Tone Color

While end-of-the-year schedules have had an effect on our Music Club, we continue to truck right along. We've enjoyed some discussion of melody and harmony but, considering our school year is hastily coming to its final weeks, we've jumped around quite a bit. We are currently enjoying a focus on the topic of Tone Color.

Some of our Music Club members in consistent attendance are singers themselves, so I like to look at artists that directly use their voices as an instrument.

Let us look at an amazing musician who literally embodies music. Take note of his use of dynamics and tone colors. Learn to appreciate the timbre that he brings forth vocally and calls out of the orchestra.
Also, he is hilarious.
Enjoy! 
(The first half of the performance in particular deals specifically with the topic of viewing your voice as an instrument. The last half allows the different sections of the orchestra to shine in the classic musical ensemble from West Side Story.)



This ability to embody music gives an individual the unique capacity to see music in a fascinating and all encompassing way. When you understand music fundamentally, you see it beyond the sheet music and the theories. Of course, without understanding scales and key signatures, note types and time signatures, you will be sorely lacking in your ability to communicate and translate music. But I cannot over-exaggerate the importance of seeing music beyond its most basic forms of explanation and notation. In addition to appreciating the science and notation of music, we have to see the unique history of music.

At this stage, in examining the element of Tone Color, we will unravel another side to the power of music as it applies to the context of its place in history.
We will look at different instruments, along with their orchestral groupings. While doing so, we'll examine the message communicated by the instrument in regards to the intent of the composer and time period. This outline will give us a context for the musical expression at hand while simultaneously allowing us to grasp the unique tone color of each instrument.

In context of our elemental overview of music:
Rhythm is the how of music.
Melody is the what of music.
Harmony is the why of music. (Relationships/ Community)
and 
TONE COLOR is the WHO of music. (Individuality/ Storytelling)

Here are some of the videos we have already begun to examine:
Tone Color Playlist    





To prepare for upcoming sessions, you are welcome to preview an overview of the influence of the Psalms in the history of Western music:  In The Key Of: "Setting the Psalms"

Melody, Part 1

Now that we have opened the door to the world of music, starting with rhythm, we can discuss the topic that the majority of music teachers and students tend to lean on the most. While music is an enormous entity, or "organism" as Clara termed in our last session together, we tend to break it down to just "notes" or the melody as it were. We think of theory as discussions on notes. We think of rhythm solely as the terms by which those notes are executed. We think of harmony as notes coming together. Even tone color is reduced to a discussion of notes in relation to how different instruments present those notes.

Well to widen our perception, we've stepped into the beautiful world of music that Victor Wooten lives in. In his book The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, he has described music as a being. He offers us some of the most profound yet simple truths concerning music. But before I share those truths, let's understand him musically first. Listen to the link here: "Isn't She Lovely," Victor Wooten covering Stevie Wonder.

In this piece, we can hear him identifying a Stevie Wonder classic and translating it to communicate his own musical message. I specifically chose this piece because of the genre of this specific song. Not only does it show his fluency and talent on the bass guitar, but it also shows a very important side of Wooten musically that I will come back to later.

For now, we can enjoy some of the technique he is using in playing the bass. Slapping is a technique often used on the bass guitar that has been perfected by artists like Jaco Pastorius and Marcus Miller. In comparatively recent years, we've seen this style of play passed on to other instruments.  Justin King and Raul Midón are two artists I particularly enjoy who have developed a similar style for the guitar. It's a technique that utilizes variations of hammer ons and pull offs to varying degrees. As Sam commented in our last club session, it tends to sound like another bass is being played simultaneously.

In the video above, we can hear Wooten returning to the main melody of "Isn't She Lovely" while alternately taking us through a musical conversation chromatically. This rendition is a fun way to introduce some notions behind Note Theory.

The chromatic scale utilizes all 12 notes within an octave.

While it is used in Occidental music, we primarily see the use of  the diatonic scale--seven notes.

Diagram from What To Listen For In Music, page 43

The chromatic scale is evenly spaced out in intervals of half steps.

The diatonic scale pattern follows the interval steps of whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. (Sing do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti do).

In Occidental culture, we rely on the special relationships that exist in these scales. The note theories we will examine will center on these scales as well. Although, we will spend time looking also at the step patterns for minor scales, the pentatonic scale, and music modes. But the amazing reality is that the world of music stretches out much further than these theories. As noted by Leonard Bernstein in his lecture series The Unanswered Question, "if the piano encompassed only natural untempered tones, it would encompass 77 different keys in one octave."

