Friday, March 04, 2005
Weighing in on terminology
Most of the terms used in art history to define the various style periods and isms seem to have their origins in the negative. Baroque (deformed), Neo-Classical (pastiche), Impressionist (vague), Atonal (incomprehensible) are terms that are borrowed by musicology with mixed results. One of my teachers, Roger Sessions, used to call these terms "filing cabinets." He was not opposed to having filing cabinets, but he did think that one should empty or rearrange your files every few years.
For more information on Sessions please visit the new website < www.AndreaOlmstead.com>. Her three books on Sessions--"Roger Sessions and His Music," "Conversations with Roger Sessions," and "The Correspondence of Roger Sessions"-- are available to be read (or downloaded) here for free. There is much of value here, especially in the "Conversations," on the subject of terminology. In addition, Sessions's Norton Lectures, "Questions About Music," has much to say about the objective evaluation of music and the criteria used for that evaluation.
In my experience, most interested listeners ask composers what kind of music they write simply because they want to know where to buy it (or literally what filing cabinet it's in). So, in the interests of selling music we do fall back on the term "classical" because of its usefulness. It is nevertheless symptomatic of earnest composers to think far too much about this subject. For those of you who wish to think even more deeply about terminology and definitions I would recommend Suzanne Langer's work in esthetics, especially "Feeling and Form." This is a most serious source for anyone looking for clarity on the "big" questions.
posted by Larry Thomas Bell
8:22 AM
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