performers, and gives a new lens to view the accepted canon.
-C.T. also used to expose sex & sexuality through music.
-The traditional view of music outside of culture/society is an ideological bias rejected by a number of contemporary scholars.
-Music, and its scholars, are socially constructed, at least partially.
-Critical theory works to expose ideologies in everyday life.
-Music institutions construct culture through canonization of repertoire and the importance of Western art music.
-Gender studies in music has brought more attention to women composers & performers, and gives a new lens to view the accepted canon.
-C.T. also used to expose sex & sexuality through music.
-The traditional view of music outside of culture/society is an ideological bias rejected by a number of contemporary scholars.
-Music, and its scholars, are socially constructed, at least partially.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)