dropping

About a month ago I blogged about taking a music theory class that examined the repertoires of selected modernist composers. While I was concerned about my ability to take a music theory course, I had high hopes for this class. I particular, I hoped to integrate music theory in my ethnographic studies of new music. Perhaps I would learn of certain analytic metaphors that would correspond to some aspect of my fieldwork.

Last week, I dropped the course from my schedule. In spite of the instructor's assurances to the opposite, I felt that my perspective was not really welcome. I also had trouble analyzing pieces of music with the hopes of explaining how they "worked." All of my training has encouraged me to approach music subjectively and with a consideration to the sociocultural domain. The literature we read for the class, however, seemed concerned with proving some sort of structural functionalism, and always carried an assumption of intrinsic worth and operation. I just couldn't do it.

Dropping that class was scary, but I feel like it was the right thing to do. I found the obliteration of living people from the musical works troubling, and I kept remembering interviews with musicians who work hard at connecting people and music through physical action. Don't their efforts count for something?

But I did learn a few important things. I'm starting to believe that the scientific and structuralist approach seeks to explain the deeply personal and spiritual experiences of classical music theorists. By adopting an ostensibly objective approach, the theorist seems to preserve the integrity of a sacred object. The resulting object's autonomy is part of an extremely important aspect of art music culture, and art culture in general, as sociologist Pierre Bourdieu has argued.

So now I find myself wondering about and examining how I experience music, especially classical music. To what extent do I experience musical works as powerful sacred objects? Only recently have I become aware of the bodies that make musical works, a subject Suzanne Cusick has written about and that ethnomusicology has become deeply concerned with. As a person who basically loves classical music, how are my beliefs and experiences shaped by an aesthetic of autonomy?

a/rhythmia, again

I've finally gotten around to listening to Alarm Will Sound's new album, a/rhythmia, and I've gotta say something. It totally rocks. The group displays an amazing range of musical styles, and presents them in a really pleasing arrangement. One track moves easily to the next, shifting from the playful frivolity of "Highland Balls and Village Halls" from Animals and the Origin of Dance by Benedict Mason to the happy innocence of Conlon Noncarrow's Player Piano Study 6. This is just a great album, a real pleasure. Alarm Will Sound sounds terrific, in my opinion better than on some of their other albums. While I'm likely to later deconstruct the album and explore the cultural politics therein, for now I'm having a great time listening. Buy this album!