06.27.08
Beaujolais and Haydn
I don’t know if I mentioned that I foolishly signed up for a course on 18th century music for the summer. Riding high off my grade from the Reason course, I thought I’d take on a challenge and take a graduate level class on a subject I know virtually nothing about. Diving in head first, attempting to read scores and understand why some of this music is better than others = the professor assigns values to everything, “the best”, “second rate”, “dreadful” etc especially when speaking about productions of music. As a result I have learned that a very good ensemble can make very bad music sound good, and a poor ensemble can make very good music sound awful. But I still need someone to tell me whether the ensemble or the music is to be blamed for my dislike of a piece.
A couple weeks ago our class had a breakthrough and decided to drink and eat together. It’s a small group (6 students) and we’re awkward with each other and with the subject matter – sometimes we seem like children wearing our parent’s big clunky shoes and trying to walk. Well it seems we all traverse this music better with a drink in hand. Perhaps it connected us to the 18th century audience who would have had watery wine almost constantly.
We had a lovely Beaujolais on tuesday and it smoothed my nerves considerably for the presentation I had to give: on Joseph Haydn. I knew nothing about him before I started and now I’ve got a good grasp of the fellow and his music. What is more fascinating to me about him is the loving anecdotes, the warmth with which musicologists, connoisseurs and amateurs alike use when referring to him. He has been roundly well-liked since he began his career, and continues to be enjoyed *as a personality* even today. If only any of us could be remembered by history with such affection – and deserve it.
I will confess here however that I do not particularly like Haydn’s music, but I enjoy his humour/wit/caprice and enjoy the *ideas* behind his music, but when I sit down to listen for the most part, I find myself wanting something else. Perhaps I’m simply not listening to the Best.
oneoverphi said,
June 30, 2008 at 11:28 pm
While there is a marginal objective component to the value of a piece of music, the enjoyment one finds in it is almost totally subjective. To that end one cannot be informed as to whether a piece is dreadful or not. It is a conclusion they must reach on their own. Unfortunately there are some to whom the fine appreciation of technique is inseparable from the appreciation of the effect. To them if you did not like the piece then you must not have understood it. Personally I find that this sort of elitism builds walls around subjects and whose only effect is to shield subjects from being approached by the unwashed masses. It’s because of this that ‘classical’ music is regarded as a speciality enjoyment only imbibed by the academics, and certainly not anything the public can enjoy without being educated in it. If anything the professor has a need, professionally, to interject himself as mediator between the artist and the audience in order to inform the audience as to what they should and should not like. An intellectual middleman if you will.
But enough with my railing against academia. As I’m not familiar with Hayden’s works I’ll have to check them out now. Drink lots and keep up the good writing.