Stories in Music

I've always been a terrible storyteller. I couldn't tell a believable lie if my life depended on it. And I can only captivate an audience if I'm in the middle of humiliating myself. There is something about keeping details and sequences in my head that eludes my presentation. I suppose it has made me honest by default and a pretty strange person to have a conversation with.

In spite of my poor storytelling skills, I almost solely depend on original narratives when performing music. It is a healthy distraction from the neurotic preoccupations that I sometimes fall into. For instance, a long period of rest can be time to listen and understand how to fit into the soundscape around you. For me, I figure out 1,000 ways to piff my starting pitch or count the rests with an astounding inaccuracy. The story keeps me mentally engaged. It's the old "Song and Wind" philosophy. Hear the sound, direct the wind, let you body do what it needs to produce. Sounds like magic and nonsense. And though Arnold Jacobs was indeed magical, he was a genius. There is nothing nonsensical about his pedagogy. It works.

What I find interesting about stories in music is how it works with what we now define as "absolute music." The phrase itself has changed meanings dramatically over time. Today it's thought of most commonly as musical "purists," in the sense that music truly speaks for itself. It is a concept that I neither agree with nor understand. I think it is humanly impossible to hear music or perform it without an allusion, reminder, or out right symbolism attached to something extramusical. Therefore, I think musical purity is malarkey. People have told stories forever. From cavemen to Renaissance poets to country artists. It's apart of our nature.

So, the point?

I think a story is integral to sustaining the art music scene. Sure Power Points and videos did not exist during most of the classical greats' time. But as I've said before in a previous entry, I believe that art music needs to meet people where they are. Again, I don't advocate the abandonment of traditional performance. But if art music is virtually suffering for lack of public interest, then by God CREATE SOME! People like to see things. A simple image shown for every movement of a symphony, a silent short film for a tone poem. Case and point: a lot of John Cage's music sounds ridiculous by itself. And not in a good way. But when paired with his partner's choreography (Merce Cunningham), it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately what I am suggesting is extreme, despite the fact that art has always been on the edge of cultural normalcy. But something more "realistic" that could be attractive to intimidated people is comprehensive program notes.

I hate nothing more than going to a concert and starting to read what I think will be information about the music I hear. Instead, I mostly get a detailed pedigree of the composer (don't care), how long the piece took to compose (don't care), info about the composer's family (don't care). And if I don't care about this stuff, what are the chances that someone who is already questioning the experience cares?

I know some conducting professors who think the idea of a "listening map" style program note is a silly thing to produce for a concert. I am of the mind, however, that if people in need of a listening map constitute your patronage, then give it to them. At the very least, give them a choice at the concert; two styles of concert programs. There needs to be incentive to come back again, an assurance that someone is looking out for the layperson. The layperson used to be the one at the concert. Now the layperson watches reality television and on demand movies. While all of it isn't "high brow," it's entertaining. The intimidation factor is removed by the comfort of knowing what to expect on some level.  Art music settings on the other hand are 100% mystery to laypeople which is equivalent to 100% terrifying. Who wants to subject themselves to that kind of feeling, especially when no one is around to help a person out of it?

Pop Culture and Why I Like It Lately

Lately, I've been more and more interested in pop culture, which is weird because I'm a bit of an old soul when it comes to how I view things. But on second thought it's not weird because pop culture has been gradually moving backwards in time. I don't know which came first, but it's happening in mainstream fashion too. I'm saying all this to say, I LOVE IT.

Take this guy for example:


Nerlens Noelle. He was born in 1994. In 1994, I was 5 years old and I was sporting this exact same haircut, the high-top fade. It wasn't as high and I didn't have tattoos. But the idea was there. When I look at this, I get nostalgic. I don't know if nostalgia is the case for the popularity of this kind of stuff but I wouldn't be surprised. I mean, things are totally upside down in our country. Perhaps the past is a comforting thing to think about and be reminded of. Nerlens isn't the only one nodding to fads that were popular decades ago. Rhianna's last SNL performance was a blast from the past. So is Kesha's latest video for her single Die Young. And sorry University of Arkansas girls, the leggings, side pony tails, and oversized shirts you took from your dads' closets were around long before your parents even thought of having you.