To give us some perspective, remember that the scale was not tempered until 1700 by Andreas Werckmeister. Until that point, every time an orchestra wanted to play a song in a new key they had to re-tune each instrument. In 1711, Cristofori invented the piano. And in 1722, Bach was so thrilled with this new standard that he composed The Well Tempered Clavier which at some point utilizes each of the 12 keys.

By looking at the some of the science behind sound waves, we see how different levels of vibrations per second communicate different pitches. Each note is simply a type of vibration. What a spectacular notion that the vibrations set into the air by vocal cords, strings, and assortments of materials actually communicate something meaningful. 

Wooten describes rhythm as melody slowed down. What does that mean? Rhythm is melody slowed down. Okay, well let's think about some of the concepts we've discussed concerning the science of melody. A sound wave is measured in vibrations per second. It's a form of energy that oscillates. The number of times this vibration oscillates per second is called a frequency, which we measure in Hertz (Hz). We distinguish assorted sounds from musical pitches based on the consistency of the sound wave or Hz. For example, the A4 (or middle A) resounds at an even 440 Hz. If you double that number, you get the next octave up: A5, 880 Hz. And if you reduced that 440 number by exactly half, you get the octave below: A3, 220 Hz. This discovery of the octave is said to originally have been made by Pythagoras. The story goes, he was walking down the street, heard the tinkers and blacksmiths at work, and realized that the pitch made by one mallet against an anvil would be the exact same tone, only higher, when struck by a mallet that was half the size of the first. Hertz and frequencies were discovered much later of course. But the idea of an octave began with Pythagoras in ancient Greece. Wooten played a harmonic by lightly placing the length of his finger across a fret, striking across each string, and quickly (almost simultaneously) releasing his finger from its placement over the fret. You can listen to a very clear and lasting harmonic right at the end, at minute 7:23 of the "Isn't She Lovely" cover at the top of the page. Much like a whistle tone performed by singers or perhaps similar to the job of a capo, the frequency of the sound wave is raised by powers of 2 and 4 to create that bright, silvery tone.

Figure by Jack H. David Jr. from "The Mathematics of Music"

  
With this in mind, let's look at Wooten's idea that rhythm is melody slowed down:
"A-440 means that a note vibrates four hundred and forty times per second right? [...] If you keep cutting that number in half, 440, 220, 110, 55, etc., you will eventually get beats per minute. At that point, it's called rhythm" (38).
 
So inversely, melody is rhythm sped up. I find this truly amazing. For rhythm and melody and harmony are all tightly related. Musical elements are essentially an expression of math and science.

We can even see a visual representation of the sound wave through the experiment called Ruben's Tube.


It's amazing to see the fire respond to the oscillating vibrations of air that is moved by the resounding pitch. The sound wave, when constant, should look like a perfect sine wave. Musical pitches show that consistency in the formation of their wave.  

Figure by Jack H. David Jr. from "The Mathematics of Music"

 

And these vibrations are the same vibrations that cause our hearts to sing upon hearing Bach for example:


Wooten looks at each element of music as an equal partner in forming music. He points out that whether or not we are playing any particular notes, the music is always going. "Most musicians think that Music is made up of notes. They forget that notes are just a part of Music, and a small part at that. If you stop playing them, Music would still exist" (42). Tied into that idea, he claims, "You should never lose the groove in order to find a note" (33). As we examine melody, I would like to highlight this perspective. Melody and harmony are executed through notes, but they do not originate from notes. We use music theory to discuss certain relationships between these notes. But those are terms by which we can make music a tangible idea, those terms are not music in it of themselves. This idea is similarly seen in math and science. Science is not test tubes, pH balances, or E = mc². Science is the tree that sprouts from a seed. Math is not 1+1=2, y=mx+b, or quadratic equations. Math is meaningful patterns that exact real world realities. Music is not notes on a page but rather a language that communicates emotions, cultures, and stories.

This perspective is the truest way to examine melody. We cannot talk about note theories until we apply that understanding of music to our undertakings.

Wooten claimed to hate the genre of Bluegrass music. In his mind, Country music and Bluegrass were the same simple musical formulas of 1, 4, 5 (notated in Roman Numerals when speaking of chords, as I, IV, V ). The I, IV, V  pattern in music is the idea that the diatonic scale can coincide with numbers to more clearly identify harmonic and melodic relationships.

