Okay, I got a little behind so this may be brief. Not only that the class period itself was rather brief due to the Fall revival. Yet we needed to discuss Xenakis and John Cage a little more. We listened to Xenakis and watched the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yztoaNakKok. While the students generally did not respond with shouts of acclamation, perhaps some did find some merit in the sound that matches the visual image.
But the point of the Xenakis excerpt is to relate the visual imagery and the architectural designs to the changes in sound. While our perspective may relate the sounds to fear or agitation, this is probably a socialized reaction and not necessarily associated to truth. Preference for particular sounds is certainly respected and acknowledged, but since the human spirit has a great capacity for creativity, respect for the original, including textures, should be given to the person who wrote the music. In this case--Xenakis.
Our discussion took us to John Cage and his views of sound and silence. Perhaps in the end, the ambiguity of what is music is actually liberating and oddly enriching. Furthermore, maybe by increasing our awareness of music's potential and our ability to hear all around us as music, we grow as humans and as musicians. Maybe, too, such acknowledgment allows us to demystify the creative process and the organized system we know as music. At the same time, perhaps broadening our views of music helps us to give greater respect to the discipline, the cognition, and the skill of music regardless of its final product.
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You are all going to get very tired of me talking about this subject, but it is one that I'm passionate about, and at this season of my life one that I think about a lot and try to connect to everything.
ReplyDeletePart of the issue, I believe, with the question of "what is art?", arose when Adam and Eve decided it would be nice to have the knowledge of good and evil...they thought it would make them wise, but all it did was show us all how limited we really are without God. And so we have these issues that are so foundational, like "what is art?", and we cannot come to a consensus on it.
Knowing that we'll never solve this one until Jesus comes back, frees us up to consider each thing on it's own merits.
Funny that Dr. Tucker mentioned the urinal on the wall. You know, I think that the plumber who installed it could say that it was art...maybe it was the best one he'd ever installed, and he did it with a right heart and a desire to serve his fellow man!
I find it interesting, though, that of everything Cage and Dr. Tucker said, how much they just love sound and how they accept the sound as it is, and appreciate it for itself...they both still organize it to suit them.
And so did Xenakis. I found it interesting that I could differentiate some sound "themes" in the video. He carefully chose his samples and sounds...sometimes the drawings in the same place on the graph produced a different sound.
So why choose sound at all? If it is to be accepted "as is", then we should not be choosing it. We should just allow it to happen. We are judging when we choose sounds to put into a piece of "music". So should we not be doing that?
On the other hand...if we bring this back to theology, then we have the command of God to subdue the earth, as well as God's observation that everything He had made (including sound!) was good. Sound is good, because God made it. Just like everything else here on earth, He commands us to properly use it.
I hear a lot of schizophrenia in that we try to define music, yet we are cautioned not to judge music. By definition, defining makes a judgement! Defining says a thing is what it is because it is not this other thing.
In order to accomodate everyone's idea of music, we have made a definition that is almost all-encompassing. But I think that is scriptural...if God can include the sound waves produced by distant stars as music by designating that as singing, then we are biblically accurate to include all sound as music.
I think it will help to ask ourselves, when we are listening to music "what does God mean by this sound?". That is a type of evaluation that is useful. John Cage or Xenakis may mean one thing by establishing an order for certain sounds, but what did God mean by allowing them to organize the sound in such a way?
We may never know until Heaven. But isn't it an important question to ask? And doesn't it eliminate some of the immature judging of sound as music/not music that is going on...the "it's not music because I don't like it" judgement?
Just some thoughts.
Esther
I don't think it's necessary or even important to have one solid definition of what music is.
ReplyDeleteI do think John Cage did just enjoy sound as it happened, unorganized and unscripted. His piece 4'33 is a prime example.
I don't think that defining all sound as music or not has any significance on its beauty or purpose. I do, however, think that defining all sound as music makes the word mean nothing.
ReplyDeletethat last comment was Stephen.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to accept sound. It is a beautiful gift of God. The sound of the trees in the wind as you walk through campus, the sound of construction, and the sound of home. Sound is a reminder of the pleasant experiences we've had in life.
ReplyDeleteSound is beautiful. It may not be pleasant sometimes, but it is beautiful.