Ask An Expert: Music That Won't Let Go
On the heels of last week's ItC concerts that featured music of Claude Debussy, we got this excellent Ask An Expert question from Pat O'Regan...
Q: When I leave the concert, almost invariably... I am born away by the music. Walking to the car, phrases of the evening’s performance resound in my mind. The feeling can be summed up as “Oh, the music!” Very often, this continues through the rest of the evening. Even waking in the morning, shaking off sleep, my first thought is, “Oh, yes, it was the music. What a wonderful evening.”
But Debussy was another matter altogether. I found the pieces strangely captivating, but I was not moved by them. (I am not talking about the Orchestra here, but about Mr. Debussy.) Leaving the concert, I could think of nothing to remember, and being “born away” was reduced to “well, that was interesting.” Isn’t this a demerit to Mr. Debussy? Doesn’t the failure to stir the soul – at least this one – make him a lesser composer than those other guys? Do you hum Debussy from time to time? Am I wrong to think that he is not in the same league as, say, Mozart, and might this lack of impact on the listener be the reason? Or is there no lack, and it just takes a fine musical mind to appreciate this music – in which case, my case is hopeless. What I am asking is: Does the man stir you as much as those other guys?
Well, first of all, musical taste is obviously highly subjective, so this is not so much an Ask An Expert situation as it is Ask Another Random Human Being Who Likes Music. In other words, I would never denigrate someone else's musical taste simply because a composer I like doesn't do much for him/her. There are undeniably great composers whose music does very little for me, even as I can recognize their skill.
That having been said, my short answer to Pat's core question would be that yes, Debussy stirs me every bit as much (and in fact, more than) most of your standard-issue classic and romantic era German composers. However, I would steer firmly away from the notion that this is because I have a "fine musical mind" and Pat somehow doesn't. Personal taste issues aside, I've long theorized that the most important variable shaping our taste in music is when we were first exposed to it, and how often.
Now, I grew up playing a lot of chamber music, and was lucky enough to be introduced to the Debussy string quartet while I was a teenager. It blew me away (and still does - just tonight, I slogged through the snow to watch some friends playing it at the Southern Theater, and it's as viscerally exciting a piece for me now as it was when I was 15,) and set in motion a larger interest in this decidedly un-German style of music. It didn't make me appreciate Beethoven and Brahms any less - it just made the universe a little bigger for me.
On the other hand, I did not play a lot of orchestral music while I was a teen, so I wasn't being directly exposed to a lot of stuff that other young musicians my age were. As a result, when I got to college and started playing in orchestra every day, I found that my tastes were a lot more conservative than most. The Rite of Spring, which everyone assured me was a mind-blowingly great piece, did quite literally nothing for me for years, and the massive symphonies of Gustav Mahler and the great tone poems of Richard Strauss felt similarly unaffecting. It wasn't that I questioned their greatness - I just didn't personally derive much pleasure from playing or hearing them.
Eventually, the light bulb went on for me regarding Mahler, Stravinsky, and Strauss, but it took many years, and a lot of performances. And I'm sure that, had my first serious, prolonged exposure to those titans of the orchestra world come earlier in my life, it wouldn't have taken nearly so long for me to feel personally attached to them. We form connections so easily as kids, and as adults, it can be frustratingly difficult to take the same pleasure in new experiences that we take for granted when we're young.
Of course, some composers (and authors, and painters, and foods) we never learn to like, no matter how many other people are obsessed with them. And that's fine, of course - if Debussy isn't your thing, at least you know to avoid him in the future. But you never know: if you'd asked 20-year-old me if I thought I'd ever become a fan of Stravinsky, you'd have gotten a pretty confident, and utterly wrong, reply. So Pat, it might be worth your time to give Debussy a few more chances to move you...
Q: When I leave the concert, almost invariably... I am born away by the music. Walking to the car, phrases of the evening’s performance resound in my mind. The feeling can be summed up as “Oh, the music!” Very often, this continues through the rest of the evening. Even waking in the morning, shaking off sleep, my first thought is, “Oh, yes, it was the music. What a wonderful evening.”
But Debussy was another matter altogether. I found the pieces strangely captivating, but I was not moved by them. (I am not talking about the Orchestra here, but about Mr. Debussy.) Leaving the concert, I could think of nothing to remember, and being “born away” was reduced to “well, that was interesting.” Isn’t this a demerit to Mr. Debussy? Doesn’t the failure to stir the soul – at least this one – make him a lesser composer than those other guys? Do you hum Debussy from time to time? Am I wrong to think that he is not in the same league as, say, Mozart, and might this lack of impact on the listener be the reason? Or is there no lack, and it just takes a fine musical mind to appreciate this music – in which case, my case is hopeless. What I am asking is: Does the man stir you as much as those other guys?
Well, first of all, musical taste is obviously highly subjective, so this is not so much an Ask An Expert situation as it is Ask Another Random Human Being Who Likes Music. In other words, I would never denigrate someone else's musical taste simply because a composer I like doesn't do much for him/her. There are undeniably great composers whose music does very little for me, even as I can recognize their skill.
That having been said, my short answer to Pat's core question would be that yes, Debussy stirs me every bit as much (and in fact, more than) most of your standard-issue classic and romantic era German composers. However, I would steer firmly away from the notion that this is because I have a "fine musical mind" and Pat somehow doesn't. Personal taste issues aside, I've long theorized that the most important variable shaping our taste in music is when we were first exposed to it, and how often.
Now, I grew up playing a lot of chamber music, and was lucky enough to be introduced to the Debussy string quartet while I was a teenager. It blew me away (and still does - just tonight, I slogged through the snow to watch some friends playing it at the Southern Theater, and it's as viscerally exciting a piece for me now as it was when I was 15,) and set in motion a larger interest in this decidedly un-German style of music. It didn't make me appreciate Beethoven and Brahms any less - it just made the universe a little bigger for me.
On the other hand, I did not play a lot of orchestral music while I was a teen, so I wasn't being directly exposed to a lot of stuff that other young musicians my age were. As a result, when I got to college and started playing in orchestra every day, I found that my tastes were a lot more conservative than most. The Rite of Spring, which everyone assured me was a mind-blowingly great piece, did quite literally nothing for me for years, and the massive symphonies of Gustav Mahler and the great tone poems of Richard Strauss felt similarly unaffecting. It wasn't that I questioned their greatness - I just didn't personally derive much pleasure from playing or hearing them.
Eventually, the light bulb went on for me regarding Mahler, Stravinsky, and Strauss, but it took many years, and a lot of performances. And I'm sure that, had my first serious, prolonged exposure to those titans of the orchestra world come earlier in my life, it wouldn't have taken nearly so long for me to feel personally attached to them. We form connections so easily as kids, and as adults, it can be frustratingly difficult to take the same pleasure in new experiences that we take for granted when we're young.
Of course, some composers (and authors, and painters, and foods) we never learn to like, no matter how many other people are obsessed with them. And that's fine, of course - if Debussy isn't your thing, at least you know to avoid him in the future. But you never know: if you'd asked 20-year-old me if I thought I'd ever become a fan of Stravinsky, you'd have gotten a pretty confident, and utterly wrong, reply. So Pat, it might be worth your time to give Debussy a few more chances to move you...
Labels: ask an expert, composers
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