Individualism and the Music World

Taking a rare break from all of these book reviews, recently I have been thinking about music and who is assigned the credit for a great work. In classical music, we tend to assign the credit to the composer. Which is completely opposite from the pop world where we credit the performer. Why is there this discrepancy?

I think this difference has to do with individualism. Especially in the United States and Western world in general, we have this idea subconsciously in our heads that most endeavors are piloted by a single individual. This individual has the idea, follows it through, and then is deserving of our praise. But that is not how most projects work. Most are a product of many people, each with different inputs, working together as a team.

Now think of music. When we want to credit someone for a work of art, we want it to be the most immediate person to the work. Therefore we default to the artist, the one who made it happen. For music that defaults to the performer, the person closest to the work. Which is what we see in pop music.

Then switch to classical. The problem here is that most classical works are done by a large symphony, a group composed of over 50 musicians usually. Way too many for our individual praise. There’s the conductor, the musicians, the soloists, who to pick? So it goes to the category that usually has a single name next to it. The composer. Our individualist minds cannot handle more than one name, so we look for that one.

Now obviously there’s some problems with this argument, but I think I am correct in saying that this plays a role in it. For more discussion on this idea though, I’d recommend checking out the podcast “Hi-Phi Nation,” there’s an episode that deals with this question, although it goes in a different direction than what I did here.

This Is Beautiful: Steven Universe

This is the next installment in the This is Beautiful series. This is where I talk about something that I think is beautiful and is helping to bring meaning into the world. And this week goes to the children's tv show from Cartoon Network, Steven Universe.

What I love the most about this show is how sincere it is. Steven knows next to nothing about his mom and the show chronicles what he's learning about her as he grows. Which involves discovering that she wasn't perfect and made some critical mistakes. But Steven never descends into despair or gives up on himself and his friends. Each time he comes up against a challenge he comes at it with friendship and love on his side. It also never goes so far as to become hokey, somehow it hits the sweet spot where it still deals with the loss of meaning in the world and affirms the aspects of it that can give meaning.

If I can be a bit of an annoying philosophy wank for a moment, I have a whole analysis of the show. It's a bit of a crack theory. But it's part of why I love the show. I think through a certain reading you could see Steven's mom as essentially his source of meaning, or his god. He sees his purpose in the Crystal Gems determined by his mother's previous role in the group. He also literally has a piece of her inside him. She created him and then left. Somehow sounds a lot like a god to me. And so the series is about Steven dealing with the death of his god. (Which makes it a pretty postmodern work really.)

And time and time again Steven confirms that even after the death of meaning we need to rely on the force of love and friendship. Another aspect of the show that I love is how many different kinds of love there are represented. There are passionate, realistic romantic relationships (see the wedding episode) but there is also Steven's relationship with Connie, an equally passionate friendship. And of course there's all of the maternal love that the Gems feel for Steven.

Honestly I can't think of a better show for anyone (kids or adults) to be watching. It affirms and describes realistic, loving relationships, all while dealing with the death of meaning. I get a kick out of it, and so should you.

“Invisibles” by David Zweig

Invisibles is a book about the people whose work you never see, never hear about, never read about, until something goes wrong. It’s not about those whose work never gets any attention, like the working class, rather it’s about professionals who become more invisible the better that they do their job. This includes a simultaneous interpreter for the UN, a fact checker for a magazine, the piano tuner for an orchestra, and a wayfinder for an airport, among others.

Unsurprisingly, all of these professions have several personality traits in common. All invisibles share the same three traits: ambivalence to recognition, devotion to meticulousness, and a savoring of responsibility. They are team players who sense of achievement lies in a job well done and the recognition of others rather than themselves.

In this day and age, everyone is trying to promote themselves and gain attention from the anonymous masses on the internet. The invisibles are a breath of fresh air after all of that, they choose to be and remain hidden from the spotlight. And to be honest, they seem happier for all of that. Zweig goes through how society regards invisibles and what we can learn from them throughout the book, and his commentary is invaluable.

Maybe we’d all be happier if we were more like the invisibles. Maybe we’d share more success. Who knows, but I think that I’ll be trying to incorporate their ideals into my life now as well.

This Is Beautiful: The World Ends With You

I discuss this game pretty heavily in these two blog posts, so this will mostly be an update on those. Just go back and read those first, I don't want to reiterate everything that's there.

So we are finally getting a kinda sorta sequel to TWEWY as a version is coming out for the Nintendo Switch this fall. I just pre-ordered it haha. And I can't really say how much this means to me, that we're getting another go at the game.

Back in middle school when I played this for the first time, it really affected me. It's message of reaching out to others and the philosophical undertones present and the humor found some part of me to latch on to, and it's been there ever since. I replayed it several times since then, and it's just as relevant as it was then.

I don't know why, I rarely get into video games this much. But the fact that the game is coming back as I am now an adult fills me with hope. Sometimes I feel as though I have lost track of the me just after playing the game who was so filled with the promise of getting to know others and expanding her world. That enthusiasm for life seems kind of far right now.

