Visit to a Barber
The other day I had an 'enforced' chance to sit quietly and listen to some music. For the past half-year or so, my days have been very full, as running our new business doesn't leave me with much 'quiet time', and when you add in the fact that I get nearly no time at all at my own workbench these days, music has pretty much dropped off my radar.
But being forced - twice in the past ten days - to sit still in one place for about nine hours straight (you can easily guess what I must have been doing) gave me a chance to put my nice headphones on, fire up a favourite playlist on my ancient iPod, and get reacquainted with some old friends.
In a situation like this where other people are sitting close by, you can't play music that is particularly loud or boisterous, so I chose a selection of what might be described as 'relaxing classics'. There was a bit of Albinoni, some Puccini, and then - the playlist was on random shuffle - I was pleased to hear the arrival of an old favourite, the Adagio by Samuel Barber.
This piece isn't actually all that 'old' of course, having been composed in the 20th century, but Barber was able to do something that not every classical composer could do - certainly very few of his 20th century compatriots - and that was to produce an iconic piece of music, one that all fans of the genre recognize as being something out of the ordinary, one that somehow stands apart from anything else created in a similar time and place.
When I was a young classical music student, I was surrounded by ugly and 'fractured' contemporary music, and it seemed to me that the genre had pretty much been 'used up'; there seemed to be nothing more to be said, and the dearth of 'beautiful' modern music had been a major factor in my leaving the field.
But as I listened to the Barber piece the other evening I was struck by a curious thought. What if Samuel Barber had never existed? Such a thing is easy to imagine - perhaps his father had never met his mother, for example. The 'Adagio for Strings' would never have been put down on paper, never been played by a string quartet, never have reached our ears, and seemingly would not exist.
But that particular combination of notes, harmonies, and rhythms would of course still be there in the realm of 'things just waiting to be noted down ...', if you see what I mean. It was 'there', ready to be composed; we have proof of that in its present existence.
So that of course leads to an obvious question - what other wonderful iconic music is just sitting there, waiting to be noted down? My thesis that music has been 'used up' is perhaps fallacious; what has presumably been used up is the particular set of social circumstances that brought a man like Barber through a certain type of upbringing and training, provided a platform for him in which to work, and - not incidentally - provided an audience receptive to his ideas.
Today's culture provides a very different set of circumstances, and the 'Barbers' of today are reaching out into that realm of possibilities and pulling down notes and phrases that form a quite different type of result. I suppose this is how it has always been, and how it always will be. You might make the argument that every culture gets the music (and other arts, of course) that it deserves.
That's all very well, and quite logical, but aren't artists supposed to lead, not follow? Perhaps that is where our age differs from previous times. These days it's far more common to hear it the other way around - to hear that 'art reflects society'. That is a huge sadness for me, but it also provides a wonderful opportunity. I will of course never create anything like an 'Adagio for Strings', but in our era full of ugly, fractured, and meaningless 'art' the world is positively hungry for beautiful, interesting, and meaningful things.
And that ... I can do.
Story #491, May 24, 2015
Comments on this story ...
Posted by: Franz Rogar
Though technically not modern *classic music* (in the meaning of *western music*), but I would add the work of Leonard Eto.
From some years ago, a song composed by him just keep popping in TV news (as background music), in documentaries, and video clips.
I personally think it might end up (if it keeps appearing) as a new modern easter classic music, IMHO.
The song is "Lion" and was firstly published in "Irodori" by KODO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymROZm0B5ZY
Posted by: Paul Jones
On the one hand, it's a shame I only just discovered that this site and project exist, on the other it's a delight that the more I dig around from woodblock dot com the more I find.
I'm not certain this is being maintained, but should I not be speaking into the void could I politely request the mp3s to be reposted or made elsewhere available? They seem to be missing right now and I'd love to hear them.
Posted by: Dave
Paul, thanks for the comment ...
The site isn't 'abandoned', but since the Asakusa shop opened, I'm finding it impossible to keep up with it. I should post a notice or something on the front page, I guess.
As for the audio files, they are all there up until story #461. That was just about the time our Asakusa shop opened, and since then there has simply been no time for making recordings ...
Thanks for the interest in all these things, and I apologize for not being able to keep it all running as smoothly as I would like!
Dave
Posted by: Franz Rogar
Well, we Spaniards have another clear example: master Rodrigo.
He was blind at the age of 3, but composed in 1939 one piece that even as soon as 1959 it was thought to be in *public domain* by Miles Davis...
If that doesn't ring a bell, well, the composition is "Concierto de Aranjuez" (Concerto of Aranjuez).
The most popular movement is the 2nd *adagio*
Also, another pieces that went directly into such class are:
> Ravel - Bolero [1928]
> Orff - Carmina Burana (ie. "O Fortuna") [1935]
I know some more but I can't remember them right now..
Though I, personally, would add the "Adagio of Albinoni" into the 20th Century masterpieces as it was composed in 1945 by Remo Giazotto (he said he based the composition on some non-existent fragments of Albinoni, I think he invented such thing to gain fast publicity).