Chris Rotherham Music

So about a month ago my brother Tom (Guitarist/ Trumpet player in Captain Flatcap) finished his A Level Music-Philosophy Dissertation entitled “An investigation into musical aesthetics in the western music culture centered on value, considering the listener’s perspective only, and with a theme of popular music.”

It quite honestly blew my mind and I've been saying to many many people that they MUST read it! Thus I have uploaded it in full (see below).

Enjoy and please feel free to pass on!

Extended Project Qualification –

Dissertation

“An investigation into musical aesthetics in the western music culture centered on value, considering the listener’s perspective only, and with a theme of popular music.”

Thomas Rotherham

See bottom for glossary

Section 1 - A

If I were to put my dissertation title in the form of a question it could not be fully answered. The issue of value in musical aesthetics is an incredibly vast branch of Musicology. Philosophical thought in the topic seems endless and draws few very significant conclusions. In addition, the issue of art’s aesthetics has arguably had poor treatment. Few musicians who wrote about the issue were philosophers, and authors of significant works, such as Hegel and Kant, were not musicians and failed to delve into issues with specific examples, tending to give more general observations. Having said this, I think the issue of value in musical aesthetics is important to investigate. My position is that if we as a people understand more about concepts of musical aesthetics, then perhaps composers would be able to compose more skillfully, performers perform and interpret works more skillfully, and listeners listen to music with greater value, meaning the overall quality of the process of musical communication would rise, and artists should receive acclaim more deservedly; more fitting to the value of their works. Because of the broadness of my investigation, I have decided that my dissertation will cover a handful of issues of musical aesthetics which interest me personally.

Section 1 - B

To start with, I am going to hand-pick some philosophical thoughts which I think are relevant and significant to my project, and briefly explain them. Kant’s highly influential book ‘Critique of Judgement’ said that talented composers would generate strong aesthetic ideas and find a tasteful mode of expression for the ideas which allows the listener to ‘understand’ the work conceptually, and most significantly reach the same aesthetic state that the composer had in creating the aesthetic idea. In Kant’s view, ‘understanding’ a piece meant knowing the meaning behind a piece, which is normally revealed by texts. Therefore, Kant’s formalist referentialism (I will explain this later) argued that instrumental music is beautiful but effectively trivial, in that it does not engage the understanding sufficiently, as it lacks specific reference to the ‘phenomenal world’. Hegel’s more expressionist views, however, although agreeing with Kant in that music is able to express feelings with especial clarity when it is accompanied by a text, argues that in these cases it is the lyrics that accompany the music, for it is primarily the music which determines the aesthetic ideas. Hegel seems to disregard instrumental music, because he thought it was only for the music expert who is able to follow the music’s inner, technical workings; the formalist. In addition, Hegel thought that the secret to ‘ideal’ music is to enable the listener to enjoy a sense of reconciliation and satisfaction in what he hears.

In regards to some more specific theories of value in music, Leonard Meyer realised that emotion is produced from manipulation of the listener’s expectations and thought that a good piece of music should find a midway between the expected and the unexpected. Schopenhauer’s book ‘Will and Representation’ shows he believed we are almost constantly suffering, because we almost constantly desire something. He thought that the only consolation from this is when our desires are fulfilled, and when we enter what he called the ‘aesthetic method of consideration’. Therefore he thought the value of a piece of music depends on the length and intensity that it allows the listener to exist in this state. Alfred Einstein comments in his book ‘Greatness in Music’ that good music is the construction of an ‘inner world’ of the composer, and the communication of this ‘inner world’ to the physical world of humanity. Lastly, Roger Sessions was very concerned with music’s relationship with time and says in his book ‘Musical experience of Performer, Listener, Composer’ that great music should be “capable of presenting different aspects to different generations and retain its vitality through all interpretations.”

