So much music of the last hundred years is tormented, lamenting and nearly un-listenable. I have played a lot of it, and while I would like to remain open-minded, I am truly sick of the sonorities and of the anguished feelings the compositions invoke. Yes, the music mirrors the angst of our modern world. Whatever. Beethoven had some angst, too, but he also had some real joy and playfulness.
Where is the joyful music? The “joyful noise”? Please, composers, give us some music that people can enjoy! Maybe it’s just that the methods of university music programs, teaching “how to compose”, are totally neglecting how the music actually sounds and feels to most people. How many of us actually enjoy the sound of a violin screeching and wailing and carrying on like a cat committing suicide for an hour? How many musicians actually enjoy reading a billion notes, which are almost unplayable, and reading/translating/counting complicated rhythmic ideas which are supposed to sound UN-rhythmic? Ugh! The whole thing is one painful exercise in bloated intellect: body-less heads.
Yes, this outburst is provoked by a certain piece I am learning for a certain concert. But I’d really like to go in a new direction: writing some new music which FEELS good and is FUN to play, music which people will WANT to listen to and maybe even DANCE to. It could even be intellectually interesting, too.
Who wants to create this kind of music with me? I’m in favor of a combo of acoustic instruments and either electronic or live dance beats. Fiddlers just wanna have fun!!!
Gloria, sign me up. I’ll happily make music with you of any kind, any time. And I share your frustration with what some composers put in front of us, which often seems too much in the head, and maybe too little in the heart, or in the body.
I have frequently, however, had the experience of having a strong (negative) reaction to something I was presented with, usually based on what seemed like an unnecessary degree of difficulty, only to find a real satisfaction a little further down the road. I’d expect, after all these years, to be immune to that innate resistance to strangeness, but I’m not.
My personal goal around stuff like this, in addition to looking for musical antidotes, is to try my best to find something to enjoy each time I play. Sometimes I have to look more deeply than other times. Sometimes the enjoyment has a large measure of feeling the camaraderie of good colleagues undergoing a shared ordeal. I’m always hoping for musical rewards, and for ultimately gaining respect for whatever I’m being asked to do, but those can be elusive.
That said, I’m with you in my lack of desire to hear that hour-long cat suicide violin screeching piece ever again. Also with you in your endorsement of sheer fun. Last night’s SFCMP concert featured an older Cage piece, “Credo in Us”, which as much as anything, had a spirit of plentiful fun about it, players were having a blast, and it had everyone in the room smiling. A good thing.
In solidarity,
Tod
Tod, thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts! I really needed to hear these things put into words. Yes, it’s true that quite a few pieces of music have won me over after a hard battle. After figuring them out technically, and letting them sink in, I have found things to appreciate. I hope that this program coming up will yield something rewarding. I definitely appreciate the comraderie of my fellow musicians, like you!
What do you think were the ingredients in the Cage piece which made it so enjoyable? Was there any improvisation, or was it the qualities of the sounds themselves? The unexpected combination of certain sounds?
The piece was for prepared piano, two percussionists (mostly playing on overturned paint cans), and radio. The music that Cage wrote was in turns playful, whimsical, tender. The sounds were delightfully exuberant — Chris Froh and Willie Winant going to town on paint cans is something everyone should experience at least once in life. The radio part floated (by chance) between rock/pop, news talk, static, classical music, and lent a spirit of fun and adventure. You could imagine Cage smiling wisely as his nearly-70-year-old creation took its place as the most modern sounding piece on a program of much more recent music, and made the whole audience happy. I’ve never seen more smiles at a new music concert than this.