To better understand the I, IV, V  relationships, first let's look at how we form different types of chords based off of the diatonic scale. For example the C major scale could be represented as such:
C     D     E     F     G     A     B     C
1      2      3     4       5      6      7      1
We call the 1st degree, tone 1 or C, the tonic because it is the tonal foundation. Or when referring to a chord, we call it the root since it is the base of a chord. Next we go to the 5th degree, or dominant, because of its relative power connected with the tonic. Directly after is the 4th tone, or subdominant. The relationship here is strong. You can hear the 1, 4, 5 expressed to some degree in most music. In fact if I were to hum the 1 and 4, you would instinctively long to hear the 5. You can even find this relationship in a lot of music outside of Western culture as well. Another valuable tone quality is the 7th, or the leading tone, named for often leading back to the tonic. So to create a chord, there are certain stable formations of notes that achieve a beautiful sound.

Since about the sixteenth century, music has relied on the triad chord formation. The triad creates a harmonic relationship taking the 1, 3, and 5 from a scale to form a full sound that either leaves you feeling resolved, leads you into the next chord, or altogether leaves you longing. It's a responsive relationship. So the C major chord would consist of a C, E, and G.

To change from a major chord to express something different you can change the quality of the 3rd and 5th notes. By making the 3rd go down half a step (making it flat) you create a minor chord. In the key of C that would be a C, E♭(a.k.a. F♯), and the G. If you raise the 5th half a step, you created an augmented chord. So an augmented C or C aug would be C, E, G♯. One of the last primary chord formations is a diminished chord. For a diminished chord, you flat both the 3rd and 5th. So a diminished C, or C dim, would be a C, E♭(D♯), G♭(F♯).

Another way you can alter the triad is by adding a note onto the triad formation-- perhaps a 7, 9, or 13 (9 and 13 would correspond with the same notes as if you kept counting up into the next octave above, so 9 would correspond with 2, a D in the key of C, and 13 would correspond with 6, an A in the key of C).

Using that same idea, let's look at the C major chord scale:
M    m     m    M   M    m    Dim   M                            M: Major
C   Dm   Em   F    G   Am  Bdim  C                             m: Minor
1      2      3      4     5     6       7        1                         Dim: Diminished

The same scale pattern that allows you to find the relationship between notes to create a triad chord then can be used to find a new relationship between those chords. We see tone 1 (or I  in proper Roman Numeral notation), is a Cmaj chord, which if we wrote the notes out individually, would look like C, E, G. To find the chord of tone 2 or II, we look at the D scale and locate the 1, 3, 5 again and then flat the 3rd to create the minor chord. I'll create a second post entry to examine closer the chord relationships of the I, IV, V  because, although melody and harmony are strongly related, I will draw the line of distinction between melody and harmony here for the purpose of clarity. I am already giving you quite a lot to digest, so we'll save the topic of chord progression for the next entry and relate it to the topic of harmony. Just note that Country and Bluegrass is known for falling into the I, IV, V  pattern. Which for many musicians, Wooten included, this pattern is often considered simplistic and perhaps even base.

(In the following club session, we will enjoy this TedTalk by Benjamin Zander, titled "The Transformative Power Of Classical Music." What a beautiful look into the musical world he offers here. However we will come back to his perspective, Wooten has more to say on the matter of musical expression that we must return to.)

So Wooten HATES country music. Upon hearing the genre, he shouted out, "I hate bluegrass music!" (55). He just felt it was too basic. It wasn't something he enjoyed. It doesn't groove like Stevie! It doesn't require technicality or musical prowess. It's easy to play. Of that he was sure.

And yet,
 
here he is finding the groove in this rendition of "Hoedown" originally by Aaron Copland performed with his fellow band members, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. It's truly spectacular.

As he tells it, Wooten was met by a mysterious, profound man who changed his whole view of music. Wooten has come to see music as a language and each piece of music or genre is a different conversation. He found that when he disliked a particular genre or style, the fault wasn't in the music but rather in him. While I do not think that every musical conversation is necessarily equal in value of what each genre may have to offer, I do think that understanding each conversation is invaluable to our witness as Christians and vastly important to our ability to express truth. As we discussed earlier on, since the devil has no stories, he can only pervert and twist the truths that already exist. It is our job to discern where the truths and the lies come into play. And performing that duty musically is an exciting and beautiful challenge--one in which will grow and further you as long as you continue to practice your discernment. If you lackadaisically attempt this goal, you will find your values and morals put at risk. So one of my goals in Music Club is to attack this challenge together, so we can ensure the fight for truth is at the forefront of our minds.

