Hello
I'm not sure this is the correct place to post this but anyways... this is an essay I had to do about a personal belief and defending it. I didn't really have that strong of a personal belief about anything so I decided to choose music. It is suppose to argue that musical complexity in the Romantic period of music was greater than basically whatever after. My English teacher told me he didn't know much about music, so I don't know if my approach was that good... well I'll stop writing. I think I got the point across. Hopefully the essay will speak for itself. I appreciate any and all your help and comments. BTW, I know my writing stinks.
"Decline of Complexity in Modern Music"
Earlier classical music, specifically that of the Romantic period, is more complex than modern music because of the intricacy of sound and purpose. We define 'earlier classical' as pre-20th century classical music and beginning around the late 17th century. Modern - which includes rock, hip-hip, rap, and modern classical music - is post-19th century music. Modern music, as a result of the music industry, tends to have fewer types of chords, has less and simpler harmony and chord progressions, and is lacking purpose. Modern (post-19th century) classical music does occasionally use more in quantity and, in an acoustic sense, more complicated chords, but these chords are a construction of the composers' tendencies to exclude purpose in their arrangements of sounds. Consequently, pieces lose their attractiveness and may seem to listeners to be arranged randomly.
To help make my point about various levels of complexity, music will be compared to writing. In its essence, music is composed of sounds arranged in a certain way, like words in an essay. If the sounds are not arranged in a recognizable pattern, they have no meaning. Likewise, words unarranged, also have no meaning. Pattern is not exclusive to the melody, but pertains to all the notes as well; the patterns in music are expressed by the blending of sounds, called harmony, and scales, also known as keys. Harmony has a specific structure, in the same way a sentence does. And like any language, music is composed of sentences; and, if these sentences do not lead or connect to each other by a change in harmony (chord progression), the composition loses its meaning, or sense of purpose. The Baroque period, especially Bach, truly expanded harmony and chord progressions (change in harmony) to nearly its maximum extent. As expected, music should have at least one set of "sections" - an introduction, a climax, and a conclusion - which gives a piece as a whole a deeper sense of meaning - sentence, paragraph, chapter, story. These "sections" are a trademark of the Romantic period and can be easily recognized by their dramatic changes in harmony and volume, or dynamics. They are the rudiments of program music, telling of a story, that make Romantic music so emotional. In conclusion, purpose ("purposeful complexity") is formed from harmony, chord progression, and scales. The deeper pupose also includes "sections", all of which are arranged in a way that make them seem connected in a meaningful and obvious way. The elements, together, will be considered a piece's "acoustic complexity" and the connections holding all these elements together can be considered to be music theory that is necessary to create "purposeful complexity".
The Romantic period, which extended through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was the peak of musical evolution and the last period of earlier classical music (pre-20th century). It was a time when new, talented composers reached outside the boundaries set by the Classical and the Baroque periods. They had a strong reverence for Bach and his conventions, which greatly influenced the structure of their pieces. His rules for harmony and chord progressions (harmonic changes) along with traditional styles - fugue, sonata, concerto, etc.; formats (musical notation); and melodic formation were present. However, thanks to the new instruments implemented in the symphony orchestras and the expanded keyboard, both introduced by Beethoven, many more possibilities were offered to explore. As a result, the new composers added "sections" characteristic of program music that gave pieces "deeper purpose," which is linked to their music being known as emotional. For example, Crocker writes about Wagner, an "epitome of the Romantic period":
For the greatest effect, Wagner gave each harmony the richest spacing, position, and orchestration he could, sustained the chord as long as he dared, and then moved to a second chord whose relationship to the first would be as exciting as possible. His purpose was to produce feeling - not vague, indefinable feeling, but a prickle on the back of the neck. (459)
Audiences, who could afford the luxury of attending a performance, would marvel at the famous master musicians and composers of the time.
The modern classical music that followed the Romantic period slowly started to, in my opinion, degenerate in "purposeful complexity", deviating from traditional harmony, chord progressions, styles, and purpose. This can be seen in the many strange and dissonant sounds and harmonies of impressionist composers. The impressionists - whose trademark composers were arguably Debussy and Ravel, - "concentrated their efforts on making radical new sounds, while content to attach these sounds to relatively traditional shapes [shapes being similar to chords]"(Crocker 483). Instead, "These composers have also found it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to create new shapes, with purely traditional sounds." (Crocker 483) The "radical new sounds" are mainly comprised of dissonance, which give the impressionist period its nickname: "Dissonant Period". The objective of this period is "less concerned with inner expression... more with qualities of sound and style" (Crocker 484), meaning that the deeper sense of purpose included with program music is lost. Another aspect of impressionist music is that the harmony changes less frequently. Thus, complexity in terms of both sound and purpose has decreased.
