Recently, I have read an essay in the January issue of First Things dealing with folk music. You know, people like Woody Guthrie and those that took off from there: Bob Dylan, and Pete Seeger, and so on. It made me think about what music actually is and what makes good, solid music. You might even wonder whether we can quantify music as an art form, and say that it’s good or bad. Perhaps today’s approach to art (that is, political correctness or “the great equalizer”) would say that everything is good and that it is all a matter of taste. To each his own. Sorry, to each his OR her own (for a minute there, I have forgotten the equality in gender). Suddenly, there is no difference between high and low art (“we are all brothers and sisters in music”) and primitive emotionalism and broodiness of Dylan or Leonard Cohen is exactly the same as the complexity of sound in Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 or Beethoven’s 9th symphony. I don’t think it is.
To be certain, it is entirely up to me what kind of music I wish to enjoy. In fact, if you look closely in my collection, you will find an eclectic taste. But it would be fair to say that I have grown out of those many tastes I had. Let us take the Beatles for example. Every human being on this planet seems to like that damn band (or they did at some point). I used to as well…when I was a teenager. A three-note tune about John Lennon’s guru musings on how we should all peacefully co-exist does not do it for me. In fact, it infuriates me because of its affectedness and just plain, phoniness. And people actually believe this? Oh yes they do.
I’ll never forget when, a while back, I found myself at a New Age party given by an old hippie who happen to be a reincarnation of Jesus and a “Deadhead” at the same time. This man was pontificating about the significance of The Grateful Dead. The music was a way of life for him. He talked and talked, as I politely refused to taste the “brownies.” This man actually believed this hocus-pocus, or he was just a very good actor who liked to charge people serious money for the bits of his “hippie wisdom.”
A lifestyle then. This low art type of music then leads to a particular lifestyle. Woody Guthrie had an agenda. So did Bob Dylan. So does Bruce Springsteen. A leftist agenda to be sure, even though I am certain that they were/are not even lefties at heart. They just play for the team which seems to be winning. If I tried to listen to dazed and confused Guthrie or whiny Dylan or groaning Springsteen, I am left with a bunch of slogans about class warfare set to seemingly upbeat tune. When I had to sing Communist songs (as a Tito’s pioneer in Communist Yugoslavia), at least we had tunes that actually sounded like call to arms; a real Soviet spin on following our Comrade Tito. Rock stars want to be for the collective, but all they seem to say is “Look at me! Look at how significant the dirt under my fingernail is! I am a god!!!” In other words, this music is limiting, even if we find it remotely interesting.
Enter Bach. The beauty and splendor of human creation comes together in Bach. It is sublime and ordered. I know that my sense of hearing will not be offended or my mind but most importantly, my heart will not be divided. It will bring forth into my being and into my world the order of things.
Similarly, Beethoven takes me on one amazing trip. I cry when I listen to 9th symphony—its strange beginning, and movements which are trying to work themselves out in the midst of human chaos, and finally, the glorious end, which recognizes my humanity and the need to always move towards God’s yes. It is as if I am hearing through Beethoven’s notes Jesus’ ministry, suffering and crucifixion and finally, Resurrection. A true theo-drama indeed!
So what makes Mozart and Beethoven and Bach different from our lefty friends? The Absolute, the Universal, Truth. It transcends time and space and makes itself relevant to any age and any person. It doesn’t matter what class you are, what matters is your dignity. When I was living in a refugee camp in the Czech Republic, I had nothing: I was stateless, penniless, wearing donated clothes that were far too big for my small body. I saved some money and bought a tape of Beethoven’s 5th and listened to it endlessly. And despite the fact that I indulged my teenage mind in the Beatles, nothing brought me greater hope than Beethoven.
At the end of each of the piece that he composed, Bach wrote S.D.G.—Soli Deo Gloria. We have to ask ourselves: what should we value more: that, which is done selfishly with an agenda and for vanity, or that which is done for God’s glory?
