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July 15, 2009Cruel fate waltzes.“What’s the relevanceOF ALL THIS MUSICAL LINGUISTICS?Can it lead us to an answer of Charles Ives’ ‘Unanswered Question,’ ‘Whither music?’ and even if it eventually can, does it matter? The world totters, governments crumble, and we are poring over musical phonology, and now, syntax. Isn’t it a flagrant case of elitism? Well, in a way it is. Certainly not elitism of class—economic, social or ethnic—but of curiosity, that special inquiring quality of the intelligence, and it was ever thus. “But these days, the search for meaning through beauty and vice versa, becomes even more important as each day mediocrity and art-mongering increasingly uglify our lives, and the day when this search for John Keats’ Truth/Beauty ideal becomes irrelevant, then we can shut up and go back to our caves.” LEONARD BERNSTEINprefaced Lecture Two, “Syntax,” of his six-lecture series “The Unanswered Question,” presented to Harvard music students in 1973, with what appears to be a justification for the series, answering those who had questioned the relevance of his theme. Using linguistics to demonstrate musical structures, Bernstein plays three notes on the piano, a motif from Wagner known to be a theme representing “fate,” which he turns into a musical sentence, “Cruel fate waltzes.” I think it’s something like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Sometimes, when circumstances take an unexpected turn, I think to myself, “Fate’s waltzing again.” RELEVANCE IS RELATIVE.Some things are relevant only to those who are interested or involved in that thing. A textbook on Marine Biology is irrelevant to me, but certainly not to the student of it, to the ecologist, to concerned citizens. For my part it makes sense to leave Marine Biology to the experts. I don’t have a mind for science and nothing to contribute, except perhaps donations. “SO WHAT?you ask?,” Bernstein asks the class, probably just as many students were thinking the same. “Why burden us with all this pedantic hairsplitting? Isn’t this all stuff for the musicologists?” Even among specialists, there are specialists. And there are special audiences, or clients, for those specialists, however narrow their field of study, however small the audience. IT’S CLEAR TO MEfrom this series, that though I’ve heard Mozart’s 40th Symphony dozens of times, I’ve never heard it at all, in the way a composer or conductor or musician hears it, all the way along appreciating the subtleties and structures of how it’s put together. All I hear is whether the music sounds pleasant to me, or intriguing, or passionate, or appealing enough to want to hear again. This whole series, the six “Unanswered Question” lectures, far too advanced for my musical understanding, is relevant to me because I love classical music and hope to pick up more understanding of it, even in bits and pieces, from one of the greatest minds of the 20th century—Leonard Bernstein. WHAT ARE YOU GETTING AT?An undergraduate student buttonholed Bernstein in Harvard Yard and asked him what is it all leading to, to apply transformational grammar to musical structure? Well, the answer is contained in six CDs with over 13 hours of discussion and musical examples. BUT WHAT AM I GETTING AT?I’m writing a novel. There’s a worldwide population for whom that word makes my work instantly irrelevant. “I don’t read novels.” But I’m still going to write one, because it was given to me to do so, because creative writing is my area of acuity, however small my audience (consisting, simply, of people who like my work). It would be a ridiculous waste of my talent for language to apply myself to Marine Biology, when there are those who have a natural affinity and aptitude for it. We are all given our portion. I have a proposal in progress for an unusual work of illustrated poetry. Got some short fiction going and always poetry. I’m assembling my travel journals into a book. A contest is coming up. And, I write this column. For the hell of it. This is my playground. I come here to hang out and relax. My topic is whatever I want it to be. Whatever I’m thinking, feeling, experiencing, observing (tetracolon climax alert!). I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROLof my day, 100%, from the time I get up until I go to sleep. I bought that freedom with my home, the 2-BR Lower Haight Victorian flat I sold last year. I’m investing the proceeds in myself, in my faith in myself as a writer. I’ve given myself the time and freedom to write. But when you have no significant other, no one to coordinate your day around, you have to be your own touchstone, your own guidepost, your own manager (tricolon alert). Every day you have to remind yourself, why you do what you do. Here’s today’s answer. WELL, I SIMPLY MUST.It was given to me to do so. If ever I falter, I remember one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever received, from a reader in Australia: “I love your blog - it soothes me and broadens my understanding of what it is to be a human being.” If I write about anything I would say it is that, just being and staying a human being in this difficult century. My world revolves around passion and art. Someone’s got to take care of the Marine Biology, and someone the art. Such is my portion.
The author’s in love with this incredible phenomenon! ------------------------------------------------------------ Want to hear a story
It's Waltz Time! Hey Walt--what time is it? 'round about 8. This has been Waltz Time. copyright Alexandra Jones 2009 |
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