MUSICAL ALTERNATIVES

1. Music - and Western music not least of all - would seem to reflect a sort of libertarian/conservative dichotomy between objectivity and subjectivity, female and male alternatives, on the basis of a progression from rhythm to pitch via harmony and melody.

2. For rhythm is the expressive element in music par excellence, harmony the compressive element par excellence, melody the depressive element par excellence, and pitch the impressive element par excellence, as things proceed from metachemical libertarianism to metaphysical conservatism via chemical libertarianism and physical conservatism.

3. Religiously speaking, Western music would seem to have begun in the pitch (externally) of 'the Father', to have continued with the harmony of 'the Mother', to have continued afresh with the melody of 'the Son', to have reacted against that in terms of the rhythm of what may be called 'the Supermother', and to have continued again, in culminatory vein, with the pitch (internally) of 'the Superson', viz. the Holy Spirit of Heaven.

4. Thus I would broadly define Western music in relation to five different epochs, viz. the pitchful epoch of 'the Father', the harmonic epoch of 'the Mother', the melodic epoch of 'the Son', the rhythmic epoch of 'the Devil' (Supermother to Submother) and, finally, the pitchful epoch of the Holy Spirit of Heaven.

5. Broadly, these five epochs may be equated with the following musical genres: viz. plainsong in the case of the pitchful epoch of 'the Father', Elizabethan and/or traditional in the case of the harmonic epoch of 'the Mother', classical in the case of the melodic epoch of 'the Son', jazzy in the case of the rhythmic epoch of 'the Devil', and synthetic in the case of the pitchful epoch of 'the Superson', that harbinger of the Holy Spirit of Heaven.

6. Hence to plot a descent from the arch-conservatism of plainsong to the libertarianism of Elizabethan and/or traditional and the conservatism of classical, with an ascent to the ultra-libertarianism of jazz and the ultra-conservatism of synthetic.

7. It could also be argued that each musical epoch or type of music is subdivisible between libertarian and conservative alternatives, with classical, for example, progressing from what might broadly be described as the rhythm of baroque to the harmony of classical proper on the comparatively libertarian side of the gender divide, and continuing again from the melody of romantic to the pitch of avant-gardism (modernism) on its conservative side, the side of male subjectivity as opposed, comparatively speaking, to female objectivity.

8. Similarly, one could argue that Jazz has progressed from the rhythm of Jazz proper (including the Blues) to the harmony of Pop, and then from the melody of Rock to the pitch of Folk, as from female libertarianism to, comparatively speaking, male conservatism.

9. It is perhaps too early to speculate on synthetic music, since this is the latest and probably highest form of Western music, making use of a variety of synthesizers to achieve, in 'sampling', both derivative and original sounds, but doubtless it, too, will progress through the full-gamut of musical alternatives as it passes from rhythm and harmony on the one side of the gender divide ... to melody and pitch on its other side.

10. But if Western music would seem to be largely evolutionary in character, as it passes from libertarianism to conservatism, as from traditional to classical in phenomenal terms and from jazz to synthetic (a sort of superclassical compared to or, rather, contrasted with the supertraditional and/or superheathen music of Jazz) in noumenal terms, then Eastern music, by contrast, illustrates a devolutionary character as it descends from rhythm to pitch via harmony and melody, as from stellar to solar via lunar and terrestrial alternatives, the stellar and lunar libertarian where the solar and terrestrial (planar) would be conservative.

11. Hence a devolution from the extreme libertarianism of stellar rhythms to the extreme conservatism of solar pitch (roughly corresponding to the Western 'Father') via the moderate libertarianism of lunar harmony and the moderate conservatism of terrestrial melody.

12. Now whereas in Eastern civilization rhythm is primary and pitch secondary, with harmony and melody much less prominent overall, in Western civilization, by contrast, melody is primary and harmony secondary, with rhythm and pitch much less prominent overall, even though contemporary society illustrates a post-Western and effectively proto-universal tendency in which rhythm (Jazz) and pitch (synthetic) are the principal alternatives, albeit with the un-Eastern consequence, latent if not developed, of a pitchful hegemony, as and when synthetic music comes fully into its own and displaces Jazz.

13. For the universal thrust of contemporary civilization, reared on the evolutionary foundations of Western precedent, is towards a pitchful omega that owes little or nothing to cosmic antiquity but is, in effect, its moral antithesis, as supermasculine (and Superchristian) as oriental civilization was - and to some extent continues to be - fundamentally superfeminine (and hence Superheathen).

14. Thus one returns to the alpha/omega distinction, within the self, between the id and the soul, rhythmic impulse and pitchful emotion, and it seems to me that the thrust of evolutionary progress is towards the omega, with synthetic consequences for music which lift pitch to new and altogether greater heights of emotional profundity.

