MUSICAL
THEORIES
Walter Brian had theories
about everything, including music, of which subject he was very fond. He was, as they say, a music lover, and his
loving ranged from the classics, preferably modern, to jazz, also preferably
modern, and with a little opera, ballet, soul, and rock thrown-in for good
measure. The classics pertained to the
serious part of his spectrum of musical tastes, jazz, soul, and rock to its
comparatively frivolous part, while ballet, opera, and some kinds of modern
jazz had a place somewhere in-between, in a kind of compromise zone of
frivolous seriousness or serious frivolity.
Besides listening to music, Walter Brian would often expatiate on it to
his friends, and sometimes the conversation that resulted would spill over, as
it were, into one or more of the other arts, as analogies were drawn in
relation to the interdependence of the Arts as a whole.
On this occasion, Walter Brian was holding forth on the subject
of what he called 'bourgeois music' to two of his closest friends, whose
eagerness to comprehend suggested that they were closer to becoming
disciples. These were Malcolm Murphy and
Arthur Kearns, who sat on separate cushions facing their host, himself
comfortably seated to one side of a large open window through which the July
sun poured its relentless heat.
"Fundamentally there are two kinds of bourgeois music,
which are the romantic and the classic respectively," he was saying. "But each kind is itself divisible into
two stages, which we may define as a stage more grand than petty bourgeois on the
one hand, and a stage more petty than grand bourgeois on the other. This in itself reflects the relative nature
of the bourgeoisie, who are compounded, as it were, of an amalgam of grand- and
petty-bourgeois elements."
There was a murmur of approval from Malcolm Murphy, while Arthur
Kearns simply nodded his bulbous head in apparent agreement.
"Chronologically considered, the romantic kind precedes the
classic kind," Walter Brian continued, "and we may ascribe to the
nineteenth century a predominantly romantic bias which was to lead, in the
early-twentieth century, to the neo-classicism of the finest bourgeois
music. Romanticism may be defined as a
reaction against; classicism, by contrast, as an attraction towards. The former is predominantly materialistic in
character, the latter ... predominantly spiritual. The one signifies a
Becoming, the other a Become."
Malcolm Murphy scratched his right cheek, pouted slightly
ominously, and then languidly said: "Presumably bourgeois romanticism was
largely a reaction against aristocratic classicism, which had attained to its
high-point in the eighteenth century?"
"Indeed it was!" Walter Brian confirmed with
spontaneous exuberance, "and this stage of romantic reaction was more
grand bourgeois than petty bourgeois in character. We're dealing here with composers such as
Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, and Saint-Saëns, who composed in
a relatively tonal manner. With the twentieth
century, however, we enter an age of bourgeois classicism, though such
neo-classicism had also prevailed, to a limited extent and at various times, in
the preceding century, as in certain of the works of Grieg,
Bruckner, and Bizet."
"A complicator could argue that
some of it was really an extension of aristocratic classicism rather than the
earliest manifestation of neo-classicism," Arthur Kearns opined, to the
low-key amusement of his companions.
"Certainly he could," Walter Brian generously
conceded. "And doubtless some of it
was, particularly in works of the early Beethoven, in Weber, Mendelssohn,
Gounod, and Reinecke.
However, it's only with the twentieth century that we arrive at the
principal age of neo-classicism, which divides, as you may already have
guessed, into two types, viz. a type more grand than petty bourgeois in
character, and, opposed to it, a type more petty than grand bourgeois. The first type we may define as tonal, the
second as atonal, though still confined to acoustic means. In each case, we're in the realm of a
spiritual Become, but of a Become that varies according to the class bias of
the composer concerned. Thus the first,
or lower, type of neo-classicism had for its chief practitioners composers like
Martinu, Hindemith, Elgar,
Vaughan Williams, Holst, Satie,
Ravel, Poulenc, Stravinsky, and Honegger,
who mostly worked within a tonal context, though not one suggesting an affinity
with the more radical late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century romantic
composers, like Tchaikovsky, Rubenstein, Strauss, Wagner, and Mahler -
complications and complicators aside."
Arthur
Walter Brian raised his brows in sceptical concession to the
possible veracity of this bold contention, and simply said: "You may well
be right. For I often tend to think of Martinu as a kind of twentieth-century Mozart, meaning that
he was the possessor of a creative facility reminiscent, in its broad range, of
what Mozart possessed in his own sphere of musical invention."
"In similar vein, I regard Honegger
as a kind of twentieth-century Beethoven," Malcolm Murphy confessed. "Though with regard to the classical
rather than to the romantic phase of Beethoven's work. There is certainly a distinct facial likeness
between the two men, at any rate, which suggests to me the likelihood of a
musical link ..."
"I wish I could verify the correctness of your
hypothesis," Arthur Kearns interposed.
"But, unfortunately, I've yet to see a photo of Honegger
or hear a major example of his work."
Walter Brian reflected briefly before conceding, for Malcolm
Murphy's benefit, that there was probably some truth in what he had said,
though he couldn't stipulate exactly how much.
Nevertheless, with regard to the second type of neo-classicism, he had
this to say: "Being more petty than grand bourgeois
in character, it pursued a predominantly atonal path, though not in an
anarchic, and hence romantic, manner, but with reference to certain technical
conventions, such as pertained to the adoption of the twelve-note scale and its
serial realization. This scale, first
introduced by Schoenberg and subsequently adopted by both Berg and Webern, laid the foundations for the erection of a
neo-classicism more petty than grand bourgeois in character, which found its
painterly equivalent in the purist abstraction of neo-plasticism,
as practised by, amongst others, Mondrian, just as
the first type of neo-classicism found its painterly equivalent in symbolism,
that predominantly representational art.... Now although these two types of
neo-classicism at first co-existed in the early-twentieth century, the atonal
type was destined to supersede the tonal as the principal mode of bourgeois
creativity - a mode which, even now, continues to be upheld by certain late
neo-classical composers, including Tippett and
Williamson."
