Chapter Three: Thinking About Time-Free Rhythm(Jazz and Poetry Focus)

Free Rhythm: the embodiment of the ineffable. It requires a deep understanding of the theory of music, and the instruments used to execute effectively, and avoid being viewed as children’s play. This is a type of rhythm that needs to be felt but can’t be. Breaking away from structure itself, and allowing for a deeper form of expression, free rhythm is utterly unique, while not being region specific as it is shared in many places worldwide.

Free Jazz is possibly one of the most expressive forms of music--and the human spirit-- in Western/American culture. Jazz can be the purest form of chaos and confusion without being subject to poor quality, and evoke/release raw emotions. Free Jazz and Jazz music itself, is an American made music style from New Orleans, and originates from African roots with the “blues” and “feel” (rhythm quality) of this iconic music style, whereas the harmonies and the instrumentation of traditional Jazz ensembles come from European roots. Though it is a “messier” music style, with it’s rules varying piece to piece, it also is quintessential to American history.

With Free Jazz’s inception in the late 1940s and early 50s, this remarkable music genre introduced itself as an experimental art form. The focus is on the art and emotion, rather than the harmony and form, as the traditions of Western music have trained us to follow and strive to achieve. Musicians such as John Coltrane, Duncan Lamont, and Lennie Tristano were freely and blatantly ignoring the basic fundamentals of the music genre and creating new boundaries (or rather setting no boundaries at all). No clear tempo was established, and no music was laid before the performers, much of what was played is atonal, or lack of following a key set by a composer. Free Jazz can be defined as atonal polyrhythmic improvisation. Many “untrained” listeners only hear background noise, or as some say “an extended warm-up for the band.” This is where the beauty of the art of Free Rhythm lies: it breaks the standard thinking of music, where literally anything is possible, true freedom to play out the pent up energy felt in a musician’s being, as demonstrated by Coltrane’s Ascension.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of Jazz as being wrought with the hard realities of life, “Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music...”(See importance of Jazz here). Whereas Louis Armstrong defines Jazz as “a variety of all good music”.

Free Rhythm doesn’t just exist within music either, it can be experienced in poetry as well. Poetry is surrounded with rhythm and rhyme, and with 6,500 different languages, there is an endless amounts of ways to express emotion (like Jazz) through poetic form. Though our western ears aren’t trained to listen to poems as we listen to music, poetry holds similar qualities to that of music. There is a limit of time, a “flow” or “feeling” of the poetry, there is a medium of which to express the meaning (in this case, the human voice and words), there are patterns, and of course, people go around the patterns to create something new.

See video of “Lost Voices” performed by Darius Simpson and Scout Bostley

But because of Poetry’s roots, and because it is highly respected when there is a form, will there be poetry that is built around free rhythm? Just as there is with music, poetry does have a free rhythm genre. Starting in the 20th century, “free verse”, or poetry without a form, became widely popular in western society due to it’s lack of rules that allowed expression through poetry like never before. Even the poem in the link above for “Lost Voices” is considered “free verse poetry.” However, it still has a rhythm within it. This next poem, however, is void of rhythm entirely, and is almost as if the reciter is just venting to the listener.

See video of “To This Day” by Shane Koyczan

So in a way, poetry and musical art form in terms of rhythm have similarities. Whatever the case may be, we are programmed to make patterns, but culturally we are trying to break this habit. Through analyzing and listening to the evolution of jazz, and opening our minds to poetry in terms of music, we are discovering the limitless possibilities that free rhythm grants.

Sources Used

Youtube for Video Links

Jazz In America powered by Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (http://www.jazzinamerica.org/lessonplan/5/1/249) for history check

Credits

Idea: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos

Introduction: Nick De Los Santos

Jazz Section of piece :Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos

Poetry Section: Erika Query

Conclusion: Erika Query

Video Links: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos

Pictures: Erika Query

Final Overview and Edits: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos

Chapter Two: Thinking About Instruments-Women and Music

The music industry throughout history has been, and still is dominated by men. This comes to no surprise since patriarchal leadership (male dominance) has been a part of human history since the early civilizations began, and music is no exception to this trend. But how do women play into this? Where are the women of music? Where will women go within the culture?

Though music making’s beginnings are male due to religious ties, women became a predominant reason for secular music to occur. When music became the peasants’ trade, folk tunes became prime entertainment, and relatively cheap entertainment at that. Men used music to serenade (potential) lovers in hopes of courtship. “Greensleeves” is a well known song that is about a man and his love for a woman he knew only by the green sleeves on her dress.

However it doesn’t end there. In the household, mothers were expected to stay at home cleaning, raising children, cooking dinner, and providing for their husband in every way, including entertainment. To entertain their families, the mothers would need an instrument, such as the Concertina. The instrument was  fairly cheap so women were able to afford the instrument, making it easy for them to get ahold of one to use in the household. Women became musicians and often performed simple, short tunes for their children and their husband as part of their daily routine. This was a huge accomplishment for women in the 19th century because it aided them in their education since they couldn’t leave the house. The Oxford Music Online source provides an in depth timeline of how women have interacted with music throughout history.

But music making still is a very gender biased industry. Every genre has a stereotype and includes gender within it. If you hear “Metal Band” you would think of bands like Metallica, where they are all male groups. On the contrary, if you hear “Pop Singer” more than likely you’re going to think of Taylor Swift or another woman before you think of male singers. We feel this gender bias brought on by not only the fan base each genre is expected to have (yet another stereotype), but also what types of music that are considered stronger than a different genre.