Section 2 - A

Ontological issues in music, though not directly related to musical aesthetics and value, are nevertheless important to consider and bear in mind when researching and writing about topics of musicology. The issue I have found most interesting was what a definition of music could be. Development of music over the last century has forced us to reconsider the definition of music. Recent electronic music, particularly some forms of dubstep, might be considered by some (particularly the elderly, who are not as accustomed to the ideas of the genres as the young are) as hardly music, but rather noise or sounds to a drum beat. The music places more importance on timbre interaction, or ‘sound design’, over other fundamental musical features, particularly melody and harmony (I will go into this in more detail later). Experimental music has similarly challenged the definition of music. John Cage started writing for prepared piano in 1940. His pieces, like recent electronic music, place importance of timbre over other fundamental features of music, particularly melody, which is essentially non-existent. Up until very recently, I accepted the common term ‘organised sound’ as a definition of music - it seems to allow to an extent for (as far as I am aware) every piece of music one might care to mention. However, there are a few flaws in the term, for example Aleotoric music can only said to be organised to an extent. Also, John Cage’s ‘4,33’ implies that all there needs to be for music to occur is a planned gathering of people. Furthermore, one could say that the beeping of an alarm clock is organised sound. Therefore, as happens so often in philosophical subjects, the discussion of what defines music is ongoing; one cannot draw a valid conclusion on the topic.

Section 2 - B

One of the three main reasons one values music is because of its expressive qualities. That is, we enjoy a piece of music because of the ideas, moods, and feelings it expresses. Generally, the more intense the expressive aesthetic effect of a piece of music has on us, the more one values it. One who believes the value of a piece of music is primarily emotional may be called an ‘expressionist’. The second of the three reasons we value music is because of its ‘artistic’ qualities. That is, one may derive ‘intellectual’ aesthetic enjoyment from understanding the ‘form’ of a piece and the way the musical features interact. One who believes the value of a piece of music is primarily intellectual may be called a ‘formalist’. The third reason one might value music is because we associate it with something. It is (to an extent) able to articulate a ‘vision’, or reference the extra-musical. One who might believe that value of music lies primarily in its ability to reference the extra-musical may be called a referentialist.

However, music is arguably not as concerned with this value as other art forms. This ability to reference the extra-musical, according to Leonard Meyer in his book ‘emotion and meaning in music’, is merely a coincidental by-product of music, and secondary to the emotional and intellectual values – music “employs no signs or symbols referring to the non-musical world of objects, concepts, and human desires”. I agree with this thought, because music, or at least lyric-less music, is different to the other art forms as it is the only one which must manifest without explicit reference to the ‘phenomenal world’. That is, it is incapable of referencing specific moments, events, people etc, whereas other art forms are. Admittedly, a trumpet fanfare may, for instance, spur an image of a soldier giving a salute, but these ideas will differ greatly person to person, and cannot reference a specific soldier giving a salute at a specific battle, whereas other art forms can. Admittedly music with lyrics can do this, but the ability is still not musical, as it is simply borrowing the abilities of language. Therefore, I think Meyer’s judgement that the referentialist position is secondary in terms of value is valid. In terms of the modern day in western musical culture, I argue that most people are primarily expressionists, because the majority of people are the listeners, who do not fully understand the precise musical relationships which the formalist values, so do not fully receive music’s intellectual aesthetics.

Section 2 - Ci

One of my objectives for my project was to find out why people respond differently to various styles/artists. I can say with confidence I have discovered this. This is for various reasons. Firstly, not everyone understands the complex relationships in music as well as I, someone knowledgeable in music theory and experienced in analysing music from a formalist perspective. Not everyone is able to enjoy the intellectual aesthetics of music. The second reason I will come to, but first I think it is necessary to comment on some other philosophical thoughts. Without going into too much depth, Schopenhauer says in his book ‘Will and Representation’ that aesthetic experience arises from “two inseparable acts” - the first being the “will-less state of contemplation” of a piece of music, and the second being the “correlative awareness” of an idea. For example, one might contemplate a trumpet fanfare like melody, and connect it to the idea of triumph. I agree with this thought, simply because I struggle to think of any instance of aesthetic experience of listening to music which does not arise from this. This method seems to apply equally well when considering intellectual aesthetic experience, as one might contemplate a piece of music, and identify what one hears as, for example, a sequence – an idea which one may already be aware of. Therefore value can be given to a piece of music which is successful in communicating certain ideas through music. As Paul Hindemith states in his book ‘A composers world – horizons and limitations’ – “it is the composers job to know about the musical intellectual-emotional effects and to compose skilfully to create their expected influence”.