Later examples of modern classical music were the works of late modern composers and especially contemporary composers. Theodor W. Adorno best summarizes the change in music around the 1920s as "... a condition of chaotic fermentation, that is, the end of which could be foreseen and which would restore order from disorder" (29). The most important composer to mention is the notorious Arnold Schoenberg. Considered an expressionist, he is the founder of atonality (no particular scale) and the twelve-tone technique. His music would also use a lot of dissonance but "...without reference to traditional functions..." (Crocker 514). Again, purpose in such music is almost completely lost. Strange sounds and a peculiar style not only individualize the music but make the piece considered very acoustically complex in such a way patterns are very difficult to recognize, truly making it "chaotic", lacking almost any sense of meaning and purpose. Some recent composers, however, still stay with the strict classical, Western past and try to create new pieces that replicate the former styles, called neoclassicism (Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky). The quality of sound and style is very subjective, but without much of a purpose, what more is it than a "randomization" of notes?
Basically, since the end of the Romantic period, music theory has been increasingly neglected, media being the major, if not entire, cause. As much as media has had influence on our clothing, lifestyle, politics, and other things, it has also influenced music. This resulted in a switch of the culture from being driven by highly educated individuals to a mass-consumer society giving birth to new types of popular music that are generalized for the public and kept alive solely by media. Others try to create new sounds - be original - by avoiding music theory completely, and some have idealized notions that the future will expand music theory into something new and better, making early classical music obsolete (modern classical music). Much evidence is presented that implies the complexity of earlier modern music: popularity, dedication, connotations, and scientific studies.
One of the main components of modern music is popular music. Popular music has always been around whether singing folk songs in pubs in the 1600's or blasting 'metal' in a car. Surprisingly, popular music has increased in "acoustic complexity"- thanks to new electronics able to play such music anywhere - and is now, by some people and critics, considered to be an art. At the same time, modern music does not have the exact purpose that folk songs had long ago. Nowadays, it combines accompaniment and pre-recorded performances that would obviously not be available before. Even with its increased complexity, modern popular music is controlled by industry and its institutions of mass production. Pre-twentieth century popular music consisted mainly of some types of folk songs. Attempts to make these folk songs more "artistic" have been accomplished by such composers as Brahms but were afterwards considered to be classical.
The generalization of the audience in today's popular music by the mass-consumer society is the main reason why it lacks the same elements that earlier and modern classical music contain. To understand classical music's various complexities, a person needs to be well educated in its components. Most people do not listen to music to analyze it. Not all of classical music is as complicated as it seems and it still holds popularity in modern society, such as Beethoven's 7th Symphony. It has a simple repeating melody that repeats quite often in slightly different variations. Its purpose and intense emotions of anger are easily sensed, giving it "purposeful complexity". Therefore, some classical music that is relatively complex is still well known.
Despite how old classical music may be perceived, its popularity has actually increased over time. "Classical music is growing in popularity, not shrinking. And in the coming years, we should expect it to grow even more."(chicagoclassicalmusic.org) Its complexity influences many people today to practice instruments, sometimes for most of their lives, to simply gain the satisfaction of playing a piece. These instruments are so captivating because they give a musician the ability to interpret the music and change it as desired. In contrast, modern popular music seems to have a short period of popularity lasting about one to two years (e.g. Pink's "Let's Get This Party Started"). Modern music is heavily edited and its instruments are not as multi-faceted as those of the classical genre.
As a result of earlier classical music's complexity, it requires musicians to be very skilled at their instruments. Past musicians would practice from a very early age requiring private education for the use of their instrument. Performing routinely would be necessary to slowly work on relieving stress during concerts and competitions. Later in their lives, children would be sent to secondary schools, or conservatoriums, to further their knowledge in their instrument. The level of difficulty of most popular music today does not require the same skill as classical music and in some cases does not require an instrument at all. Jazz is an exception as some pieces may have purpose and some may not. Jazz is an art residing mainly in improvisation and its complexity is based on the skill of the musician and their interpretation. Jazz, similarly, has private and secondary schools for its musicians.
For a long time, classical music has been considered rich and elegant and has played an important role in modern culture. When dining at a city's most reputable restaurant, would someone expect a rap group or a string quartet playing Mozart? Practically all movies include some form of classical music.
Certain scientific studies suggest listening to classical music may be beneficial. Research such as the "Mozart Effect" by Rauscher and Shaw, suggested that listening to Mozart temporarily increased seeing and manipulating patterns. Another study observes the effect of classical music on the shape of water (the most abundant compound in our body) by Masaro Emoto in his book, "Hidden Messages of Water" (Emoto and Thayne). The study showed that most popular genres of music do not give water any recognizable shape, which Emoto asserts to mean that classical music is far more beneficial to humans. The explanations offered by Emoto, however, are philosophical and opinionated and should not be considered scientific.
Modern music has seen a decline in complexity as a result of commercialism, generalization of audience, and continuing attempts to revolutionize sound. Popular music is written to entertain a more general audience, thus requiring less knowledge and attention in the field - although exception can be found. Modern classical music tries to create some new sound, thus also straying away from any limitations. In the past, classical music was created to simply please the upper-class audience with its harmony and melody intelligently arranged to show an obvious yet beautiful progression. In the sense of purposeful and acoustic complexity, nothing can compare to the classical music of the Romantic composers.
