Frogman, your commentary is very insightful. We've all heard Duke's "good & bad" take on the hierarchy of musical genres and it's a good maxim to keep in the back of one's mind. It becomes a very slippery slope when we start proclaiming this or that the cultural apogee. A meaningful artistic practice can't be a static set of principles, it has to be a living art that morphs and changes. Otherwise we end up with an ossified, ready for the museum art form.
For a moment, let's think about a few of classical music's attributes and why they represent the highest attainment of Western civilization in our minds. Obviously, giving musical form to the quest for spiritual understanding is a primary reason. The link between mathematics and music is another aspect. Counterpoint between music and the increasing complexity of human thought in the sciences, other art forms, and philosophy is another reason. Ok, it's obvious where this train of thought leads.
Problem is, this unending focus on the noble can lead to a place of static creativity. Like Mozart complaining in the movie "Amadeus," "I am fed to the teeth with elevated themes! Old dead legends! Why must we go on forever writing about gods and legends?" We know the noble retort of Baron von Sweiten to this sentiment, but the complaint is valid. Think of the state of visual arts in France right before the Impressionists. Since 1648, the French Academy had controlled the development of art and directed its expression of noble themes. By the mid 19th century, we had artists of supreme technical virtuosity in the service of centuries old themes completely dominating the official artistic landscape. An artistic revolt got started, gained traction, and has never relented in its constant pushing against the constraints of conventional taste.
Schubert's recounting of a soldier's toughness reminds us that life gains meaning in things other than rarefied contemplation. The exuberant energy of youthful passions given expression in musical forms other than classical music art are important to maintaining living art forms. Frogman's friend who was obsessed with James Brown's music wasn't dumbing down in my book, just focusing on something different. Think playing James Brown's music is easy? Ask a classical musician to play in his band and generate some steamy funk. It reminds me of the tension between the Jazz and Classical students in a university. The Jazz students give props to the Classical students for their technical chops and skills, but deride them for their lack of ability to express a full range of emotion, lack of improvisational skills, and limitations of rhythmic expression.
I don't know where today's diversity of expressive means will lead. In spite of the general level of cultural stupidity that dominates popular culture, I'm not ready succumb to resignation that the best is behind us.
For a moment, let's think about a few of classical music's attributes and why they represent the highest attainment of Western civilization in our minds. Obviously, giving musical form to the quest for spiritual understanding is a primary reason. The link between mathematics and music is another aspect. Counterpoint between music and the increasing complexity of human thought in the sciences, other art forms, and philosophy is another reason. Ok, it's obvious where this train of thought leads.
Problem is, this unending focus on the noble can lead to a place of static creativity. Like Mozart complaining in the movie "Amadeus," "I am fed to the teeth with elevated themes! Old dead legends! Why must we go on forever writing about gods and legends?" We know the noble retort of Baron von Sweiten to this sentiment, but the complaint is valid. Think of the state of visual arts in France right before the Impressionists. Since 1648, the French Academy had controlled the development of art and directed its expression of noble themes. By the mid 19th century, we had artists of supreme technical virtuosity in the service of centuries old themes completely dominating the official artistic landscape. An artistic revolt got started, gained traction, and has never relented in its constant pushing against the constraints of conventional taste.
Schubert's recounting of a soldier's toughness reminds us that life gains meaning in things other than rarefied contemplation. The exuberant energy of youthful passions given expression in musical forms other than classical music art are important to maintaining living art forms. Frogman's friend who was obsessed with James Brown's music wasn't dumbing down in my book, just focusing on something different. Think playing James Brown's music is easy? Ask a classical musician to play in his band and generate some steamy funk. It reminds me of the tension between the Jazz and Classical students in a university. The Jazz students give props to the Classical students for their technical chops and skills, but deride them for their lack of ability to express a full range of emotion, lack of improvisational skills, and limitations of rhythmic expression.
I don't know where today's diversity of expressive means will lead. In spite of the general level of cultural stupidity that dominates popular culture, I'm not ready succumb to resignation that the best is behind us.