I've been thinking lately about how so many composers incorporated some component of cleverness or wit in their compositions. Often we see music as being a medium of conveying important ideas or messages. We see it as a deep art form that has to convey something of truth. However isn't it false to assume that all composers take themselves to be serious and occupied artists that have an important duty to their fellow man to produce superhuman choral and orchestral works. Maybe composers are simply concerned with seeing how far they can stretch the limits. Seeing what tricks they can play on the ear. Seeing how much fun they can have. And while they are often concerned with creating meaningful works of art, they also have a desire to show off their individual personalities with the rest world. After all they are humans like the rest of us. Sometimes they just want to share a piece their creativity which often includes
charm and
wit.
There are so many examples of this: Haydn's "Surprise" symphony, Mozart's "A Musical Joke".
Lately I've spent a lot of time reflecting on is the fact that composers can write their name in musical notation Isn't kind of childish and fun?
Two examples:
Shostakovich Motif
DSCH
Then he uses it as the primary melodic material for the cello concerto
Bach Motif
BACH
This is perhaps the best example of a composer musicking. They composed not only to create emotions in audiences but also in themselves. Who doesn't get a kick out of rereading (or rehearing, in this case) an inside joke or a pun?
ReplyDeleteEspecially apparent from these examples, the emotions elicited by music are a manifestation of the identities of a piece's composer(s)/performer(s)/audience, not the piece itself. Bach's wit becomes apparent only if one is observant (or looks up the wikipedia article on it!). Bach probably had a hearty chuckle, too. But the written music, the piece itself, has no emotion. It cannot laugh at Bach's witty motif. Or can it...?
Well, Will, I don't know that I'd agree, or that Small would agree, that there's such a thing as "best" musicking, or that working one's own name into a piece would make it better musicking. Be that as it may, this reminds me that at my wedding, the organist (who in one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction scenarios had previously been my same-sex partner; how often does something like that happen?) used my initials (C E E) and those of my bride (A M G--I forget what he did with the M) as the basis for an improvisation during, if I remember correctly, the candle-lighting ceremony.
ReplyDeleteTalk musicking particular social relationships!
I like how whimsical and fun this is. It reminds us that music is play, (even if difficult play), and that there are no limits to creative fancy.
ReplyDeleteOff-topic: It is odd that Will would say Bach has no emotion. Maybe this is a clue to why someone might be outraged by the use of phrase "sincerely expressed emotion" in the musical bill of rights. The word "emotion" still strikes me as insufficient to express every cause (or result) of musicking. However, I do like the word "sincerely". Anything expressed sincerely is bound to be meaningful to at least one person.