One last insight into melody and music in general can be seen in the following performance by Wooten's fellow band member and leader, Bela Fleck. He is known as probably the world's best banjoist. We saw him above playing with the Flecktones, making the Bluegrass genre come to life. Now we are going to look at another expression of music that lives within his banjo. Many musicians struggle to play varying musical conversations. They learn one style of play and never see the world of music beyond that genre. However, part of the reason Wooten plays so well alongside the Flecktones is because Bela Fleck knows the capacity of music outside of genre classifications. Despite Wooten's divergent background in music, he is easily able to groove along with these different artists because they each see the conversations of music beyond the barriers of style. Here we see the banjo express a whole new tone color than what is usually demanding of it. Please enjoy Bela Fleck performing the Prelude from Bach's Violin Partita No. 3:

MC Cancelled Tuesday, Resumes Wednesday

No Music Club this Tuesday. Our Lady Knights have a basketball game this Tuesday that I thought had been taken off the schedule. We will resume Wednesday. But please use this post to get a head start on any questions or ideas you had hoped to discuss!
We are going to continue our discussions on melody.

Our topics in this portion of discussion so far have included (but are not limited to):
Sound waves,
Pythagorous,
The Circle of Fourths and Fifths,
Semi-logarithmic graphs,
Staffs,
How pitches are determined,
Octave,
Key Signature,
Note System,
Diatonic Scale,
Chromatic Scale,
Whistle Tones,
Tessitura

I will be preparing more information on this site from what we've already been touching on in class, so leave comments and questions here as well!! Keep the discussion going.

Answering Questions from Class

For Clara:
I still haven't found that perfect chart that I want to demonstrate clearly the lineup of fachs, or vocal ranges, but also showing the notation. But I did find a nice video utilizing different operatic singers that compares the mezzo and soprano.

As you can hear, a lot of the notes are shared between the mezzo and soprano parts, but the sopranos offer little more in the higher notes than the mezzos in the way of duration and power.

The way to see it for the higher ranges is basically as follows:
Soprano Lirico-Coloratura
(Soprano Lirico)
Mezzo Soprano
Contralto (often confused with mezzo)
Alto

A mezzo soprano can often sing some of the same notes as a soprano, but it comes down to what is comfortable and how long their voice endures those higher notes. A coloratura is a step higher than the soprano because of their agility and flexibility while singing higher runs, also noted for more dramatic bursts and runs in their vocals.
So if the tessitura of a song (which is basically the general range of a song, or the average notes keeping within that range that an artist feels comfortable with singing) remains in a certain range comfortable for a mezzo, it can still include some of the higher notes that you may hear from a soprano, but the mezzo will simply sing them with less gusto or at a softer amplitude.

Hope that clarifies. I'll keep looking for the perfect chart I have in mind that would show the ranges clearly and include some of the other parts of information I think it should get across. If I don't find the kind of chart I am hoping to find, I might eventually just make one haha...

Concepts Behind Rhythm, Part 2

Now that we have discussed some of the primary values of rhythm as the infrastructure of music and the immediate pros/cons of the notation of "measured music," we can delve into deeper layers of rhythm.

Rhythm exists in every facet of life. It is found in the cycles of the moon and the tides. It is built into the pace of our strides and the cadence of our speech. Our very life source pumps regulated beats through our veins. And therefore, just as rhythm is found in the core of life, we can identify rhythm as the core of music.

Syllabic meter and the flow of punctuation within any poem, prose, or musical piece create the foundation by which any piece derives meaning. With any given rhythm, you can create a pattern that tells a story. Rhythm is the beginning of communication in any piece of music. Establishing a pace and flow within a song gives the listener the ability to anticipate the resulting highs and lows built into the structure of a song.

Feeling the rhythm (movement through time) connects directly to dance (movement through space). And any good dancer, regardless of style, must have this key grasp of rhythm and communication that many artists refer to as musicality.

Here we can examine a few styles of dance that exemplify good musicality:






Eleanor Powell and more, Fascinatin' Rhythm

This amazing choreography gives a great depiction of the story told by the Gershwins in their folksy and timely piece Fascintin' Rhythm. On many levels, the choreography epitomizes the song and the period in which it was made. The driving rhythm in this song is well demonstrated in each tap of the foot, the different tapping styles of the artists, and the dedication to the ongoing patterns invigoratingly repeated. Most of all, the great musicality of these artists fulfills the story created in the song.

