Treatise on Marmite 29th May 2020. Thoughts on Tonal and Atonal composition
Marmite is a wonderful thing. You either love it or you hate it. Of late it’s often been coined to describe the tastes of listeners. They either love or hate atonalism. Perhaps a little too simplistic, but I think it kind of helps to illustrate the point. Atonalism derives from part of a movement called the ‘Second Viennese School’ which took place around the early 1900’s. Before then most classical music relied on conventions such as expected chord changes, regular meter, resolution of suspensions, melody, repetition of motif and established tonality within recognised scales etc etc. After this period, the classical music establishment took on a change which uprooted nearly all of that. It took its base from the twelve tone scale where 12 notes played one after each other rarely appeared again within that scale at that moment. Each note would become equally important, and there was far more spatiality, where you would often hear notes shooting way up and deep down, sometimes with no time signature and any form of meter at all. Quite naturally, this could leave the listener confused. However, on an intellectual and individual level, one can find a key to enjoying the music, providing you’re able to release yourself from the classical conventions of the past, that is, try not to rely on your senses, accept them to a certain degree as false and ‘leading you up the garden path.’ Think more of colours. The music is considered to be here and now, and the form it takes does not necessarily mean that there will ever again be a over arching ‘champion’ composer or main historical classical event. It is a world of never ending change, like tectonic plates shifting in time.​
This leads me on to the Post Modernist element and that of the changes of the turn of the century. Much of contemporary art, sculpture and dance along with other mediums such as cinema have become an acceptable form of art. They’re not always to everyone’s taste, but I would argue that none attracts such revulsion by some as Post Modern contemporary classical music. Unjustifiably so I might add.
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So, all of that leads us to a path and conclusion that music is quite unique within the field of art.
Where the difficulty lies is when one attempts to align it with changes of the 20th century.
Much architecture of the time rejected the past. It demanded more concrete buildings for example.
The philosophical side of things preaches that to refer to the past simply reinforces its mistakes and denies opportunities for the future. You might be able to see how the development of music slipped into this, albeit very conveniently. I’m particularly fond of 1960’s French philosophy. Jacques Derrida for example, from within the French Marxist school fits perfectly into all of the above as regards to the development of the classical music establishment, it is a shining illustration of his idea of total deconstruction and a rebuilding.
Neither Atonal or Tonal music are a bad thing, of course not, but it's really important to recognise the importance of both in a modern contemporary setting and their right to their own existence. Even if one were to rubbish atonalism or tonalism altogether you cannot deny by sheer volume of compositional work, each one has had a tremendous influence. It's very easy to settle into a philosophy supporting one or the other. Indeed, we are awash with PhD students studying this subject, so academic accessibility is relatively easy. As for the listener, that is entirely a different matter in whatever sphere we come to mention.
There has to be a fundamental re-think of what has gone on, a realisation of what we think is ‘here and now’ which in reality was ‘there and then’.
In conclusion, my idea of classical music is something slightly quantum. It exists at all sorts of levels at the same time. It doesn’t have time as it’s master. I understand it helps us mortals to give it a slot but sometimes it can be a devil of a conundrum. I’m lucky. I can listen to Bruckner in the morning, funky soul at lunch and Maxwell Davis for tea. In music there is something there, an entity we cannot explain or touch. That little piece of magic. That something that puts the ball in the back of the net. The question is, what is ‘here and now’. My answer to that is ‘everything’. If I listen to Beethoven, I listen to it as though it was its very first performance, bursting with excitement, revolutionary even.
I hope you are able to 'tune into' my music, here and now. I think it's different, I hope you do too.
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Wayne Faram 05/20