Returning to the reasons why people respond differently to different styles and pieces of music, it is the association of music with ideas which Schopenhauer speaks of which contributes to a listener’s perception of a piece. We all have different personalities; we have lived in different times, experienced different things, and in epistemological terms, know different ‘truths’ and believe different things. It is because of these differences that we find the ideas conveyed by music varyingly expressive, and varyingly intensive/appealing in terms of aesthetic enjoyment. Genres of music generally have their own certain expressive qualities, which people respond to differently. For example, many people, including myself, often find 20^th century music difficult, because of its expressive qualities caused by its atonality, chromaticism, or harsh dissonances. Of course, this is a generalisation, but I do think it is fair to say that the average person in the western music culture has developed tonal expectation, and will therefore not respond positively to the expressive qualities of 20^th century music.

Section 2 - Cii

This analysis of reasons for difference in perception of music naturally leads to the subject of how one can have a basis for a justified evaluation of value of a piece of music. This matter was commented on quite well by Malcolm Budd in his book ‘Music and the emotions: the philosophical theories’ where he says "It is only when the listener understands the work that the value of the work can be realised”. Although I agree with what Budd says, I argue that he fails to take into account that although one may understand a piece intellectually, one may not have an emotive aesthetic response to it, depending on the piece’s expressive ideas, and without this response one cannot evaluate its expressive value. To offer a more concise summary of the matter I would change the quote slightly. I argue that ‘It is only when the listener understands the musical work and has a fitting emotive aesthetic response from it that the value of the work can be evaluated with justification’ is better summary of the matter.

Section 2 - D

I mentioned earlier that the western music culture has developed tonal expectation, which prevents people from embracing less tonal music. This is a good example of the power of expectation in music. If a piece of music completely goes against the expectations of the listener, the listener often responds negatively to it. Also, manipulation of expectations is a powerful compositional technique. As Meyer explains in his book ‘emotion and meaning in music’, when a piece of music has been composed skillfully to “delay”, “temporarily thwart”, and “ultimately fulfill” the listener’s expectations, the piece of music generally produces a significant aesthetic response from the listener. I agree with this thought. When, for example, a piece of classical music is drawing to a close, the composer often toys with the listener’s expectations by using certain techniques. Often there will be a long pedal on the dominant, which seems to go on and on before finally resolving to the tonic. This is an example of delaying the listener’s expectations, before fulfilling them, to produce a more intense aesthetic response. The music may not even use this perfect cadence but instead use and interrupted cadence to temporarily thwart the listener’s expectations before fulfilling them with a perfect cadence at some later stage. Additionally, modern electronic music often uses the ‘delay’ technique with great significance, when building up to a long awaited ‘drop’. A song which does this with particular significance is Nero’s ‘Angst’. Therefore, I conclude that Meyer is correct in that aesthetics are produced from “creating and controlling deviations from expectations” and that a piece that does this well can have high value placed upon it. An example of this is the finale of Haydn’s ‘Joke’ Quartet, Opp.33, No. 2. In which the listener’s expectations are delayed by the pauses, which makes the listener unsure as to where the piece ends.

However, I argue that Meyer places too much priority over the manipulation of expectations. To me, he seems to imply that it is the most important method of creating an aesthetic experience. I however, argue that manipulation of expectations varies significantly in importance between different forms of music. In terms of popular music, there are countless works, indeed genes that hardly manipulate my expectations at all but simply fulfill them, and still bring significant aesthetic enjoyment. For example, the 12 bar blues style is such that the listener’s expectations are not manipulated, as the very heart of the music is determined by the never changing chord sequence. Indeed, the lengths of most pieces of popular music restrict its potential to develop expectations very far at all. This is not to say that popular music doesn’t use the expectations at all; a very common technique of delaying expectations is extending the buildup before a ‘drop’ in a piece of electronic music. Nevertheless, I argue that the technique of manipulating expectations is generally less a part of what creates the aesthetics of much of most popular music than, say, classical music.

