Chapter 22 – The World Through
(Radically) New Eyes
Illustration 1: The formula. . . m = Music
Very early in this text, a graphic of a strange looking formula was presented to illustrate
the complex relationship of music to the era that generated it. The formula was meant
only as an illustration—an actual formula would be many orders of magnitude more
convoluted.
There are many factors that shape the music and art of an era. Let’s examine a few of the
most obvious.
One of the most important factors is the economic one. Can a musician earn a living as a
musician? In what way? Who will pay him? Who is his audience? Whose “story” is told
in his music? What role does music have in the lives of the general population? Do they
have disposable income that would trickle down to publishers and instrument makers. . .
and concert promoters? Who can and will make a profit off of musicians and their
music? And so on. . .
What institutions in society have evolved where music (and the musicians who perform
and compose it) was able to find a niche? What adaptions may have been needed? Is
music heard in large public forums and giant open spaces? Or, is it reserved for small
intimate settings, perhaps mostly utilitarian? What social functions does music fit into?
Religious? Government? Public concerts?
In many ways it’s relatively easy to make the case that much Western “classical” music
has a strong parallel to religious ceremonies. Someone on a stage interprets the “word”
(his own special enlightened version) for an attentive audience who came to hear the
“gospel” written by revered prophets of old. . . perhaps these similarities might be how
music and religion have gone hand in hand for so many thousands of years.
Another important factor is the technology available at the time. Historically, musicians
have almost always been the first to embrace the latest technology to create their art.
When there were only animal skins, musicians made drums. When computers became
available, musicians were some of the first to exploit them. What is the technology
available to musicians? What’s available to the creators and maintainers of instruments?
To the target audience? Does reproduction of the notated music or the sound of a
performance exist? How accessible is it (refer to the above paragraph re economic
factors)?
Technology may well have a subliminal effect on the music of an era. There seems to be
a close correlation between the scientific understanding of any era and the complexity
and structure found in its music. Coincidence, or is it because they are related?
And, of course, technology in the distribution and sales of music (recorded or printed)
would affect the outcome. Not to mention that when it is overwhelming, that
psychological element appears in the music and art.
Another significant factor is the religious and political effects on free speech of the
time. How much control does a government or a church have on what artists can say? Is
it direct, or does it come as an incidental byproduct of economic policies? How much
influence do those power structures have on audiences? Do governments subsidize
artists? How far can an artist go before he gets suppressed? When a musician is able to
work as a musician, how much do these factor in?
And then, the quirky, the unpredictable: one needs to take into account random chance
in the lives of the composer, performers, and audience. When we begin throwing in
quirky factors such as wars, climate change, plagues, natural disasters, et cetera, we may
get an idea of how complicated this is.
And this is only scratching the surface.
Illustration 2: "Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle)",
Wassily Kandinsky, 1913
Sometimes the best way to understand it is not try to understand the machine from
examining a few gears, but instead look at the output and deconstruct.
When we do that—we see that there are some striking similarities between the Romantic
Era and our own contemporary era.
When we look back at the music of the Romantic era, we see individuals telling their
own stories. We see a public demanding virtuoso performers who dazzle them with
technique and fire their imagination with their visions. We have music becoming in
essence “multimedia” in that much important music is now about something literary or
historical. We have a market for musicians who push the envelope as far as it will go and
who are the masters of their own financial destiny.
In earlier eras, there was no such thing as a rich and powerful musician. Occasionally
musicians were somewhat well known, but there was never anything like what we see in
the Romantic era where a Franz Liszt toured Europe and lived like a rock star.
In the late 19th century we see writers like Frederich Nietzsche seeing the end of the
influence of religion as a motivating factor for morality and human motivation
proclaiming “God is dead!” in his novel, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”.
Compared to the artistic atmosphere from less than 400 years earlier, it is almost like we
are taking a look at a completely different planet. As author James Burke tells us, “we
see what our knowledge tells us we are seeing,” their knowledge had certainly changed.
The world the Romantic Era was seeing was drastically different from anything before.
And. . . maybe not that different from the music and the zeitgeist of our current era.
In the concert hall and via recordings, the music of the Romantic Era remains highly
popular. Its style and sounds are regularly borrowed for film scores, commercials, and
television soundtracks. Many film scores, such as those by John Williams, are not very
far removed from the style of Romantic music.
And small wonder—by the end of the Romantic era the role of music and musicians had
reached a point quite similar to that of the contemporary era. Musicians were
entertainers, but also visionaries, rebels, social critics.
Probably not sheer cooincidence--this artistic upheaval happened in an era of an
economic and technological upheaval known as the Second Industrial Revolution.
In the modern era, we deify our special creative icons—musicians (and other artists)
who were extraordinarily talented, but whose lives ended tragically early, cut down in
the prime of life. Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn
Monroe, John Kennedy, Tupac Shakur, etc.
A few generations back, the identical stereotype known as the “Romantic Hero” equally
worshiped Mozart, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, etc.
We can see, from the similarities, the foundations of our modern musical thought—as
well as the role music and musicians play in society—began here in the Romantic Era.
We see musicians living lives of promiscuity as they do their concert tours. There is
music written describing the influence of hallucinogenic drugs. Musicians talk about
about revolution, criticize religion and blast the audiences with the loudest music
possible; some create elaborate light shows along with concerts; many do things for the
sake of shock value.
No—that last paragraph is NOT about the rock and roll era. If there is any doubt that our
music of the current era is firmly rooted in the 1800s, everything mentioned in the
previous paragraph happened in the Romantic Era.
We are still living in the shadow of the Romantic Era more than we might think.
Illustration 3: "Procession, Seville", Francis Picibia, 1912
Material copyright 2016 by Gary Daum, all rights reserved. All photos and illustrations by Gary Daum unless otherwise
noted. Unlimited use granted to current members of the Georgetown Prep community.