robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison) (05/10/84)
References: It is relevant to understand the chronology of music. The composers of each generation and (sub)culture grew up immersed in the style of a preveious generation. They then went out and innovated, developing new styles and kinds of music. Today most of the composers we value were the ones who did not simply copy the old or current styles, but cut new ground. The chronology of an individual composer is fascinating. Who would want to ignore the excitement of discovering the things Beethoven or Mozart came up with early, middle and late in their careers? Debussy is one of the innovators who had a very hard time with the establishment whose values he broke with. There is a lot of musical excitement in his innovations. One cannot read composer's minds, but it is resonable to assume that they were often aware of taking challenges upon themselves and breaking new ground, since many, many artists seem to thinking in these terms when they create. To be unaware of the chronology is to fail to share some of the composer's own excitement in creation. An example: In his day, Schubert was considered by many to be a second-rate and disorganized composer because of the staggeringly frequent modulations in his music. Today we are used to much more spectacular modualtions of late romantic music, and Schubert's modulations seem tame. When listening to Schubert, it's worth constructing a frame of mind in which the modulations of Chopin, the Beatles and Bruckner, say, are unkown and impossible, and the modualtions of, say, Beethoven are more the norm. Then you can learn to feel the excitement in Schubert's quick modulations that must have thrilled his friends. - Toby Robison (not Robinson!) allegra!eosp1!robison decvax!ittvax!eosp1!robison princeton!eosp1!robison