A Postmodern Convergence

Despite the radical changes to the musical landscape that have taken place within the past forty years, many of which have shattered long-standing barriers between high art and low art, the great divide remains almost totally unchallenged in several areas. I will divide these “tough boundaries” further into two sub-categories: those that deal with the sound-content of the music itself, and those that deal with the process by which that music is created and perpetuated.

CREATION PROCESSES

I. NOTATION
The first process-oriented distinction concerns musical notation, which for centuries embodied the act of composition in the art music world. There have been sporadic examples of non-notated concert music here and there, most often involving improvisation of some kind. The score for Steve Reich’s epic Music For 18 Musicians did not exist until a graduate student transcribed the entire piece as part of his doctoral dissertation. With the exception of tape/electronic music, however, postmodern art music almost always relies on some kind of score—whether in the form of standard notation, graphic notation, or a set of instructions. This is one category for which the gap between art music and popular music has actually widened in recent decades, as sheet music used to play a crucial role in the dissemination of popular music in the days before recording technology became widely available. Nowadays, however, it is extremely rare for popular musicians to write out their songs before rehearsing and performing them. (Of course, in collaborations with orchestras or like ensembles, those arrangements are thoroughly notated.) A few exceptions do exist: Mike Johnson of the art-rock group Thinking Plague has been known to write out some of his orchestrations, especially with the band’s later albums, while Dave Kerman of the 5uu’s produces sketch-scores (rather skeletal in nature) for many of his pieces. Guitarist Mike Keneally, who earned his fame as one of Frank Zappa’s “stunt guitarists,” claims that his composition “‘I Guess I’ll Peanut,’” “…was scored out very carefully on manuscript paper, sitting at the dining room table at Chatfield Manor.” Even Captain Beefheart (real name Don Van Vliet) dictated his compositions to his drummer, who would then write out the music in standard notation.

II. BANDS VS. "ENSEMBLES"
A related issue is that musicians in the popular idiom tend to congregate in bands, whereas avant-garde composers almost exclusively work alone and write pieces for solo performers or ensembles. The concept of a composer writing a piece for someone else to play is nearly unique to the world of art music. Rockers Frank Zappa, Fred Frith, and even Billy Joel have moonlighted as classical composers, writing pieces for the likes of the Ensemble Moderne, but such “crossover” pieces generally fit quite clearly within the confines of the 20th-century (or earlier) art music idiom. Of course, there are professional songwriters who create material for others to sing, but this phenomenon is not exactly comparable to the art music system. The songwriter rarely exerts the kind of control over the final product that is customary to the classical composer—in this way, the position is really more akin to the screenwriter for a film. Bands do exist in the context of art music, but they are few and far between. Several of the early minimalist composers (La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass) fronted their own performing ensembles which would tour and record as a unit. The Bang on a Can All-Stars and the Icebreaker Ensemble might loosely be considered bands, although their manner of operation (commissioning and playing works by composers outside the group) fits the mold of classical ensembles more accurately.

III. INFRASTRUCTURE
Other process-based differences between the two worlds exist as well. The economic and institutional systems surrounding art music are completely different from those surrounding popular music. So, too, is the relationship cultivated with the audience. So are the sizes of those audiences—though, in fairness, it must be pointed out that the commercial viability of “adventurous” popular music is not significantly higher than that of contemporary classical music. However, these process-oriented distinctions will be discussed in more detail at a later point; for the moment we will concentrate on the few remaining aural cues that, all by themselves, retain a powerful ability to categorize a piece of music instantaneously.

SONIC CUES

I. DRUMS
Percussion of all kinds has a long history in classical music, but the use of drumset is a rare occurrence even today. Moreover, composers tend to call for the percussion ensemble to emphasize accents, articulate short melodic lines, and fulfill other specific functions within localized portions of the piece. Musicians from the popular tradition, on the other hand, employ the drumset essentially throughout their songs, and for just one primary purpose: to keep the beat. In this way, the drummer essentially replaces the role of conductor in classical music ensembles. The difference, of course, is that the conductor (ideally) is inaudible, while the drums are consistently loud—extremely loud. As a result, this sound can serve as a powerful aural cue distinguishing between contemporary classical music and a rock band or jazz ensemble—accurately, too, because many of even the most adventurous bands are loath to dispense with drums for more than a few tracks at a time. The drums do not even have to be “real” to provide such a cue, as the presence of synthetic drum pads represents a primary sonic distinction between classical computer music and techno. A select few art music composers have challenged this boundary. Alfred Schnittke calls for rock-like drums in the “Credo” of his Requiem, and as expected they absolutely dominate the mix in the recording. Lois V. Vierk and Glenn Branca, two composers who commonly write for multiple guitars with unusual tunings, use drums in much of their work (cf. Vierk’s Red Shift, Branca’s Symphony No. 5). However, the wash of sound created by the massed guitars often drowns out the drums to an extent that most popular musicians would never allow. It is equally rare for bands to use percussion instruments (such as marimba) more traditionally associated with the classical repertoire, but a few, such as Tortoise, gleefully buck the trend.

II. VOCALS
The other “automatic” indicator with regard to popular music vs. art music concerns the use of singers. Plenty of art music composers call for singing in their pieces, be it operatic soloists, choral music, humming, or the repetition of spoken nonsense syllables in some repeated pattern. However, the presence of a prominent, continuous melodic line, with actual words, sung by one or two untrained, non-operatic voice(s), screams “pop/rock” to the listener. This effect works regardless of the character of the sonic background; even if the singing is limited to a small part of the composition; and even if the melodic line is atonal, as in some of the songs by Thinking Plague and Sonic Youth. After all, this use of the human voice is the reason we use the word “song” to refer to compositions in the style of popular music—a term so ingrained that we even use it to refer to instrumentals. Moreover, none of the other vocal techniques mentioned above are commonly employed in popular music. In that context, classical singing style remains pretty much the exclusive province of opera stars making crossover albums of popular standards, and nonsense syllables rarely appear outside of humor and novelty records. It may be argued that the harmony vocals so common to popular songs constitute a kind of choral singing, but true choral-style (or even barbershop-style) writing is quite rare in the popular music repertoire. Pink Floyd’s quasi-orchestral suite “Atom Heart Mother” from the album of the same name provides an interesting exception to several of these rules. Another intriguing counter-example is Laurie Anderson, the performance artist whose work really does defy classification into either pop/rock or classical. Her hit song “O Superman” employs a number of unusual vocal techniques including speaking, nonsense syllables, and electronic manipulation through vocoder, and if one tried to force it into either category the song would break the rules outlined above.

<<Previous

Next>>

Writings

Createquity

Brother, Can You Spare $500: A Guide to Individual Fundraising for Composers

File Under: Ambiguous

A Postmodern Convergence (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

about

music...

performances

...with a capital M

contact

A Postmodern Convergence

Writings

Relevant Links and Resources