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Kirov Ballet

 I believe that the story created in ballet is best appreciated in its full form, not in excerpts. This particular performance of Swan Lake is extremely well done and worth the time watching the full video. You can see clearly in this style how a dancer, as an artist, can manipulate every slight motion--flitting across the beat or carrying long motions over the pace--of each musical movement to tell a story. Especially in the theatrical use of ballet, the story is evermore apparent through the perfected musicality of each dancer.

Dawn Richard, Bombs Choreography

I included this style because of its distinct attention to detail in defining the story of the song. You can tell, without even looking deeply into the lyrics, that this piece is intended as a feministic and empowering story. It may have the wrong idea about how women can portray and embody true power in the sense that God intends, but the choreography very well tells their version of what it means to be a powerful woman. Their dedication to the rhythm in this song is spectacular. They utilize different hip hop styles including isolations, some threading, and tutting. They also utilize some strong influences from African dance forms. While they are using this style for personal glorification, I still believe understanding this style is important and can be redeeming for God's glory. Just watch as each step and isolated move carries out the driving pulse of the song.

While we have stuck to some basic beats for grasping rhythm, there is a bigger picture that rhythm can deliver in some of its more complex patterns. Let's take into account the late, great Dave Brubeck. We will return to him in the future because of his impact on music history and also because of his personal testimony in the face of a changing world--a world into which American music fully collides. In his travels in Turkey, he discovered a 9/8 rhythm pattern that he adopted and completely re-purposed for a new musical conversation.

Here is a bit of his story:

Dave Brubeck, from Ken Burns' Jazz



Blue Rondo à la Turk, Dave Brubeck Quartet

You can hear how the pattern of his rhythm was the perfect home for the light, yet substantive style of his alto-saxophonist, Paul Desmond.

Hopefully, through these few examples, we have opened the door to seeing rhythm as the infrastructure of music. There is always more to see and hear. So from this point, listen for the rhythms, and the patterns structured around them, in every future piece you come across. With this perspective, you can zero in on the rhythm and begin making analytical deductions concerning the worldview and message of the piece you are hearing.

By remembering that "rhythm is the how," telling us how each note is to be delivered, offering us a the weight of importance placed on each musical point, we can follow the flow and plot of any song's story line. We begin to discover the intentions of the artist and the values they want to impart with their audience. And as artists, we ourselves learn more about our ability to create and share our stories with the world.

Concepts Behind Rhythm, Part 1

 "From the time of the Greeks to the full flowering of Gregorian chant, the rhythm of music was the natural, unfettered rhythm of prose or poetic speech." 

~ Aaron Copland (27)

Rhythm is the driving force in music. It is how we play the tones. Rhythm tells us the combined sense and value of a piece's syllable and meter. Rhythm is the how of music. By relating rhythm to both the value of a syllable within a given phrase and to the meter, we can create an expressive flow giving the musical phrase its true meaning.

To help us realize and recreate rhythms, the systematic form we follow allows us to define individual beats and patterns surrounding musical phrases. A beat can be long or short. It is identified at the beginning of a piece by the time signature. The beats are most often organized in groups of two, three, or four called measures. Here are some common time signatures listed below:

As you can see, the top number relates to the number of beats per measure while the bottom number defines the value of a beat. While this concept can grow complicated, we will stick to these more common time signatures for the time being.

If you have any past experience in music, these notions may be very simple to grasp. But it is important to understand the value of rhythm for both its notation and beyond. The system of notating rhythmic value has, as Copland explains, freed artists from a "dependence on the word" (28). He adds that the notation of rhythm:
     1. supplied music with rhythmic structure of its own,
     2. made possible the exact reproduction of composers' rhythmical conceptions from generation to generation, and
     3. most of all, is responsible for contrapuntal (or many-voiced) music.

Rhythm and motion have a strong connection. According to the Harvard Dictionary of Music, rhythm is movement through time while motion is movement through space (729). With this foundation, the connection of music and dance is powerfully bound to one another. Musicality in dance links the dancers' ability to manipulate their physical body according to the conceptual expression defined by the rhythm in any given piece. But we will return to the topic of musicality again later.

Throughout the time of Western music's early development, the focus necessarily leaned toward the melodic and harmonic relationships in music. Rhythm was whatever naturally took shape in the emphasis of specific lyrics or prose. With the beginning of notated rhythms starting around 1150, simple rhythmic patterns were simply a better standard in order to develop increasingly complex melodic and harmonic relationships. In those stages, the science of instrument creation and improvement came alongside the science of developing intricate contrapuntal (many-voiced) pieces. Simple rhythm structures provided a strong foundation for the development of music over the years. Simple rhythmic patterns should not be taken for granted for the mere fact that they are simple. Take into account Copland's word on the matter: "The fascination and emotional impact of simple rhythms [...] repeated over and over again, as they sometimes are, with electrifying effect, is quite beyond analysis" (29).

