Musical literacy
Comments: 13
I have a reasonably large and eclectic collection of music, but I tend to listen to a very small subset of it at any one time. Months may go by and I’ll listen almost exclusively to just a couple or a few albums, occasionally putting on a particular track of something or someone — Helen Reddy, Hank Williams, Gnawa, Harry Partch – — totally unrelated to the general tenor of what I’ve been listening to.
Last year I listened a lot to a recording of Lorin Maazel conducting the Pittsburgh Symphony playing Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the superhuman Horacio Gutiérrez on piano (you can walk through brick walls after listening to it). There’s a 1937 recording of “Out of Nowhere” by Django Reinhardt and the Hot Club of France with Coleman Hawkins on tenor saxophone which is one of the most beautiful things you could ever imagine. I will never tire of hearing it, how he wells up these great hurt weights of emotion in a line and then tosses them away unrequited. Then there’s a recording of Thomas Tallis’s 40-part motet “Spem in Alium” that I bought second-hand a decade ago and which, to this day, rarely fails to bring a tear to my eye.
These are a few pieces of music I’ll be listening to for the rest of my life.
Recently I’ve noticed that my listening range has narrowed even further — perhaps alarmingly so. For the past several months I’ve been listening to little other than certain preludes and fugues from Glenn Gould’s late-60s recording of The Well-Tempered Clavier (from Book II, No. 3 in C-sharp major and No. 6 in D minor pretty much contain the universe, or a good chunk of it, and that human hands could play No. 5 in D major from the first book the way Gould does is nothing short of a miracle).
Perhaps once every couple of weeks I’ll play Tom Waits singing “Coney Island Baby” because it’s a great little song with a sweet trumpet solo.
Now I’m not so worried about the fact that my listening habits have become so … focused. I mention all of this to pose a question.
Recently I was talking with a friend about music and was astonished to learn how well-listened she was in certain areas of music that I’ve simply never ever visited. I realised how out of touch I am (and, conversely, how blissfully unconcerned I am at my incipient old-fogeydom). She gave me some CDs to listen to, a great mix of stuff — Can, Arvo Pärt, some music played on all-glass instruments — and we agreed that whereas I may be somewhat well-read, she’s very well-listened. I began wondering what it takes these days to consider oneself well-listened. If we were talking about literature, there’s a certain range of stuff you would pretty much be expected to know (I’m not touching that silly canon/dead white male argument here either).
So my question is, for the both of you who’ve read this far, who do you need to have heard in order to be considered musically literate these days?
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Posted to General Rants • 2004.01.22 (Thu) • 22:52
Comments
Posted by Simon Fodden 2004.01.23, 00:44
This is an impossibly tough question. Because of the size of the recording industry and all the new technologies, access to music and the instances themselves of recorded music have mushroomed. Simply the fact, taken by itself, that we can listen to (multiple instances of) all of the music written by J.S. Bach is staggering. No other generation has been able to do that.
Now, just to pick an example that interests me, we can listen to Indian music — a vast soundscape of music every bit as challenging and exciting as that out of Western Europe. Here in Toronto, where immigrants from everywhere have established themselves securely enough to make music, we hear the marvelous Kiran Ahluwalia sing ghazals — regularly on mainstream radio. And so it goes: more and more and more, all of it possessing that intoxicating power that good music has.
So… I don’t know. Keep your ears open. If fado falls on them, get into fado. Focus, if you like, to go intensely into a few pieces. There can’t be a right or wrong, or a canon of essential music.
Posted by Jack 2004.01.23, 01:03
I won’t attempt a list of canonical artists, mainly because it would probably reveal that my tastes are horribly ghetto-ised, and not as eclectic as I like to think.
I was thinking about this recently with regard to New York disco - my route to the sort of stuff that Larry Levan et al played first came via house music, but recently I’ve been led back there again by (seemingly like everyone else in the last two or three years) discovering Arthur Russell, who made everything from haunting, avant garde solo cello pieces to stomping punk disco. Similarly, when I was little, my great musical love affair was with Prince - and he led me to George Clinton and Miles Davis, turned me back on to my parents’ Blues records, and generally pointed the way to more wonderful music.
My point being that while you can’t ever settle on a canon, there are certain artists who seem to spark further listening more than others - you don’t neccesarily need to have heard them to consider yourself well-listened, but listening to them will, eventually, get you closer to being so than you were before.
