In this third unit of the class, we
have studied three composers, whose musical and aesthetic philosophies are very
distinct. The first composer we studied
was John Cage. He had many ideas about
music that were revolutionary at the time.
One of these ideas was the aesthetics of silence. He believed that silence wasn’t just the
absence of sound; it’s a musical object that is equal to others. He utilized this aesthetic in his piece 4’33”.
In this piece, the performer sits at a piano, and there is silence for 4
minutes and 33 seconds. The idea is that
the audience is listening to the sounds inside the silence. A musical philosophy that Cage worked through
is the idea of umberto ecco, or moment form.
In this idea, each moment in time had nothing to do with the moment
before or the moment after. This philosophy
can be seen in many of his works, including Atlas
Eclipticalis. In this piece, there
are no tempo markings, measures, or note durations notated. Each musician is given the music with their
part hi-lighted, and it is set up with the time of 60 second intervals. Each musician decides when it is the time to
play their note, depending on how fast or slow they are keeping track of the 60
seconds. The musician also decides what
pitch to play, and how long the note will be held. Each note has nothing to do with the one
before it, or the one after it.
The
next composer we studied was Laurie Anderson.
Her musical and aesthetic philosophies are both unique like Cage’s, and
nothing like Cage’s. For Anderson, music
is as much expressed through the body as through the music itself. This is evident when watching her
performances, like her video of “O Superman.”
Her use of her body through shadows to illustrate her song is almost
like a dance. The song by itself creates
an interesting experience, but the song with her performing it creates a whole
new, unique experience. Her philosophy
on using the body is also apparent with her drum dance, where she uses
technology hooked to her clothes to create the music, as she dances and hit
herself in different places to create different sounds. Technology is also another big part of
Anderson’s philosophy on music. She
breaks the barriers of “Man vs Technology” with her music, and is fascinated
with using technology to create her music.
Many of her songs, like “Let X=X” has the use of a vocodor, which takes
the sounds and words she makes and sings, and creates chords with them.
The
last composer is Osvaldo Golijov. He has
very different philosophies than the previous two composers. His musical philosophy works with using
different kinds of music to create something unique and not what the audience
is expecting. A big example of this is
his work La Pasión según San Marcos. This piece incorporates a lot of different
music, such as Latin, South American, and European. The text that he uses, while in Spanish, is
very true to the story and text we hear in European passions. The rhythms and beats are very much Latin. He is quoted as saying “…the main thing in
this Passion is to present a dark Jesus, and not a pale European Jesus. It’s going to be about Jesus’ last days on
earth seen through the Latin American experience and what it implies.” Another unique part to this work is that the
voices of the main people, like Jesus and Peter, are not voiced by one
soloist. Multiple people sing their
solos, including women. An example of
this is with “I am –Confession”, which is a soprano solo, or “Colorless Moon”,
the aria of Peter’s tears, also sung by a woman.
In
the end, each of these three composers have interesting and unique for their
time philosophies about their music that is quite evident in their
compositions. Thinking about these
philosophies makes me consider what parts of music I find important. Thus, here is my music manifesto:
1. The number
one thing that I believe and value as a musician is that music is approachable
for everybody. Music is universal. All societies have music, and I don’t believe
there is such a thing as a world without music.
There are elements of music in everything, from pitch in which we talk
to the tempo in which we walk. Given
this unavoidability, I believe that every single person should be able to enjoy
music, both in listening and creating, regardless of their level of talent.
2. I believe
that music is an emotional expression of both the composer(s) and the performer(s). In this class in particular, we’ve been
studying composers who believe that music can be separated from feelings, but
even their music has emotional elements, in the idea that we’re noticing what emotions
aren’t there. I believe that, hard as you try, music
creates emotions and feelings in the listener, no matter what type of music it
is.
3. I believe
that creating music is a very physical act, and therefore anybody can learn to
sing or play an instrument to a degree, regardless of their initial talent. I have been learning a lot about this fact
this year with a few of my other classes specified to singing, because that is
my primary instrument. Many people never
pursue singing because they feel that they aren’t talented enough to be any
good. However, singing is all about how
you physically use your body to produce the ideal sound, so with the proper training
and a teacher who knows what they’re talking about, I believe anybody can learn
to sing and make music.
4. As a
musician, I put a lot of value on music in schools, and I believe that it needs
to continue to be taught. Children need
creative outlets, music can be used to teach many other educational ideas, and
students with knowledge and background in music are generally more well-rounded
people. Music should continue to be part
of the educational curriculum in schools.