However, in years to come we can see the value of investigating more complex rhythmic patterns. One of the beautiful things about jazz music is its flexibility. In jazz, we see the expanding communications and messages of music reaching further into the sphere of time movement, i.e. rhythm. 19th century composers stressed the downbeat on the alternating beat in 4/4 time:

ONE-two-THREE-four    or    one-TWO-three-FOUR

Unfortunately many music teachers to this day have been mislead into thinking this fact consequently meant the downbeat ought to always be on the one and three, or the two and four. However jazz presents some new ideas on the subject. Let's watch this fun explanation from the Duke himself, Duke Ellington:


 


As you can see, by avoiding snapping directly on the beat, you communicate a relaxed message. The language of music changes from a driving and direct idea to another message entirely. Considering the history of jazz music, which we will do more of in the future, this message is clearly connected to the worldview of the artists in this time. By listening to the rhythm and keying in on its structure, we can begin to identify the artists' worldview and the implications of that worldview. Rhythm gives a song its first implications toward its meaning and message. This notion ties us all the way back to the heartbeat. 

Our hearts beat to a rhythm, a rhythm that correlates with our lifestyles and activities. By homing in on the beat of life, you are recognizing where your values are placed. While I recognize openly that this concept is abused at times by many individuals and warped into a cheesy, wish-washy, and fruitless perspective, the truth behind this viewpoint on the beat of life is rather invaluable. To clarify, "homing in on the beat of life" is not intended to mean a sort of relative notion of deriving righteousness from within yourself or "finding the god within." Examining the beat of your own life is not a mission in developing a subjective reality of convenient truths. It ought to be quite the opposite. Relating rhythm in music to the worldview of the artist, or at least to the story the artist is trying to convey, should allow us to look introspectively at the world and our own values. Understanding rhythms on deeper and deeper levels ought to strengthen our search for truth.  

When you genuinely consider the power of a rhythm as the infrastructure of music--pertaining to the very message and meaning of any given artist or composer, you suddenly feel the weight of that message, good or bad, at your very core. Whether you're listening to booming power chords surging over a throbbing rhythm, a lyrical melody wafting over a steady beat, or perhaps an alternating pattern of tones dancing over a vibrant and convulsive pace, you are opening your ears and your heart to the story that the artist is trying to share. It would be wise to understand that pattern. Enjoy discovering the heartbeat of a song.

Hey all,

No Music Club this Tuesday! We're resuming on Wednesday.
I hope you've had a spectacular Christmas break!

Blessings,
Miss Ellis

P.S. In the meantime, enjoy this fun video from the Duke as we prepare to discus the topic of rhythm:

Duke Ellington explains the "hip" way to snap.

How We Listen

"Even the most artful of writers will give himself (and his morality) away in about every third line." ~ Joseph Conrad

 


The topic of music is expansive. It involves each arena of study--mathematics, science, art, literature, history, anthropology, etc. It is a growing organism telling the story of the ages. So to pin down both the notion of music and to become better listeners of music, we can examine how we intake music.

According to Aaron Copland in What To Listen For In Music, we can start by asking ourselves as music lovers:

1. Are we really hearing everything that is going on? (Think the notes themselves).

2. Are we really being sensitive to it? (Concerns your response to the music).

We listen to music on three planes:

1. Sensuous Plane:

     * The simplest way to listen

     * The sheer pleasure of musical sound

     * A powerful sort of escape that controls the very atmosphere of a room

     * Often a plane abused by many who consider themselves "qualified music lovers"

~ "Yes, the sound appeal of music is a potent and primitive force, but you must not allow it to usurp a disproportionate share of your interest. The sensuous plane is an important one in music, a very important one, but it does not constitute the whole story" (8).

2. Expressive Plane:

     * Asks the question, "Is there a meaning to music?"

     * Can be controversial topic.
            a.) Some artists believe the expressive meaning to music only goes as deep as its own musical existence and no more. Stravinsky, for example, saw music as an object "with a life of its own" (9). Stravinsky's view may be taken into consideration when you see how often certain views are read into certain pieces without proper context. Often the views of an artist are mismanaged by the hearer. The misinterpretation has the capacity to pull away from the overall notion of musical life within any given piece.
             b.) Others believe that music must have a deeper expressive value that roots itself both within the audience and the composer. The point above is valid, "But that should not lead one to the other extreme of denying to music the right to be 'expressive.'" He continues by saying that, yes, music does have meaning. However, "'Can you state in so many words what the meanings is?' My answer to that would be, 'No.' Therein lies the difficulty."