Section 2 - Ei

Timbre and sound design often have higher importance placed on them than other musical features in popular music, particularly in dubstep. Whether this has any effect on the value of the music IS debatable. In terms of popular music generally, although timbre is very significant in its aesthetics, for example the timbre of singers voices, the common distorted guitar timbre, it normally does not take too much priority over other musical features such as melody and harmony which still remain integral parts of the music. However, in modern electronic music in particular, the composer has to be knowledgeable in sound design and production techniques, as the timbres of the music and how they interact and blend is crucial in its aesthetics. This is so crucial that sound design often has a vastly higher priority placed upon it than other musical features. For example, some dubstep uses virtually no melodies other than that of the bass-line, and almost no harmony (at the extreme), arguably because the frequencies where those melodies and harmonies would be are taken up by other parts which often play the same line as the bass, an octave or two highe. This is done to enhance the timbre of dubstep, to create a very particular, very significant new musical expression (often referred to as ‘dirty’, indeed I have heard peers use the word ‘filth’ as slang for the name of a form of dubstep), thus showing the importance of sound design over other musical features. One could then argue that this music places much higher value on expressionist aesthetics than formalist aesthetics, which are virtually non-existent. However, I argue that although the development of this sort of music has caused a diminishing importance of crucial formalist values such as melody and harmony, new formalist values have been created. Electronic music has created new compositional techniques, specific to electronic music, which can be identified by a listener learned in the field of music technology and enjoyed intellectually, as formalistic value.

Section 2 - Eii

There has been much discussion over the aesthetics of popular music. Some of the most significant philosophical thought on popular music is that of Theodore Adorno. In his book ‘Philosophy of Modern Music’, he explains many reasons for why he believes popular music has little value. For example, Adorno maintains that this ‘lower’ music essentially uses “obsolete and degenerated material” of past ‘higher’ music. I disagree with this in the main because although popular music takes influence from past music, for example the very common chord progressions using chords I, IV, and V, this is not obsolete or degenerated as popular music has found various ways to make these influences their own, for example using I, IV, and V in ‘power chords’, with a very original and significant distorted guitar timbre. Therefore, the fact that popular music has taken influence from past music does not lower its value. Adorno also comments on the effect of the capitalist culture on music. He states that there is constant demand for the familiar and easily recognizable, for example easily memorable melodic fragments, and that the capitalist culture encourages music to be composed like this. He states that because of this, music has become very formulaic and similar, and so the ‘culture industry’ is responsible for “slowing down musical progress” in terms of the development of music. Again I disagree with this judgment, because although one can see formulas and similarities throughout much popular music, more so in some forms than others, these features are not close to being common enough throughout popular music to have a significant effect in slowing down the progression of music as a whole. Admittedly, one could argue that many modern composers and performers are significantly influenced by the ‘cycle’ created by the ‘culture industry’ and to an extent follow the trend, but I think that music is still developing at a fast a rate as during previous eras of music, if not faster. Evidence to support this thought can be seen when considering the astronomical developments electronic music has undergone in recent years, in terms of the creation of many new genres and sub-genres which include very original material.

Section 2 - Eiii

‘Adorno, Modernism and Mass Culture’ by Max Paddison highlights some important issues to consider when reading Adorno’s works. Essentially, it explains that Adorno can be considered “prejudiced, arrogant and uninformed” in his critiques of popular music. He seems to have bracketed all popular music together in value and methods of composition. He doesn’t consider that ‘standardised’ music may contain significant fragments of ‘non-standardised music’ and most significantly he does not distinguish between any forms of popular music, from jazz, to folk, and to dance. However, this is not to say that Adorno’s thoughts are entirely without purpose. Paddison goes on to say that “at least one of these forms of popular music” can justify Adorno’s judgments – the commercial hit song. In this instance I agree with Adorno’s comments of the culture industry, as the ‘hit pop-song’ uses simple, mechanical and formulaic ‘tricks’ to create emotive aesthetic enjoyment. As Meyer comments in ‘Emotion and Meaning’, “music does not need much sophistication to arouse emotion”. I think these compositional methods are inartistic because it means the primary motivation behind the composition was to attract as many people as possible for the purpose of making money, rather than communicating one’s inner aesthetic ideas, deriving from love for music, to the listener. Furthermore, the ‘hit pop-song’ generally seems to contain almost none of these personal ideas, and is therefore without style and in essence the same thing over and over. As Roger Sessions put it in his book ‘Musical experiences of the performer, listener and composer’ – “A healthy music culture is one which the creative function, arising from love for music, is the primary function”.