That said, LCD Soundsystem’s deadpan satire ‘Losing My Edge’ serves as the perfect list of currently de rigeur artists - one verse goes like this:
But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra…
Long posts inspire looooong comments, it would seem!
Posted by mary beth 2004.01.23, 02:48
Many years ago I bought myself a season pass to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and went to a string of Beethoven Symphonies. By myself no less! I seem to recall reading a biography about him at the time, but I don’t remember which one or why. (probably boyfriend-related).
These many years later I find myself stuck on Beethoven once more. After September 11, 2001 I was revisiting music of my “youth” apparently as a type of comfort food. Beethoven’s 9th was one of these. Many listenings and much time later, my first feeling of hopefulness came during a commute with the last movement of the 9th. Recently I heard a scrap of the 7th and here I am immersed in that. I went so far as to buy a complete set with Klemperer and the Philharmonia.
While I have far ranging music on my iPod and listen to it here and there I return to a small sample with strong regularity. Not all classical: Paul Simon (who is on everyone’s (at least everyone I know) iTunes and top=played lists. Altan (celtic). English Country Dance music and Morris Dance music. Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations. Yo Yo Ma - inspired by Bach. Van Cliburn - Favorite Debussy. A few single hits here and there, some of which are mundane contemporary “pop” pieces.
I listen and hear new things each time. And now with the Beethoven I hear performance differences too, which is an interesting thing by itself.
Posted by MacDara 2004.01.23, 04:40
Genres of music are even more divisible than genres of literature. I gave up on being trying to be ‘hip’ and ‘now’ quite a while ago; rather, I always keep my ears open, and if anything catches my attention I’ll leap on it. If it happens to cross-reference with what’s ‘happening’ in the current zeitgeist, then so be it - I’m not gonna beat myself up over enjoying something that’s faddish if it gives me genuine pleasure.
Keeping my ears open has introduced me to electronic music, having been scared off for years by the whole trance and acid house thing (Boards Of Canada make some beautiful stuff, but of course they’re just the tip of the iceberg that I haven’t even begun to fathom).
Also, I heard my first performance of a John Cage prepared piano piece at the weekend, exciting stuff for my ears today even though it’s decades old by now (if anything, afficionados of classical music seem to be even more canonical than their rock’n’roll counterparts, at least from my professional experience, so I’ve steered clear until now).
I suppose the main thing is that the music I listen to, the music I own, I enjoy it because it affects me, not because I’m supposed to enjoy it. I do wonder sometimes why people love The Beatles or Bob Dylan so much, because personally they do nothing for me, and it’s not from lack of trying.
Posted by Chris Vincent 2004.01.23, 06:39
I tend to think the notion of being “musically literate” is just a form of elitism. People are into different styles of music, and no piece of music is less important than another. There are spheres of influence, and there’s music that’s made just to sell, but music is still music.
All that notwithstanding, it really depends on what kind of music you enjoy. There are some artists that are just essential to fully enjoying different styles of music. In my world, the essentials are Jimmy Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, and Alice In Chains. I wouldn’t enjoy the music I listen to today as much as I do if it weren’t for these artists.
In the end, most music can be traced back to similar roots. What you enjoy, and what you consider most important is a subjective matter.
Posted by Hinch 2004.01.23, 08:01
There will always be a select few albums that i play every week. Sometimes it’s the way they make me feel, sometimes it’s the memories they evoke, and sometimes it’s wonderful just to listen to great music. But i always make an effort to supplement the old favourites with music from left field.
When i walk into a record store, i look for new albums from artists i know, while someone else will be looking for new artists in a genre i never even knew existed. That’s why once a week i get together with some mates to play and discuss music that is on our minds. Sometimes we have guest presenters, and sometimes we just force ourselves to look at music in new ways. Each week is a discovery. It pushes me out of my comfort zone and exposes me to sounds and styles that i would have otherwise never experienced.
I used to think of music as something very personal. It was all about the way it made me feel. But i’ve discovered there is a great deal to learn by listening to music with other people. It’s good to hear others explain why they like something. Maybe they know something of the history of the song/artist. Or maybe they can provide insight into the lyrics or the instrumentation.
So i guess at the end of the day, musical literacy for me is about listening to what i love, and exploring what i don’t. Who knows, the artist you’ve never heard of may turn out to be the artist you can’t ever forget.
Posted by brad knapp 2004.01.23, 09:49
Personally, I couldn’t go more then a couple of days without listening to John in the Morning on one of the very last truly independent radio stations KEXP out of Seattle, WA An excellent mix of alt-rock, hip-hop, electronic, alt-country, and various other music.
