What, in the World, Is Music? Chapter 1

Is John Cage’s 4’33” Music? Cage’s 4’33” performed by pianist David Tudor How could anyone think that this is music? Can you come up with some justification for it being classified as such?

Is Qur’anic Recitation Music? Recitation from the Holy Qur’an [PL 1-1] Sounds like music to Western ears, but is it? Who decides what is and is not music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hfcg9rYJ5g https://open.spotify.com/track/25yM9IElblfl42ny50RsvD?si=exuuG16dRNOvEVFKFEdIgA

Is Overkill’s “I Hate” Music? Overkill, “I Hate” [PL 1-2] Music or not? Again, who gets to decide? What factors might enter into an individual’s decision about this? What are the implications of whether something is or is not classified as music? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvD_HyxjUdM https://open.spotify.com/track/2RWVhDyyfKhJuDv87G55uw?si=h6Kg8RcQR3e6EXd1kMkZEw

Os Mutantes Caetano Veloso (with Os Mutantes), “É Proibido Proibir” (It’s Forbidden to Forbid) “Panis et Circenses” (Bread and Circus) [PL 1-3] “A Minha Menina” (My Girl) [PL 1-4] Live performance at Amoeba (Hollywood), 2019 How do these works and performances represent and/or subvert the idea of what “music” is and how it takes on meaning (social, political, artistic, etc.)? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uSXJMqG6_o https://open.spotify.com/track/0Dmnb3C3GaGdyjlyWaWLDr?si=CsiS9B2USqqIP3H89beB4g https://open.spotify.com/user/12151131811/playlist/2zaonSgdKXhPbQZZQ3PRVw?si=sGBtvUkSRJqoS-aDlR7cZg

Exploring World Music Basic underlying questions re: what music is/is not: 1. What factors account for people’s many and vastly different views of what music is, and what it is not? 2. Given that there is not even general agreement about what music is in the first place, how might we establish a reasonable, common point of departure from which to begin our exploration of music—world music—as the global and extraordinarily diverse phenomenon of humankind that it is?

Five Propositions (for Exploring World Music) Proposition 1: The basic property of all music is sound Tone: A sound whose principal identity is a musical identity What of 4’33” Compare to Cage’s “In a Landscape” [PL 1-5]

Five Propositions (#2) Proposition 2: The sounds (and silences) that comprise a musical work are organized in some way Beethoven Symphony No. 9, “Ode to Joy” [PL 1-6] Performed by Berlin Philharmonic (Karajan) -- cue to 1:23 Japanese gagaku music, “Manzairaku” [PL 1-7] Pauline Oliveros, “Calluna Vulgaris” [PL 1-8]

Five Propositions (#3) Proposition 3: Sounds are organized into music by people; thus, music is a form of humanly organized sound John Blacking: music is humanly organized sound Not the only kind of humanly organized sound, however Do birds sing? [PL 1-9] How about whales? [PL 1-10] Dogs and pigs?

Five Propositions (#4) Proposition 4: Music is a product of human intention and perception HIP Approach = Human Intention and Perception Approach When any sound, series of sounds, or combination of sounds is organized by a person or a group of people and presented as “music”—that is, with the intention that it be heard as music—our point of departure will be to treat it as music. Similarly, when any person or group of persons perceives a sound, series of sounds, or combination of sounds as “music,” our point of departure will be to treat that as music too. (p. 5) How does it apply to 4’33”, “I Hate” [PL 1-2], Qur’anic recitation [PL 1-11]?

Five Propositions (#5) Proposition 5: The term music is inescapably tied to Western culture and its assumptions Languages without word(s) for music Languages that do have words for music, but applied differently (e.g., Qur’anic recitation) Ethnocentrism Options? 1. Avoid dealing with these problematic phenomena of sound in musical terms altogether. 2. Impose Western musical concepts on them, in essence “converting” them into music on our terms (for example, treating Qur’anic recitation as music regardless of the Muslim claim that it is not music). 3. Try to find some way to integrate and balance our own perceptions of what we hear as “music” with the indigenous terms and concepts used by other people when describing the same phenomena.