Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Why Theory
Music theory allows musicians to transform fleeting aural phenomena into substantive experiences. When one chooses to write a piece of music, an analytical or historical essay, or a critique, these substantive experiences become challenges. Only when pieces of music become challenges can creative activity happen.
Artistic creation is a dialogue within the individual artist between personal instinct and history. Individuals can speak for themselves, but, without theoretical knowledge, they cannot speak for the music that has come before them. This music will speak differently for those with different theoretical strengths: for a Westerner unacquainted with Indian ragas, they may all sound the same, even though he or she may have no trouble distinguishing between major and minor scales.
By learning how to analyze Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and later canonical composers, musicians learn how to pivot their own abilities around hundreds of years of music that has been an inspiration to generations. They acquire a wealth of substantive experiences off which their imaginations can feed.
The relevance of music theory to composition is imminently defensible. The problem isn't so much what is being taught, but with how it's being taught. Let's hope that a frustration with the latter doesn't lead to a more general belief that music theory itself isn't important.
posted by David Salvage
10:48 AM
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