Posted by Dave 2004.01.23, 11:18
Well here’s a tip to start you out. Go to your local university or college library. Chances are they will have quite a varied selection of music to stave your appetite. I’ve added scores of music to my collection by visiting my library and sifling through their CDs. I would probably have 10 fold more if not for the fact I do not own a record player. Best thing of all, it’s all free (and legal).
Posted by Robert Castelo 2004.01.23, 11:28
What music would be indispensable to my life?
All the obvious stuff that you all have in your collection as well - Andres Segovia, Glen Gould, Miles Davies, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Berlioz….
Here’s a few more obscure choices I recommend:
Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia - “In Cerca Di Cibo” album, perfect blend of jazz and Italian folk, sounds like the soundtrack of an Italo Calvino story.
Hank Williams Sr. - “Ramblin Man”, don’t usually like C&W, but this is something special.
Laibach - “Let It Be”, a totalitarian cover of a classic Beatles album, nothing I can say would sum this one up, experience it for yourself.
Brian Eno - “Taking Tiger Mountain (By Stratergy)”, this album is so dense with musical ideas, one of the sources of most popular music of the last 20 years and probably the next 20 as well.
Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her - “Red Talk”, this is a phenomenal indie rock (if I had to categorise it) album from a Japanese female duo.
Sex Pistols - “Never Mind The Bollocks”, what can I say, it never lets me down!
Posted by Marie 2004.01.23, 12:11
If you haven’t already, you should definitely read Nick Hornby’s 31 Songs. Think you would enjoy it.
Posted by Mark Boszko 2004.01.23, 13:47
I do much the same, concentrate on a narrow segment of my collection for months at a time…
Personally, I know I listen to a lot of pop and rock that some may consider crap, and I enjoy it. I also know that I could probably love a lot more classical, if only I tried (more Elgar, perhaps). I used to have such a fondness for movie scores, that they outnumbered everything else in my collection. This is no longer the case… but I’ve been drifting back to them lately as well.
Though, I must admit, for the past several months, it’s been back-n-forth between Curve and the Mediaeval Baebes, with the occasional foray into Raymond Scott, various 80s pop (comfort music) and the occasional spin on random play from the ol’ iPod. I’ve had an urge to listen to the Police lately, though I haven’t given in to it, for some reason.
I’ve been into Celtic music of one form or another for long before and after it was trendy (thought I felt a little dirty while it was popular- but it passed). I came to that, curiously enough, through the “new age” music I was once into, mainly because a lot of it was carried on the same labels, such as Windham Hill. It constantly amazes me how much of western music has been influenced by the Celts, and then I think how musically clueless I must be to just be coming to this conclusion.
Anyway… that’s mostly it. Oh, and Blue Man Group. Their custom instuments are something to behold.
Posted by matt mcglynn 2004.01.23, 14:52
I have a lot of respect for people who can lose themselves in classical music. I tried, but to date have been unsuccessful.
My latest foray came after reading Richard Powers’ The Gold Bug Variations, which is as much about Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of Bach’s “Goldberg Variations” as anything else. I wanted so much to love the Bach piece… I had visions of buying both Gould’s recordings and becoming intimately familiar with them, forming knowing opinions about the differences, etc. I failed. Today the Gould recording is merely familiar, an infrequently-reached-for item on the (thin) classical end of the shelf.
I have to echo Mark Boszko’s impression of the Blue Man Group. I listen to their 2nd CD frequently. If you’re unfamiliar and interested in a sample, here’s a review with MP3 excerpts — my attempt to reveal some of the magic moments on the disk… http://debris.com/journal/665
Posted by Ken Cameron 2004.02.12, 15:13
Interesting sequence of responses, none to my mind calling in question the musical literacy of the respondents. Given the diversity of their tastes, what that suggests is that musical literacy is about how you listen, how you approach, understand, respond to music, rather than about what you happen to have heard.
It would be the same with other forms of cultural literacy, surely: given the level of access we have these days to all the cultural products, no-one who hasn’t cloned themselves could have read more than a tiny proportion of what is written, or seen work by more than a few of the image-makers. And I realise there are processes of selection that weed things out for us, and that some of them are more or less trustworthy.
I think of myself as well-read, like Jeremy, but there are hundreds of wonderful books in English that I haven’t heard of and most other cultures are complete unknowns. Literacy is about a discriminating love of books (music, pictures…) enriched by substantial experience and open to new insights and pleasures.
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