Music is not something that is taken lightly. Across all cultures, there seems to be a sort of caste-system (a system in india for social status) for different types and structures of song. There is music for spiritual practices that is given the highest respect (deemed “high-brow”) and music played only for and by commoners (deemed low-brow). However, we dare to ask if there is as big of a difference between high and low brow music as told to us socially, or rather that in the end it is all the same? Are both sides structurally sound?
Attending a concert put on by the Seattle Symphony, or the New York Philharmonic is incredibly expensive. Ticket prices for attending an upcoming concert featuring Lang Lang (A world class concert pianist) and the Seattle Symphony are $87.00 for third tier seats (The back of the Taper auditorium), and run anywhere from $90.00 to $132.00 for Orchestra front seats. A ticket for a one hour and thirty minute concert featuring the New York Philharmonic, and Maurizio Pollini (another incredibly skilled pianist) costs anywhere from $45 to $130. Expensive items attract wealthy consumers. Every musician in these prestigious ensembles possess and demonstrate ineffably impressive skills. Those skills were acquired through years, decades even, of training, and practicing. A master mechanic is paid leagues above a regular mechanic as a result of dedication and acquired skills over time, the same concept can be applied to a skilled musician; the more skilled, the higher the pay. People who generate a higher income can afford to buy concert tickets at such high prices. This leads to an increase of particularly wealthy individuals in the audience demographic.
Conversely, folk music is structured and created to be easily playable by common folk. Irish fiddle music is generally much easier than a violin concerto, and rather than playing in massive concert halls, most Irish fiddlers will play their songs in a pub, or bar to liven up the mood, and get people dancing.
Social ideas of highbrow or lowbrow music do affect musical structure. The Baroque period, was a time where composers explored different forms. “There [were]…new melodic lines and harmonic progressions to be explored, new combinations of instruments, and new forms in music such as a fugue, canon, and variations on a bassline, a popular tune or a chorale” (Sartorius, Baroque Music Defined, n.d.). Such new variations and melodies were popularly used in Roman Catholic services. In the sacred event “[i]n addition to scriptural readings and symbolic consumption of bread and wine, the ceremony includes recitations (sung or spoken) of certain prayers” (n.a. Baroque Music: Essential Humanities, 2013). This video is a beautiful example of a recitation from the Chapel of Spain, Sacred Baroque Music from Royal Chapel of Spain. The starting point of the piece begins with a soprano who sings the call to praise Mary and the rest of the chorus sings a bold response along with the orchestra to this call. From 2:04, one can hear the rich texture of varied harmonic soprano voices that sculpt the main melody and the bassline helps create emphasis on the melody and the theme of the piece. The small orchestra helps give melodic flow and structure, which helps the singers to pay attention to the ancient and poetic text and how it flows in the recitation. Such baroque music like recitations are considered highbrow because of its complex texture of melodies and harmonies and the way the bassline emphasizes the text. Also, the church is a high social power in society which means the music must be composed in a way to present its powerful meaning and high regard. This idea also ties into how social values influence structure. In the structure of recitations, they are sculpted in a particular way to allow listeners to feel the sacredness and the spirituality that should be felt in the church and respond to it in the way they should respond. Thus, social values of highbrow or lowbrow influences structure because the audience expects to feel a certain mood from the music depending on the social context and the kind of structure the composers create should provide the meaning and texture to satisfy the listener’s perceptions of high or lowbrow music.
Even in modern music this fight occurs between popular genres of music about type is the best music. This brawl between the genres is largest between rock music and modern pop/techno music. Across much of social media, many rock/grunge/metal fans claim that pop music is “bad” music due to its repetitive structure, and that rock is much better because it doesn’t repeat itself. These posts usually take the chorus of the pop song, where it is structurally repetitive, and the verse of the rock song, where the structure is looser and not as repetitive. However if they were to look at how each song was structured, they would see there isn’t really any difference besides the fanbase and meaning behind the words.
These genres have the same basic form. It goes “Verse 1, Chorus, Verse 2, Chorus, Interlude/Verse 3, Chorus” and often the chorus repeated a second/third time at the end of the song to give a signal of closure. You can try to follow this pattern with Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana (often a band brought in this culture war) and compare it to Right Through You by Alanis Morissette. They follow the form, have a repetitive chorus, and the diverse wording of the verses.
How this would be presented between these two songs would look like this:
Nirvana: Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel's hair and baby's breath
Broken hymen of your highness I'm left back
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back
Morissette: I see right through you
I know right through you
I feel right through you
I walk right through you
We would like to implore you to look at these lyrics yourself (click the artist’s name to get to a lyric sight directed at these songs presented), top to bottom and see how this is an unfair comparison to the pop artists. While the “texture” or the way the music sounds/feels varies greatly between each song, their structures are the same. If we expand our ears (and our minds) perhaps all different eras of music are similar.
So are they structurally sound? That’s up to you.
Credits:
The Gravicembalo. Sacred Baroque Music from Royal Chapel of Spain. YouTube. Jul. 31, 2012. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/CHki7gZhARM
Sartorius, Michael. BAROQUE MUSIC DEFINED. Arton Publications. n.d. Retrieved from: http://www.baroquemusic.org/bardefn.html
Fletcher, Humphrey. Baroque Music: Essential Humanities. Essential Humanities. 2013. Retrieved from: http://www.essential-humanities.net/western-art/music/baroque/
Additional Credits:
Idea: Nick D, Erika Q, Holly W
Idea: Nick D, Erika Q, Holly W
Intro: Erika Q
1st Section: Nick D
2nd Section: Holly W
3rd Section: Erika Q
Videos: Nick D, Erika Q, Holly W
Pictures: Holly W
Editing: Erika Q
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