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Topic: Saturday morning musings on the nature of music |
Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 4:44 am |
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Saturday morning musings on the nature of music and composition.
Some of the recent conversations and debates on the forum, as well as my own evolution as a musician, have gotten me thinking about the changes in music as we head further into the 21st century. None of these thoughts are fully formed yet, more food for thought:
Music, to a great degree, is determined by our world view. In ancient asian cultures, certainly musical scales were associated with certain political regimes and certain scales were banned all together. This related to a world view filled with war lords, emperiors, and strong sense of the importance music notes in ones spiritual life.
Western music also grew out of a world view with man in the center of the universe, a romantic, almost childlike view of the cosmos. The development of western music along more and more harmonic complexities reflected that view I think. While in Africa, a different world view created a music based on rhythm rather than harmony.
In the 20th century, within the “serious” music realm and within popular music such as jazz, we have seen the foundations of western music slowly knocked out: first harmony grew more and more complex until suddenly it is abandoned completely. And suddenly we see music abandon melody, harmony, rhythm, either in the randomness of John Cage or the free jazz movement of the 60’s onward.
Today our world view is much different than in the time of the pre-renaissance. It is much more pluristic, more integrated, less homogenized, and there has been radical changes in everything related to the digital age.
In my own musical life, I find myself moving away from composition based on western ideas of harmony and melody, and more towards what I’ll call “make something happen that is interesting at all times.” Key to this is a shift that I have been making towards electronic based instruments vs acoustic based. I’m finding great creative freedom in playing with effects from my lap steel plugged into my Pod x3, and playing with sounds, almost stringing sounds together, with the aesthetic of making something interesting happen at all times, with less concern about harmonic and melodic structures.
In the 21st century, this movement started in mid 20th century, has moved away from the academic and esoteric/radical experiments of Cage, Babbitt, et al and has moved into the popular realm. Hip Hop for instance is much more based on digital “found objects”, a beat, and a groove. The sound of a piece of music (the effects, pedals, delays, etc) has become a glue holding a composition together, whether it is pop, rap, or straight ahead rock and roll.
We have moved from a spiritually based world into a digitally constructed world and this is a tsunami like shift in the world view we create music from. When I was born, the old world view was solidly in place and things like Bernstein’s Concerts for Young People reflected that.
Today though, those coming up, have a much different view of the world and thus music (which is tied to world view) to the point where it is often hard for those of a certain age to comprehend.
I have more to say on this but I’ll stop there and see how the conversation evolves from here. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 6:26 am
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| Hip Hop for instance is much more based on digital “found objects”, a beat, and a groove. The sound of a piece of music (the effects, pedals, delays, etc) has become a glue holding a composition together, whether it is pop, rap, or straight ahead rock and roll. |
When you say, "found objects," would you be referring to the current practice of sampling? That, to me, is musical plagiarism, and doesn't have a thing to do with creativity in any way. |
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Dave Mudgett
From:
Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 7:16 am
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Found art: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Found_art
I agree with the concept that found art can be used in the creative process - the significance of art always depends on its context, and placing something found in an artistic context is art. To me, there is craft and art, and they are often together, but not always.
The term 'plagiarism' typically means something like that found in dictionary.com:
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the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work. |
If a sampler used someone else's creation without proper royalty payment or acknowledgment, that would be plagiarism. But my sense is that most hip-hoppers are very careful to not only pay proper royalties, but often extol the source and sometimes bring them much-deserved mainstream recognition that they didn't really receive in their time. I think one needs to distinguish between true plagiarism and properly using the work of others in one's own work. Almost everybody uses the work of others in their own work.
For me - craft is probably the most interesting part of the music creation process, so I don't think I'd be satisfied to just sample and arrange the music of others. But on the other hand, I'm not opposed to using the contributions of others - in fact, I greatly prefer ensemble playing to simply playing by myself. On a recording, I would not be philosophically opposed to using something from another source if I felt it added something important.
Historically in Western Europe, the church was a key part of the power structure, and had a great deal to say about what was acceptable in music vs. what was not. To me, music is always related to the culture, and culture is always related to the power structure - that still goes. What has changed is that the power structure is more distributed, and at least in the so-called 'free world', people are more empowered to do what they please, regardless of what anybody else says is acceptable.
In spite of all this, I don't really think that 'free' music has made many inroads in commercial popular music. In fact, I think the vast majority of created music is largely or even entirely derivative, for light entertainment and amusement purposes only, and that's fine. I'd say most of the population is largely existentialist these days, and we find our own meaning in things, but of course guided by other influences. I think it's hard to get out of the box - hell, I think a lot of times it's hard to even see that there's a box. But to me, that's just the human condition. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 8:39 am
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| I think one needs to distinguish between true plagiarism and properly using the work of others in one's own work. |
Right, Dave. Kind of the point I was trying to make when referring to Bill's term, (digital) "found objects." |
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Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 9:17 am
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I don't think in this day and age you have to equate digital "found objects" with plagiarism. There are digital "found objects" every where. There are tones, and drum loops, and background tracks for just about everything. I know a woman who is a successful composer (she performed 8 of her songs on a recent HBO special) doesnt' know how to compose in the traditional sense. She gets a drum machine, plays with it until she gets something she likes, overlays vocals: composition without having to know how to play drums, write music, arrange. The drum machine in this case is just another digital found object she picks up and creates with.
But even with samples in hip hop, these days, everyone is compensated for their work in one way or another. Sampling is much like an homage in many cases, much like a sax player would drop in Charlie Parker's solo from Scraple in the Apple into a Honeysuckle
Rose solo. He is sampling the solo and it is part of the tradition and culture. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 10:54 am
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| yeah....when i think 'rap' i think law-abiding, honest and forthright first of all! |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 10:56 am
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| ......scrapple from the apple...... |
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Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 11:06 am
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| Right. |
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Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 11:09 am
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| yeah....when i think 'rap' i think law-abiding, honest and forthright first of all! |
Well, to be honest, I don't think of "law-abiding, honest and forthright" when I listen to rock, country, and a number of other genres of music. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 3:15 pm
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| But even with samples in hip hop, these days, everyone is compensated for their work in one way or another. |
Bill, Google 'sampling lawsuits.' I guess that could possibly be considered the 'other way' in terms of compensation. |
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Bill McCloskey
From:
Nanuet, NY
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 6:56 pm
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| Either way, let's not make this thread about hip hop. It is hopefully more than that. |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 27 Mar 2010 7:06 pm
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Touché!  |
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