A hned prvním příspěvkem do sekce Reflections své předsevzetí poruším. Budu totiž reagovat na Pájinu reportáž o Sensation White a Jirkovu polemiku na téma dobré a špatné hudby – a obě jsou v angličtině..
As I was reading through Paja’s and Jirka’s articles (links above) about music, exchanging their opinions, I felt a certain urge to react. It took me a while, I know, but still.. Music is accompanying my whole life and gives some moments an unique atmosphere. And it works reversely as well, just as I hear a familiar melody or song, I’m able to “see” this special moment..
Ever since I started attending educational system I had a parallel line next to it, called “music school”. It all started with piano and then organ. After my teacher moved to a new place I was also offered joining an orchestra. One of my best decisions so far.. Somehow I found out that there is a difference between solo and group performances and that I don’t like being the only one watched anymore. These five years gave me good friends who helped me shape my musical feeling, attitude to music and opened my eyes (and ears) to a wider portfolio of music, although we still don’t agree on some music styles..
Jirka wrote a good analysis of contemporary music which unfortunately does not necessarily include “melody&harmony, rhytm, lyrics and instrumental part”. Paja is a fan of dance and trance music. Something completely different. Why not – if music brings relief, relax, gives energy or helps people express their happiness of life by moving in a certain way. But – there is still one kind of music to be mentioned – classic. Almost no lyrics, melody is usually known from radio songs already, rhytm sometimes exact, sometimes strict, harmony mostly only for a skilled listener. Instrumental part is probably the only one that fulfills these criteria. And still this music is played, people go to concerts and numerous small kids spend their time with musical instruments practising etudes.
Yes, I like classical music a lot. I have Yann Tiersen’s soundtrack of Amelie de Montmartre and Antonin Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances in my mp3 player (the two-people-at-one-piano-no-orchestra version). I’m desperately missing Smetana’s Vltava on my hard disk and its notescript at the piano at home 🙂 But still I don’t mind hearing and singing (ok, maybe it’s more like shouting) to 90s music, because a smile eludes on my face when remembering myself at that time..
The conclusion? There isn’t any. Music will still remain a part of my being. It usually reflects my mood or helps me get deeper into work, sports or any other activity during the day. My post was only about pointing out that there is no general rule how music should be considered. There will be as many music tastes as there are people on this planet – and still there will be quarrels, which style is the “right one”. It just needs a little piece of tolerance and positive attitude towards new and unknown. Maybe I will give jazz one more try..
3 replies on “music in my life”
Thanks for your reflection! I have not mentioned it in my article, but I also like classic music. Anyway my most favourite genre (progressive rock) has significant part of its roots in the classics.
And about the quarrels: I think the real question is not, which style is better (there is something about each style, of course), but mainly what can we actually consider a real musical style. So if we simplify the pop songs to the most extreme level, cut off anything that might sound interesting, is that a new style? And if we adopt a well known song and just add the techno rhytm, is that a new style? I dont think so, in my opinion it is just a rubbish form of something that already exists.
Maybe I misunderstood what you have written, but it seems to me that you are pointing out that classic music is also not very aligned with the elements that I have mentioned (melody etc.) Actually I think that classic music demonstrates these like no other. And anyway, the most important thing in music in my opinion is some musical idea, and these terms or elements of music are just an attempt to break down these ideas. So sometimes this idea is a melody, sometimes it is some rhytmical structure, sometimes it is the progression of dynamics, but anyway these are the things that make music interesting. And classic music as well as progressive rock is very rich of such ideas.
My opinion is that once a good song is created, you hardly create a better song if you add drums or any other instruments only because it fits your favorite style afterwards.
And yes, you understood my opinion slightly wrong, I wanted to stress out that classical music covers all parameters that you mentioned about “a well-written song” (melody, rhythm etc.), it has been created a long long time ago and still people listen to it. That makes me think about it as a really proven piece of art.
yep, I can only agree:)