None of this is really my main point. What I've enjoyed most about pop culture's obsession with resurrecting the past is the change of music sounds and practices. Pop artists from about the mid 70s on to today have been decidedly futuristic, pushing the limits of synthesizers, sound engineering, and live performance production. The last 10 years have been shifting back to something my "old soul" really values.

Music.

I think the technological advances for the sake of music hat have been made over the decades are great. But the robotic precision and auto tuning of popular artists supposedly "expressing themselves" left a lot to be desired for me. Today, the fallibility and rawness of human nature is coming back to music. Adele is a wonderful example of this. Her music is beautiful but simplistic. It allows your ears to hone in on the words and appreciate the emotions in her voice. Who cares that it isn't immaculately tuned from beginning to end. I don't. It sounds good. It sounds real. I feel connected.

Another aspect of reviving the past that I love is the sound that is infiltrating popular music. Beyonce's most recent album, 4, is overflowing with aesthetics of Prince, Whitney Houston, and old R&B girl groups. The music on the album reaches beyond simple influence and has turned into a full on reincarnation. Party is one of her more successful singles from the album and it sounds like something right off of an SWV album. And if you've seen the video, it looks like it was filmed about 20 years ago.  It's incredible. What I like most about the song is that the music backs up Beyonce's voice much in the way that Adele's music backs up hers. The beat does not constitute the most important part of the song. The singer does.

On Beyonce's single Schoolin Life,  you can hear the rhythm, guitar, and keyboard of Prince and vocals that sound like it was written for Whitney Houston herself. While I wasn't really around when either of these people were at their heights, the music takes me back to the sounds that my mom enjoyed while riding with her in the car. It sounds good. I feel connected.

One of the last things I really enjoy about this music trend is the instruments. More and more artists are utilizing the talents of real musicians. Less famous, more independent artists have done this for years. But it's been a while for pop artists to have bands with live brass or orchestras with live strings. Beyonce comes to mind because of her all female band Suga Mamas. But rappers are on this wagon. Kanye did a performance with ballerinas and orchestra about a year ago on SNL of his song Runaway. I think highly visible people like this are putting instrumentalists back on the map. They are making it possible for the revival of second line style brass bands to be successful. Opening up the door for kids to ask what that cool thing the dude is blowing on behind Jay Z. It makes kids demand that they be just like the genius sax player (Clarence Clemons) in Lady Gaga's song. Pop music is reaching to the past to transform itself.

Meanwhile, us "art musicians" are starving for work and playing for quarter full concert houses.

Pop artists are opening doors for art music, the music I love, to become relevant again. This is why I really love pop culture today. It is a sort of connecting vehicle between the present and past. It gives a reason for young folks like myself and those even younger to talk about things that would have otherwise been boring, out of date, and uncool. Face it, art music is the ultimate resurrection act. 200 year old music played for audiences who can remember FDR's Fireside Chats.

One of my strongest beliefs in education is meeting students where they are. If we "high art" musicians don't meet potential audiences  where they are, we won't be dying anymore. We'll be dead. No more morbid resurrections. Just gone.

I think people might like what we do musically a lot more if we showed an interest in what they do musically. It doesn't mean that we play "pop classical" music on every concert we program. But it might mean that we perform something with more contemporary influences and sounds, which doesn't mean a-tonal, tone row inspired crap (not that it's all crap). Rather, commission composers that are writing in traditional forms but use hip hop sonorities. Try programmatic music that sounds more like being on a mission in Call of Duty than it does the city sounds of Chicago. Meet the people where they are.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra has done recent work with some famous DJs, video game music, and Kid Rock. And while they are not the prime financial planning example, they appear to be an orchestra for the people. After all, what is music without an audience?

Is our music so great and our egos so mammoth that we will resign to kill ourselves slowly rather than"taint" our empty sanctuaries sounding of Bach, Hindemith, and John Cage?