~  "The musician, in his exasperation, says it means nothing but the notes themselves, whereas the nonprofessional is only too anxious to hang on to any explanation that gives him the illusion of getting closer to the music's meaning" (12).

3. Purely Musical Plane:
     * Value derived from the notes themselves and their manipulations.
     * Often musicians are too conscious of this plane, denying the purpose and power of the Sensuous and Expressive planes. As exemplified in Stravinsky's view mentioned above.
     * Musical Elements:
               1. Rhythm is the how.
               2. Melody is the what.
               3. Harmony is the why and relationships.
               4. Tone Color is the who and story-telling.
 (We will continue to expand on this plane throughout the rest of the year).
~ "The intelligent listener must be prepared to increase his awareness of the musical material and what happens to it. He must hear the melodies, the rhythms, the harmonies, the tone colors in a more conscious fashion. But above all he must, in order to follow the line of the composer's thought, know something of the principles of musical form. Listening to all of these elements is listening on the sheerly musical plane" (13).


At this intersection, we owe this topic a little more discussion. Copland refers to a woman who came to him with the unfortunate reality that she found her appreciation of music lacking because she was often unable to connect it with anything definite. She was suggesting that because she couldn't listen to a piece and close her eyes to imagine real material objects or events, she must not be fully appreciating the music. To which Copland simply explains, "That is getting the whole thing backwards, of course" (10). Music cannot always be assessed for physical, tangible value. When I listen to Afternoon of a Faun, I can easily imagine a dewy meadow in which a faun is frolicking about nibbling grass. Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn 
It is a beautifully expressive flute introduction. When I combine the tone color and expression of that very telling flute with what the composer has provided in his context, a clear story unfolds. However, not only can this piece be evaluated for historical context and musical quality, the expression of this piece offers more than any exact image. That is one of the beautiful truths of music. The intention of any artist to tell a story musically is then compounded by the hearer's intention to grow from listening.

When you read a book like For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, you might only discover the story of a soldier doing his job and finding love. You would gain the gist of the author's intent, but you might be missing the real power of the book by denying the cultural and personal introspection obtainable in having read it. By allowing the expressive value of the piece take full shape, you might discover how you yourself define love and be surprised by how that impacts your own moral code.

Herein lies the power and confusion of music. While it is important to grasp and attain as much as you can of the story that a composer is telling musically, it is then equally important to discover and reflect upon the cultural and personal significance of that story.

Copland is but a step away from my conclusions concerning assessing musical expression. He states, "How close should the intelligent music lover wish to come to pinning a definite meaning to any particular work? No closer than a general concept" (10). And I appreciate and enjoy his explanation:
"Music expresses, at different moments, serenity or exuberance, regret or triumph, fury or delight. [Take note of the extremes Copland puts hand in hand.] It expresses each of these moods, and many others, in a numberless variety of subtle shadings and differences.  It may even express a state of meaning for which there exists no adequate word in any language. In that case, musicians often like to say that it only has a purely musical meaning. What they really mean is that no appropriate word can be found to express the music's meaning and that, even if it could, they do not feel the need of finding it."

While I concur with the notion he is touching on, I do believe that both professional musician and novice alike ought to reach deeper than a general concept of any given piece before letting it rest. The general concept is a great place to start. How do you feel when listening to a piece? What notions are coming to your mind? 

Then you must make the next step of deciphering the patterns within the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, tone color, structure, etc. What do they convey about a general concept? What story can you put together? After you answer some of those questions, you can begin to ascertain that historical and biographical context is the next important step. How do the musical patterns of the piece fit into history? Does it reveal more about the general concept, or does it bring about specific revelations directly linked to the artist's intent? Who was the artist? Why did they care enough about those musical patterns to utilize them in telling a story? Why would they concern themselves with said expressions in the first place? What clues does that give us about the song's story? 

Then from historical and biographical context, we need to understand the big picture. What does the piece tell us about the culture we live in or the cultures that came before us? Then we ask ourselves, "how should we then live?" What can we understand about ourselves and our own views that either is in need of correction or confirming? How can we apply those lessons to reach the hurting world around us? How can we relate those truths to ourselves and our testimony as it applies to others? 