15. Yet rhythm cannot be entirely excluded from music, even if in the course of time it becomes much less prominent than in the past, particularly the Eastern past of cosmic-oriented civilization, due to its confinement to synthesizers and then, increasingly, as a support for and/or unobtrusive counterpoint to pitch.

16. For in the primitive music of the cosmic East, one finds that rhythm was in its percussive per se with hand percussion, as exemplifying the objective bias of rhythmic expression and/or compression in due female fashion, with metachemical and chemical implications between upper-class (tall, thick) and lower-class (short, thick) types of percussion instrument, i.e. bongos and/or tom-toms and tablas.

17. Only with the fist-like paradigm of drumsticks of one kind or another was percussion liberated from an objective hegemony, in which the outstretched fingers and/or palm of the hand were applied to the drumskin, and rendered subordinate to pitchful and/or melodic priorities, as in the West.

18. But so long as tall hand-percussion instruments prevailed, rhythm was destined to remain in its per se manifestation, in due Cupidian fashion, its derivation from the noumenal objectivity of metachemical libertarianism ensuring a superfeminine-to-subfeminine orientation which is nothing less, in space-time devolution, than the sole guarantor of perfect power, a perfection of ugly and/or beautiful power that even volume-mass devolution would have been unable or unwilling to match, given its feminine bias, in humility and/or pride, towards glory.

19. But if percussion, and hence rhythm, is 'once bovaryized' away from the percussive per se of tall hand-percussion instruments in the short (squat) hand-percussion of a feminine bias, it is effectively 'twice bovaryized' away from such a per se position in short drumstick-percussion, so to speak, and 'thrice bovaryized' away from it in tall drumstick-percussion, including the use of symbols and gongs.

20. For on the male, and hence subjective, side of the gender divide, percussion is even less powerfully perfect than in the compressive context of volume-mass devolution, and thus a more suitable vehicle, in mass-volume evolution and/or time-space evolution, for the subjective perfections of form and/or contentment, depending on the axis.

21. Thus melodic perfection is best served by the phenomenal subjectivity of depressive percussion, i.e. short drumstick-percussion, while pitchful perfection requires the use, where applicable, of impressive percussion, i.e. tall drumstick-percussion, rather than of anything overly objective in character.

22. Strictly speaking, melody thrives best with a harmonic counterweight and, conversely, harmony thrives best with a melodic counterpoint, since the phenomenal middle-ground of music only succeeds, as a rule, when the noumenal extremes of rhythm and pitch are marginalized, if not entirely excluded.

23. Likewise, if conversely, the noumenal extremes of music only thrive when the phenomenal middle-ground is marginalized (i.e. 'bovaryized') or even excluded, since rhythm and pitch are akin to fire and air, the Devil and God, Hell and Heaven, and an emphasis upon the one will require the subordination of the other.

24. If space-time devolution is the axis par excellence, within metachemical libertarianism, of percussion, then volume-mass devolution is the axis par excellence, within chemical libertarianism, of keyboards, while, on the opposite side of the gender fence, mass-volume evolution is the axis par excellence, within physical conservatism, of strings, and time-space evolution the axis par excellence, within metaphysical conservatism, of wind.

25. Hence although each kind of instrument family, as outlined above, is to be found on every axis, whether as per se manifestation or 'bovaryization', a given instrumental category will only be in its per se manifestation on one elemental axis, whether in relation to fire, to water, to vegetation, or to air.

26. In literary terms, it could be argued that percussion, and hence rhythm, is the poetic approach to music; that keyboards, and hence harmony, is the dramatic approach to music; that strings, and hence melody, is the narrative approach to music; and that wind, and hence pitch, is the philosophic approach to music.

27. In terms of musical genres, medieval plainsong would be a theological mode of music; Elizabethan and/or traditional, with its harmonic bias, would be a dramatic mode of music; classical, with its melodic bias, would be a narrative mode of music; jazz, with its rhythmic bias, would be a poetic mode of music; and synthetic would be a philosophic mode of music.

28. I hold that music, being the art form of air ... in that it utilizes the airwaves for the amplification and transmission of sound, is the metaphysical art form par excellence, and thus the one that is most true to itself not in melody, still less in harmony or rhythm, but in pitch, the philosophic approach to music.

29. Hence only when music is ultra-conservative, and thus a vehicle for the pitchful exemplification of essence, is it true to the soul and thus to its ultimate mode, whether externally or, preferably, internally, as and when meritocratic synthetics replace theocratic ethics, viz. plainsong.

30. For when music is apparently bent towards the id and/or the will through rhythm, quantitatively bent towards the spirit through harmony, or qualitatively bent towards the ego through melody, it is less than true to the self and thus to that which, being deepest, is the most essential element of music, viz. pitch, an element akin to both the air and the soul in its mystical essence.