Section 3

In summary, the most significant conclusions my broad investigation has drawn are in the matters of the effects of manipulation of expectations, Adorno’s criticisms of the aesthetics of popular music, formalist and expressionist qualities of electronic music, particularly dubstep, the reasons for difference in perception of music, the significance of the referentialist position, and how one can have a basis for justified evaluation of a musical work.

My musical background is quite varied. From a performing perspective, I play popular music on electric guitar, bass guitar, and trumpet and have been classically trained in classical guitar, recorders, trumpet, and music theory from an early age. From a compositional perspective I use music technology to write many forms of electronic music. Finally, from a listening perspective I listen the vast amounts of many forms of popular music, but still encounter classical music almost constantly in my home. This background is the cause for my project, and my listening habits had an impact on the choosing of my dissertation title.

I judge that if anything, I am an ‘absolute expressionist’ – the position which combines the formalist and expressive values, but places slightly more emphasis on expressionism. However, I find it hard to assert myself whole-heartedly to this view, because there are pieces of music I value hugely, but much more for their formalist aspects than their expressive qualities. Having said this, I often find 20^th century music difficult, because I generally dislike the expressive qualities it uses. Therefore I can only value the formalist aspects of a piece as long as its expressive aspect is not unappealing.

There are few significant conclusions in the matter of value in music. However, I think I have developed one significant and justified evaluation. This is in the matter of the value of the ‘hit pop song’ genre. In my view, a particularly significant criteria of value for a musical work is what the primary motivation for the composition is. As I have already argued, the primary motivation behind the composition of ‘the hit pop song’ genre is to make money, rather than communicating personal aesthetic ideas to the listeners, derived from love for music. The composition methods seem to be almost entirely ‘tricks’ to entice the listener who has, in my view, little stylistic awareness. Although this can be true about specific artists in other forms of music, there is no other form of music which this motivation and composition methods is held almost universally throughout. Therefore, my position is that the ‘hit pop song’ genre is the only genre that can be designated lower value, with justification.

I feel I have merely scratched the surface of a handful of issues of the seemingly endless topic of musical aesthetics, and I think that it will take a very long time if we are ever to come close to the fully answering significant issues of value in music, and to do this, I feel we as a people need to be asking more of the right questions. However, significant progress has been made in these issues in recent years, and I believe that if we continue to make progress such as this, we will get much closer to finding these answers.

Glossary

Aleotoric music - music composed by chance

‘Beauty’ – a term used by Kant and Hegel in reference to the quality of a piece of music. That is, beautiful music is of high quality, or value.

‘Culture industry’ – a term used by Theodore Adorno in reference to the culture of capitalism

Epistemology – A philosophical study associated to knowledge – what knowledge is, how one comes to acquire it, and how one can be sure of what one knows.

‘Higher’ and ‘lower’ music - terms used by Theodore Adorno to describe (what one today might call) classical music, and popular music.

John Cage’s ‘4,33’ – A piece of music where none of the performers play anything, and the audience simply listens for 4 minutes thirty three seconds, to what is almost silence.

‘Know truths’ the epistemological issue of gaining knowledge from the sense-data received when contemplating something. E.g. one knows for a fact that an apple is red, round, crunchy, and juicy, from the sense-data received the when one sees and it.

Ontology – The philosophical study of what something is. What one may truly believe to exist as reality.

‘Phenomenal world’ – this is a term used in reference to specific things, for example an object, event, or person. Lyricless music is the only art form which cannot reference these specific things, but rather expresses ideas, or moods.

Prepared Piano – a piano which has had its sound altered by placing objects inside it, with the purpose of creating different timbres, used by John Cage, and found in experimental music.

‘Standardised’ and ‘non-standardised’ music – terms used by Adorno to describe what he thought to be ‘good’ and ‘poor’ music.