This is all over American/Western society predominantly. To continue with the genre themes, Metal is a harder music style, often with fast tempos, aggressive rhythms and the lyrics are themed around drug abuse, politics and death. Often referred to as “man’s music.” Pop music however, is a different side of the spectrum, and is often criticized for its popularity. Pop music themes around love typically, has a wide range of tempos, and rhythms can also be of a wide variety. Though with this complexity of categorizing, it is considered simple and  what people feel is a woman’s type of music.

Even though these bias are very clearly not the case in modern society, people still let those social biases stay cemented in what is considered “correct”.  If a man likes to listen to “soft” music from groups like “One Direction” or artists like Lady Gaga, they are patronized for being weak and “acting like a girl”, whereas women who listen to “hard” music are glorified for being “not like other women.” The goal seems to be unfeminine, and to be pro masculine.

However, groups like “Halestorm” go against the grain (or against societal norms) and shatter the bias. While they aren’t an all female group, they have a female lead for a heavy metal genre oriented band. Click here to listen to “Mz. Hyde” by Halestorm. As presented with this example, Lzzy Hale (the lead singer) is able to keep her femininity while still being a part of this male dominated genre within the industry. This step is also shown through other artists such as Nicki Minaj, who is thriving in the Rap genre, yet again another male dominated industry. While these are small steps, the are showing growth to break gendered norms within music culture and shows promise for a gender neutral music making environment.

Resources

“Women in music.” Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 20 September 2015.

Nick De Los Santos- Idea, Writing and Editing.

Erika Query-Idea, Pictures, Sources and Initial Writing.

Chapter One: Thinking About Music-Preservation of Music

Tradition, adaptation, and preservation are key elements in musical participation. Many cultures from around the world uphold music that stand the test of time and thus revere it in only the highest regards. To go even further, we would venture to say that “classical” performances of music are held especially high in the views of societies around the world. We as a society value the music of the past because it is valuable insight to the values developed through religious and secular pieces. The music also acts as a record of political and ideological movements through history.  Musicians around the world work to preserve these historical documents and perform them as they would have been when they were originally written. We preserve these pieces to have proof of what a truly prodigious composer Mozart was, the feelings musicians had for their respective religions, for their respective lovers, to hear what they wanted to say centuries after they are long gone. But there has to be more to it than just to pass on the skills, and there is. There is always room for interpretation. As any passed down text, musical notation and translation will create changes within the music that we are given to experience.

https://youtu.be/r9LCwI5iErE?t=12m38s 

Benjamin Zander’s take on Chopin’s Prelude in E Minor.

In composition, you can see the directions given to play this piece, there aren’t many if you think about it because the emotion isn’t written in. The performers have to then add their own emotions to the piece. This is where we believe the alterations come in. When other composers listen to performances, they try to mimic the emotions written into the piece, and human error changes the piece as a whole.

Many times, music is often charged with such emotion, that when certain pieces are played by a skilled pianist, or instrumentalist, or vocalist, it evokes those emotions that were locked away within the music itself, as the performer is the key to the flood of emotions that then is intended to come about. Such is the reason to preserve this old, seemingly obsolete music, audiences are moved, they are deeply emotionally connected to these pieces. The beauty of this is that there are so many skilled performers in the world, no two performances of the same piece are ever quite the same. This is what motivates people to attend a concert where the piece is one they have heard a hundred times prior, because this one is bound to be different. Indeed to measure any success in music is to observe how the interpreter is interpreting the selected piece, does it fit the style, time period, mood, etc., and most of all, how do all of these elements affect the audience?

The reason we want perfection in music, is much like the meaning of music; it’s relative, and entirely subjective. Perfection in music is not just playing all the right notes at the right time, it’s more that just playing the marked dynamics, it’s playing with feeling, with passion, it’s rendering the piece one’s own, and in doing all of these things, it is closer, but still not enough to be perfection. Simply because music can never be perfect, this unattainable goal is the basis as to why musicians do what they do, it’s an incredibly motivating goal that will probably never be reached.

This goal of perfection even though translation and alteration are needed is shown through instruments, typically western instruments as shown below.

(the flute with it’s many variations)

As you can see, these instruments were adapted to perform the new music composers were creating. This does however, make it harder for modern day instrumentalists play music that wasn’t intended for modern day instruments. Often, different techniques are employed to replicate the older instruments, but of course there are alterations in the timbre of the music, creating a new piece with new meaning at times.

(the violin with it’s many variations)

However, some instruments do keep their original composition, such as the Morin Khuur (displayed above). This instrument is a prime example of preserved Mongolian history. This instrument has been around for around 2,000 years, and has changed very little in its structure. The style of music has remained virtually the same throughout the history of the instrument. This allows us to create new music, preserve the old, and keep our goal to have our musical compositions a record of human history.

So, are we really preserving the music at all, or just the feelings? Western society says we are preserving the music, but we think it is the feelings that are still there, and the music is our key to guide us back to Bach’s emotions, even if there are some changes.

Text Credit: Nick De Los Santos

Editing Credit: Erika Query

Media Credit: Erika Query and Nick De Lo Santos