To be certain, it is entirely up to me what kind of music I wish to enjoy. In fact, if you look closely in my collection, you will find an eclectic taste. But it would be fair to say that I have grown out of those many tastes I had. Let us take the Beatles for example. Every human being on this planet seems to like that damn band (or they did at some point). I used to as well…when I was a teenager. A three-note tune about John Lennon’s guru musings on how we should all peacefully co-exist does not do it for me. In fact, it infuriates me because of its affectedness and just plain, phoniness. And people actually believe this? Oh yes they do.
I’ll never forget when, a while back, I found myself at a New Age party given by an old hippie who happen to be a reincarnation of Jesus and a “Deadhead” at the same time. This man was pontificating about the significance of The Grateful Dead. The music was a way of life for him. He talked and talked, as I politely refused to taste the “brownies.” This man actually believed this hocus-pocus, or he was just a very good actor who liked to charge people serious money for the bits of his “hippie wisdom.”
A lifestyle then. This low art type of music then leads to a particular lifestyle. Woody Guthrie had an agenda. So did Bob Dylan. So does Bruce Springsteen. A leftist agenda to be sure, even though I am certain that they were/are not even lefties at heart. They just play for the team which seems to be winning. If I tried to listen to dazed and confused Guthrie or whiny Dylan or groaning Springsteen, I am left with a bunch of slogans about class warfare set to seemingly upbeat tune. When I had to sing Communist songs (as a Tito’s pioneer in Communist Yugoslavia), at least we had tunes that actually sounded like call to arms; a real Soviet spin on following our Comrade Tito. Rock stars want to be for the collective, but all they seem to say is “Look at me! Look at how significant the dirt under my fingernail is! I am a god!!!” In other words, this music is limiting, even if we find it remotely interesting.
Enter Bach. The beauty and splendor of human creation comes together in Bach. It is sublime and ordered. I know that my sense of hearing will not be offended or my mind but most importantly, my heart will not be divided. It will bring forth into my being and into my world the order of things.
Similarly, Beethoven takes me on one amazing trip. I cry when I listen to 9th symphony—its strange beginning, and movements which are trying to work themselves out in the midst of human chaos, and finally, the glorious end, which recognizes my humanity and the need to always move towards God’s yes. It is as if I am hearing through Beethoven’s notes Jesus’ ministry, suffering and crucifixion and finally, Resurrection. A true theo-drama indeed!
So what makes Mozart and Beethoven and Bach different from our lefty friends? The Absolute, the Universal, Truth. It transcends time and space and makes itself relevant to any age and any person. It doesn’t matter what class you are, what matters is your dignity. When I was living in a refugee camp in the Czech Republic, I had nothing: I was stateless, penniless, wearing donated clothes that were far too big for my small body. I saved some money and bought a tape of Beethoven’s 5th and listened to it endlessly. And despite the fact that I indulged my teenage mind in the Beatles, nothing brought me greater hope than Beethoven.
At the end of each of the piece that he composed, Bach wrote S.D.G.—Soli Deo Gloria. We have to ask ourselves: what should we value more: that, which is done selfishly with an agenda and for vanity, or that which is done for God’s glory?
4 comments:
And yet a good Bach English Suite, a Beethoven late string quartet or the Mozart clarinet concerto, at the same time that they circle the Divine like Seraphim, are also like Chesterton's quote about "a thick steak, a glass of red wine, and a good cigar".
I am not fully understanding your comment. Are you saying that our enjoyment of Bach is the same as our enjoyment of a steak? Care to elaborate?
Hi, I am from Australia.
Please find some essays on Sacred Art, Beauty & Culture--and politics too.
www.aboutadidam.org/readings/art_is_love/index.html
www.adidabiennale.org/curation/index.htm
http://global.adidam.org/books/transcendental-realism.html
Plus the politics that inevitably extends from what is communicated in the above Art
www.dabase.org/restsacr.htm
www.dabase.org/not2.htm
www.dabase.org/openlett.htm
Plus on the non-humans
www.fearnomorezoo.org
Thank you for your links.
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