The Cab Ride and a Night Train: Story Notes · 9:07pm Nov 25th, 2020
Despite the wealth of Octavia fics on this site, I’m surprised I haven’t seen any about classical music. Maybe I haven’t read enough or just haven’t seen any. Comment if you know of any others. I think it’s a good idea itching to be done.
The four pieces during the recital represent an abridged version of classical music history since the 1800s. Beethoven here represents the Classical era from about 1750 to 1820. Honestly, there isn’t much to say about him apart from he’s amazing. I guarantee you’ve heard of him before. As a funny side note, Wagner was so obsessed with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony that he believed there was no musical progression past it.
Franz Lizst here represents the Romantic era from about 1800 to 1910. Romantic composers are characterized by pushing music theory and “tonality” to its absolute limit, and even ignoring it in some cases. With this comes expanding harmony and musical forms as far as possible. Another romantic composer your parents probably know is Chopin.
Charles Ives represents early modernism, which as a whole spans from 1890 to 1975. Modernists, unlike previous composers, rejected tradition in pursuit of the “new.” Charles Ives is actually tame compared to other modernists. His most influential idea was “bitonality,” or playing within two keys at the same time.
Ives actually worked as an insurance broker for most of his life, and a rather successful one too. He composed solo piano pieces and songs in his spare time, experimenting with bitonality and atonal scales. Later in his life, he decided to publish his music as 114 Songs. After doing so, musicologists discovered his music and realized he pioneered something entirely new.
For late modernism, or specifically serialism here, there is no better example than the infamous Arnold Schoenberg. If you’re wondering, serialism really does construct note matrixes to use for composition. Here’s an example.
Academics and composers were obsessed with Schoenberg and his compositional process up into the 70s. At the same time, the concert halls struggled to embrace modernism as a rift in classical music formed. One side obsessed with the glorious past, the other obsessed with the atonal new.
But by the 70s, a new musical idea sprung up.
Minimalism is by far the most influential musical idea you’ve never heard of. From David Bowie to U2 to Sufjan Stevens, many popular artists you listen to cite minimalism as an influence. Even groups like Pink Floyd are suspected to have taken influence from minimalism.
There’s a paper titled “Rebels in Defense of Tradition” that sums up the situation the minimalists faced. With academia obsessed with serialism and the concert halls skeptical of anything new, the minimalists had to rebel. They split from academia and concert halls, worked side jobs on the side, and performed at anywhere that would take them in.
I used Philip Glass as an example here which you might remember if you read Dash’s Unsuccessful Fanfic. He’s a personal favorite of mine but also represents what the minimalists had to do really well. He really did drive cabs around New York, especially during a time of high crime rates. He really did punch a guy in the face after the guy banged on his piano in concert. The opera I referenced is Einstein on the Beach, an opera with no plot or lyrics. Here’s an example of a scene from it.
It took copious amounts of research to not only get the timeline right with regards to where Glass was in his career at the time but to also get his voice right. I felt like it was my duty to make sure it was right, even though there’s a minuscule chance he’ll see this (he is still alive).
Anyway, that’s enough of me rambling. If you’re interested in minimalist music, my recommendations are Music for 18 Musicians by Steve Reich and Akhnaten by Philip Glass, as these pieces are more approachable even compared to the ones I included in my story.
PM or comment if any of the links go bad. I want to keep the examples on Youtube for accessibility sake, but am willing to link to Spotify if I have no other option.
He's on Twitter at @philipglass if you want to drop him a note. Or a whole series of notes. Go on. (nudge, nudge) I bet he's tickled pink.
Thanks for the additional information, and for writing. :)
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I’ve been debating that lately and even consider sending him a letter (talk about archaic communication). I might actually do it now.
Hm. Interesting. Did academia and all that just kinda ignore Ragtime, Jazz, Swing, and that whole side of musical innovation? Or was it not experimental or innovative enough for modernists?
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At first and for a while, yes. Within the past 50 years, they have been accepted into academia as American classical forms. Now, most American universities and music schools have jazz ensembles, jazz professors, and jazz studios.
Jazz is actually quite interesting because it has been influencing classical music ever since its inception. Steve Reich and Philip Glass both cite jazz as a major influence on their styles. Another famous example of composers trying to blend jazz with classical is Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin, which was considered both revolutionary and highly criticized at the time by legendary composers such as Leonard Bernstein (who would ironically end up performing it many years later).
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Huh. What sort of music from the 20th century count as “classical” (in the broader sense obviously, not Mozart’s and much of Beethoven’s music)?
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Well, that’s a long question. I can go through the obvious examples of the modernists and minimalists along with the varying sub-movements (conservative modernism, impressionism, neoclassicism, the list goes on). But you can find all of that in this Wikipedia article. The truth is that the line between “classical” and “popular” is not always clear. George Gershwin who wrote Rhapsody in Blue made most of his money writing pop music and collaborated with his brother to make the famous “I Got Rhythm.”
Personally, I view classical music of the current age as being influential, somewhat experimental, and less concerned over money than popular music. This encompasses what I’d feel comfortable calling classical music, but can also encompass other artists you’d initially call popular. This definition can change over time too like with jazz.
If you want some examples, there are the ones I linked in the story notes and the story, Max Richter is a good example of what’s happening now, Claude Debussy is a good example of impressionism, and John Cage is my favorite example of composers that make you question what music even is. There is literally an old church in Europe playing his As Slow As Possible that’s going to take 639 years to finish. Every time the note changes, there’s an event with a few thousand people in attendance. I can’t say I like his music, but he is savage and hilariously the ultimate anti-modernist.
Sir, allow me to present you with a Christmas gift.
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You know, I've seen that fic around here and there but I didn't notice the Octavia tag before. I stand corrected.
Would "Around the World" by Daftpunk qualify as minimalism, or at least be considered as influenced by minimalism?
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Definitely influenced, at least indirectly. Believe it or not but a lot of popular artists are much more aware of the classical scene than you’d think. Off the top of my head, I can think of a death metal band that performed John Cage’s 4’33” and I know that David Bowie and Philip Glass were friends. Minimalism especially was the most influential classical music movement in recent history and ended up permeating throughout much of popular music. I can’t say that Daft Punk listens to minimalist music in his free time but I wouldn’t be surprised if he drew inspiration from it, even if just indirectly.
All of this is why I enjoy minimalist music so much. It’s that missing link in music history that explains where much of today’s music originates from. And after over 50 years, much of it still sounds so new.