Sonic Revelations, Sonic Revolutions

In class on Wednesday, I think one of the main ideas the discussion was heading towards was how composers are influenced by other music and how recordings have affected this.  Obviously composers have always been influenced by the music of other composers.  Brahms and Beethoven came up.  Where our discussion was heading, I think, was whether the degree of idea circulation allowed by recording has put a choke hold on musical creativity.  One fear from the article was that eventually we would reach a point where there was no ground yet uncharted, and all music would be regurgitation of the past.  Though I may be biased (I prefer Sgt. Peppers to Rubber Soul and Gould’s later recording of the Goldberg Variations to his earlier one) I don’t think that recording can really have such a negative influence on creativity.  The easy circulation of ideas has lead to an explosion of creativity. Just as Professor Alegant pointed out earlier in the semester, before the mid 20th century, there were clear strands and movements to follow in music, afterwords, it’s the Gordian knot.  As for putting a maximum on the total number of musical ideas possible, there will always be visonaries who can jump out of the system and create something new.  Merzbow is one.  I believe it was an earlier article of Ross’s which told of how Masami Akita simply decided to abandon all of his previous musical training to create an entirely new sound that broke all of the rules.  Were it not for Akita’s easy access to other music, how would he have known what to abandon?  Ultimately, I don’t think we will ever reach the end of musical (or artistic for that matter) creativity. Ever.  The more we explore, the more we will find that has yet to be explored.  Recording simply accelerates the process, just as modern technology has accelerated our learning in everything else.

 A lot of the music we’ve been listening to recently, such as Stimmung and Scelsi, has been described as primordial. This minimalist and experimental style of music challenged, once again, my perception of the difference between music and sound or noise. On the other hand, we also listened to the Anonymous 4’s wrenchingly beautiful interpretation of a Medieval love song. The contrast between, say, Scelsi and the Montpellier Codex, is stark in many respects, and I wanted to explore further the differences that lay in music that aims to sound ancient, and music that ancient society actually produced. (Doubtless there are songs that range from further back than the Medieval times, but I will use the Anonymous 4’s song for comparison here.)        What got me thinking about this was Alex Ross’s article “The Messenger: Giacinto Scelsi Discovered a World in One Note,” in which he glorifies Scelsi and his a-tonal compositions. Ross expresses his admiration for the music by elevating it and its composer to deified heights: “… the Tone is all-powerful once more.” “… considered himself a ‘messenger’ or ‘medium,’ and ” …a cult figure among younger composers: he makes the eternal new.” I agree with Ross on the counts that Scelsi’s music is unique and interesting. The idea of the primordial, for me, comes from the fact that a multitude of textures and sounds rise out of just one note, almost like the big bang theory, or any other creation idea. The Medieval song, on the other hand, has none of the tense or anxious quality of Scelsi, or for the matter Stimmung’s, work. The singers worked hard to perfect a “pure” style of singing, without any dips or vibrato in their tone. Contrary to the generally tune-less Scelsi, “Puisque bele dame m’eime” is all about arching melody.  But when does melody and “melody formed from noise,” as Ross describes Scelsi’s music, begin to differentiate? I think that the Medieval composers were focused on creating pleasant music that would entertain a court, as a love song would. Abstract, minimalist music would probably be the very last thing those people were looking for. Scelsi and Stimmung’s music, on the other hand, is narrative in the sense that they are trying to convey stories in ways that simultaneously were completely new and different, but also universal at the core.