Arthur Kearns remained true to form by remarking: "The
earlier mode also continued to be upheld by certain late neo-classical
composers, including Walton and Berkeley."
This remark was respected, though not commented upon, by Walter Brian,
because Malcolm Murphy had something of his own to contribute to the debate.
"Since the later neo-classicism developed out of the
earlier, are we therefore to suppose that a similar arrangement duly applies to
a new development of romanticism?" he asked.
Walter Brian shook his head.
"There's no evidence suggesting that to be the case," he
replied, "because romanticism tends to react against a previous classical
attainment, and this was generally so with the emergence, earlier this century,
of a second type of bourgeois romanticism, which reacted against the first type
of neo-classicism. As to whether the
later type of neo-classicism developed out of the earlier ... it seems to me
that whilst it may have owed something to its predecessor, the main impetus of
development came from a combination of factors, both in terms of an extension
of - though implicit reaction against - tonal bourgeois romanticism into atonal
channels and, by contrast, an aspiration towards, through experimental
precocity, a higher and, as yet, unrealized ideal. That, I believe, is the case as regards the
second type of neo-classicism.
"As regards the second type of romanticism, however, the
neo-romanticism, as it were, of composers more petty than grand bourgeois in
creative scope," he went on, riding the wave of his own ebullience,
"that was largely a reaction, as I said, against tonal neo-classicism,
and, as such, it scorned any affiliation with tonal procedures. Neither did it adopt such serial procedures
as applied to atonal neo-classicism, but forged an atonal style, through
acoustic means, independently of them.
Thus was it romantic and, by definition, materialistic, focusing
attention upon the surface rather than alluding to some profounder meaning
lying underneath ... in the technical depths, as it were. Its painterly equivalent was abstract
expressionism, and its chief practitioners included composers like Russolo, Varèse, Cage, Boulez,
Stockhausen, Tavener, and Rawsthorne
- some of whom are still working in a similar vein at present, albeit not
always in acoustic terms."
There ensued a thoughtful pause in the discussion before Arthur
Kearns asked: "Would the use of electronic instruments alter the class
integrity of the music, then?"
Walter Brian nodded briskly.
"If used consistently in an atonal context, electronic instruments
would apply to a proletarian romanticism reacting against the second
neo-classicism of acoustic serialists such as
Schoenberg and Webern. Should this music follow a similar or more
advanced serial pattern in electronic terms, however, then it would constitute
a proletarian classicism - the highest possible development of the
classical. But we're unlikely to hear
much of that kind of music before the next civilization gets properly under way
on exclusively transcendental terms. In
the meantime, the voice of serious proletarian music will be predominantly
romantic, as befitting the materialistic nature of the age and in accordance
with the legitimate epochal reaction of such music against neo-classical precedent. This ultimate romanticism finds its visual
equivalent in the neon everywhichway light-art of
contemporary proletarian artists. Such
is the transitional nature of the age, however, that a practising artist or
musician can be petty bourgeois in one context and proletarian in another,
depending on whether he's utilizing natural or synthetic means, and how these
means are being utilized. Stockhausen
affords us a typical example of this indeterminate phenomenon, because some of
his atonal music is acoustic and some of it electronic. The bulk of it, however, is romantic."
"No man is born an absolute," Malcolm Murphy declared,
a wry smile on his haggard face.
"Apparently not these days," Arthur Kearns countered,
chuckling aloud. "Though there were
times when a composer's music adhered to a definite context, as with Mozart,
and doubtless such times will arise again ... come the
advent of a more absolutist age."
Walter Brian saw no reason to doubt that conjecture, and duly
offered its instigator a confident nod.
"Yes, the future will belong to the proletarian classicist,"
he solemnly averred. "As thinkers,
however, it's our business to extricate what sense we can from the seemingly
chaotic present, thereby arriving at certain conclusions about it which may be
of service to posterity and to the future development of music. We will, of course, be generalizing both
composers and movements into near-absolutist categories. But an age like this leaves us very little
alternative! If we have brought some
order from out the indeterminate muddle, we'll have served our purpose. Or almost so!"
Malcolm Murphy scratched his right cheek a moment, and then
said: "One thing you haven't told us, and that pertains to the painterly
equivalent of tonal bourgeois romanticism.
That's the missing link in the puzzle."
"Ah, perhaps I had thought that too obvious to be worth
mentioning," Walter Brian responded, his face betraying a degree of
surprise. "Its equivalent is, of
course, romanticism - as practised by artists such as Delacroix, Gericault, Friedrich, and Turner."
Malcolm Murphy smiled in apparent satisfaction with this answer
and admitted that the puzzle was now solved.
"All except for impressionism," Arthur Kearns declared
with complicator's zest.
"Which is nothing more than an extreme manifestation of the
first type of bourgeois romanticism," Walter Brian assured him. "Whether in art or music, the intention
is approximately the same: to give a surface impression in quasi-abstract terms
rather than to hint, like symbolism, at underlying spiritual depths. Thus it is materialist, and thereby akin to
the romantic."
"I admit defeat," said Arthur Kearns.
"And I proclaim victory," Malcolm Murphy added. "For now we can talk about something
else."
"Whatever you like," sighed Walter Brian, who felt he
had theorized long and boldly enough about 'bourgeois music' for the time
being.