The range of this analytical approach is broad and wide, however it is not at all "general" as we might consider. Sometimes we confuse those two ideas. The idea of "seeing the big picture" is not an ability to see the general concept or to view things from a bird's eye view. It is the ability to see all the little details and pieces in relation to each other and yourself. 

I believe in theory, Copland would probably agree with that approach. He would probably attest however that in using this approach, no two people might ever completely agree with the meaning of any given song. And therefore perhaps there is no one meaning. And that that is how it ought to be. He would be right,  right only inasmuch as our short perception on earth can allot us. However, as a Christian, I believe that there is always an ultimate truth emanating from the Ordained Creator. It is our duty to delve into the meaning as much as possible, discover as much truth as we can handle, debate these meanings to reach a better understanding of our own beliefs and perhaps be proven wrong often, and trust in the truth we will one day come to know, not dimly but clearly (1 Corinthians 13). A joyous and hope-filled task, no doubt.

The danger within much of modern music is that expression is treated in extremes of self-promotion. In which case an artist is creating something that denies an awareness of one's value in time and space. Artists often create pieces that are so self-involved that communication breaks down. And therefore the piece can mean anything to any person, which then leads to the possibility that it may mean nothing at all. This form of expression not only denies the ability to communicate musically, but it also revokes music of its most honorable and beautiful power. It effectively denies God his due glory and diminishes the mysterious grandeur of music.

With that said, even this form of music can still be redeemed, not directly but by applying a discerning eye. To explain, let's take into account a tool utilized by one of literature's most distinguished story-tellers, Charles Dickens. He once said, "One of my most consistent and earnest endeavors has been to exhibit in all of my good people some faint reflections of our Master [...]" (Literature Lectures from Bleymaier 2005). He defined realistic truth by using God as the yardstick. When his characters proved "good," they were mirroring God. Therefore in the inverse application of that tool, when his characters proved "bad," they were reflecting the contradiction to that yardstick. Therefore when we examine a piece of music that was created without any rooted identity or is fundamentally self-interested, we can still use a discerning eye to discover truth. By applying the view Dickens took concerning his characters, we can listen to the most obtuse and uncommunicative pieces to realize truths about creation and thereby the Creator. We actually get an opportunity to sharpen the sword of discernment, cutting through the gristle to reach the meat.

As listeners and lovers of music, we should strengthen our discerning ears and look to delve deeper into any piece we hear to glean real truth. As music creators, we should take these notions deeply to heart. We should find ourselves capable of communicating truth and expressing our identity in Christ by which we are uniquely set apart through circumstance and spiritual growth. The more we know of our identity in Christ--whether strong or weak, growing or withering--the more we can exemplify the need for a Savior, the more we can glorify God, the more we can communicate truth.

Rookmaaker, author and art aficionado, explains a poignant definition of truth that any creator or lover of music should take into account when looking for the expressive value of any piece of music. He states:
"Truth in art does not mean doing accurate copies, but that the artist's insight is rich and full, that he really has a good view of reality, that he does justice to the different elements of the aspect of reality he is representing. Truth has to do with the fullness of reality, its scope and meaning [...] It is artistic truth!" (237)

What a lovely view to hold concerning the expression of truth! As ages pass and the mediums of music grow and contort with technological expansion, truth remains the same. The fullness of reality is told in both the highs and lows of life. Which when we consider the picture of extremes we painted earlier, the utter evil on one hand and the utter good on the other,

                                                                                              Black                             G                         White

                                                                                              Sin                                 R                         Righteousness

                                                                                              Ugly                              A                         Beautiful 

                                                                                              Lost                               C                         Found

                                                                                              Despair                          E                          Hope

we see that both extremes are part of reality. Extremes of depression and joy both depict truths concerning the human condition and our Creator. When an artist lives in one extreme without balance, he denies the fullness of reality and denies truth. We looked last time at Psalm 13 from David. He began with despair and ended recognizing God's faithful love. The two extremes live much closer than we imagine. But not through a moral relativity that denies the reality of extremes, but rather only through grace. No other bridge offers passage between the two worlds.

Now let's put our discernment to action.
Please listen to and discuss here and/or in Music Club:

Gregorian Chant, Monastic Choir of the Abbey of St. Pierre de Solesmes, 1930

Well Tempered Clavichord, Bach

Rite of Spring, Stravinsky (One of Four)

Allegro Barbaro, Béla Bartok

Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin

And again with these new tools discussed, I Will Follow You Into The Dark, Death Cab For Cutie