Love Me, Love My Chord Progressions
by Wentworth Sutton, assistant vice-principal, Mitchell Hepburn Collegiate Institute, Don Mills, and president emeritus, Semiologico-Hermeneutic Institute of Toronto
In The Atlantic for March 2002, Stephen Budiansky describes how programmers for classical music radio stations are removing from their playlists any pieces which require close listening or which are inadequately upbeat. Surveys apparently show that listeners want simple upbeat music which they can listen to in the background. My local jazz station seems to have adopted a similar policy. Its playlist consists jazz lite, music performed by small groups which features a lot of solos consisting of harmonically unadventurous noodling. They don't play swing, they don't play trad, and they never, never, ever play hard bop.
At first glance it's easy to interpret these policies as blows to serious music. People are prepared to admit music to their lives only if it doesn't distract them from things they think are more important.
Well, guess what? Those things probably are more important. If you're doing something you think is important while you're listening to music, having to stop and pay attention to the music obviously means it takes you longer to get the important thing done.
Perhaps you are now aghast. Perhaps you are thinking, "He's advocating using music as mere aural wallpaper! Serious music must be listened to! Close attention must be paid to it!"
To which I reply, was man made for music or was music made for man? Why should people drop everything when music starts playing?
The answer is that the history of music is to a large extent the history of the growing narcissism of musicians. The musical concert is a relatively recent development. Not so long ago music always had an object outside itself. Religious music inspired reverence; music at public ceremonies inspired respect; music at parties inspired dancing. People listened to music while thinking about something else.
Over the last few hundred years, though, the musical concert has become an institution. The audience at a concert of so-called serious music goes there not to worship, not to take part in an important social ritual, not to dance, but simply to listen to music.
The etiquette of concerts has become so restrictive that musicians and self-styled music lovers regularly fulminate about concertgoers clearing their throats or crinkling candy wrappers during performances.
Imagine! People profane the sacred performance of music by clearing their throats! What priorities they must have!
Clearly musicians have been getting some pretty exalted opinions of themselves. In their minds they are no longer providers of service but objects of worship. And that explains why the audience for serious music is so small.
We have enough bloody things to worship, eh? We have our money, we have our possessions, we have our careers, we even have our selves. We just don't have time to be worshipping how well buddy manages his chord progressions.
Concert music survives because government, corporations, and the rich subsidize it. It could not survive on its receipts alone. Jazz stumbles along. Back in the days when it was dance music it was wildly popular. Then it turned into a personal obsession with harmony. Jazz musicians decided their purpose was to solve problems in harmony, and most of the jazz audience lost interest. Free jazz killed what interest was laft.
An appreciation of good music is supposed to be uplifting, but one wonders how uplift is achieved. I don't know that people who have studied harmony are noticeably better off than people who haven't, so I don't see how people who have appreciated the work of people who have studied harmony are supposed to be better off than people who haven't.
If you want to improve your appreciation of music, perform some. Even a rudimentary knowledge of piano or guitar will greatly improve your ability to understand what more skilled musicians are doing. I've learned more about music from strumming guitar while I sing simple folk or soul songs than I ever have from decades of reverently listening to serious music.
Well, the choice is yours. If you think sitting in an auditorium dying to clear your throat and wondering if you dare to unwrap a throat lozenge is a good way to improve your understanding of music, I'm not going to stop you from doing it. And, along with the great majority of the population, I'm not going to join you either.
[Since this article was written "the local jazz station" has started programming hard bop. In fact its playlist provides examples of a wide variety of jazz styles which never fail to entertain. We recommend Jazz FM 91.1 in Toronto to all readers within reach of it. You can also listen to it through www.jazz.fm]Love Me, Love My Chord Progressions © John FitzGerald, 2002
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