We're apparently being given a special ending with this new game, and while I have no idea what that entails, I'm just excited for new content. This game, from the graphics to the music, is really beautiful to me, and I'm just pumped to revisit it.

“Cutting for Stone” by Abraham Verghese

This is one of those classic books that people who want to go into medicine read. I honestly thought that I would hate it. But it is so much more than simply a narrative demonstrating the power of medicine and doctors and whatever. However, it has one tragic flaw, which I find difficult to overlook. I’ll get to that eventually, since there is a lot about this book that I really do love.

The book opens with the tale of a nun, Sister Mary Joseph Praise. She’s travelling to Africa with another one of her fellow sisters when she meets Dr. Thomas Stone. But where the plot actually thickens is when the two of them are working together in a hospital. That is, until Sister Mary is discovered pregnant with twins and dies in childbirth.

Stone is so astonished by this (by the way, no one has any idea how she got pregnant, but they all assume that the father is Stone) that he leaves and returns to America. The twins are cared for by Hema, the hospital’s gynecologist, and Ghosh, its internal medicine jack-of-all-trades. The twins are named Marion and Shiva, and they are born connected by a cord attached to their heads. Even though this cord is severed, they insist on sleeping with their heads touching for years, and even afterwards share a special connection. They aren’t two people, they’re one ShivaMarion.

The story of their lives is interwoven with Ethiopia and its political revolution, as well as with Genet, the girl who is raised in the same household. Marion falls madly in love with her, despite numerous rebuffs, and they end up nearly destroying each other. Because of her, Marion travels to New York and there runs into many figures from his past. In the end he returns to Ethiopia, but this time it is to stay.

Genet is where this story has its fatal flaw. She finds him in New York, and the night that she spends there ends with Marion having rough sex with her as she asks him to stop. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: THIS IS RAPE. This is not acceptable. Excusing this as revenge because she ruined his life or something is not okay and not allowed. Portraying everything as being Genet’s fault and taking the blame off of Marion, the guy raping someone because she didn’t wait for him as kids or something, is not something I can condone or agree with. I can’t state this enough: this is RAPE and this is NOT OKAY.

So it isn’t just a story about medicine. It’s also about love, and what we owe each other as humans and as family. It’s about travelling halfway around the world only to find what you grew up with. It’s about how love saves, but also kills. WHY DOES IT NEED THAT RAPE SCENE THEN IT’S SO UNNECESSARY.

Verghese is a masterful storyteller. All of his characters are so well written and fleshed out, even the minor ones practically jump off of the page. At the back of the book, within the “Acknowledgements” section, he reveals where he got much of his inspiration from. Not many authors do that, I kind of wish that they would now. I just really wish that he had the sense to know what consent it, and how to go about that.

Sex isn’t revenge. Sex isn’t something that you owe someone. Sex isn’t something that you can take, it is either given willingly or not at all. Nothing excuses forcing someone to have sex with you if they aren’t enthusiastically saying “yes! This is what I want.” Because of that one scene the rest of the book is just a little ruined for me, which is really too bad because I loved it other than that. We need books that demonstrate healthy relationships and don’t excuse this bullshit anymore, there’s enough of that in real life.

This is Beautiful: The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufock

We're going to start something new this week.

So recently I've just been feeling down about all of the cynicism present in art and in the world in general. It just feels like no one is genuine anymore about what they think and what they feel, and while I think that you can get a valuable critique from being a cynic, I think that being earnest and being genuine also has it's place as well.

During my senior year of undergrad I took a Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics course, which was a great choice on my part. And every class would start with one of the students presenting something that they thought was beautiful and a short piece on why they thought it was beautiful. I thought that was the best, here's a piece of time carved out just for talking about something that's gorgeous and makes life better.

And that's what I'm going to be doing here, once a week I will be presenting something that I think is beautiful. And there's going to be no judgment, no need to defend it, no need to bring in philosophical arguments (but I may bring some in), just something beautiful and how it's keeping me going. Eventually I might expand and bring in other people's opinions on what it beautiful, but for now it's just me.

For this first installment in "This is Beautiful" is the poem that affected me a lot as a high schooler. It was the first time that I read something and really felt that it got me and my life on a profound level, and I've just been chasing that since then. And the poem is: "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot, which you can read here.

There's a couple different reasons why I fell head over heels in love with this poem. First of all, there's the rhyming of it. Each line flows easily into the next, I never felt like I was struggling to get through it (unlike many other poems from English class).

Then there's that kicker of a line "Do I dare/Disturb the universe?" which is at the heart of the meaning of the poem. Essentially Prufrock is scared to alter anything about his life, so scared that he does nothing, and in the end dies unfulfilled. If I had to pick one greatest fear that I had, it would be that. I'm terrified that I'll die and realize that I should have changed this, I should have done that. At the same time, I'm so scared of making any change. I'm nervous about what people will think, I'm concerned about my abilities. So I live with these two fears over me, constantly trying to strive above them and make a change in my life without having it be so radical that I upend my life.

I too sometimes wish that I was "a pair of ragged claws" so that I wouldn't have to deal with this. I'm not some prophet or attendant lord, I'm right at the intersection where I can see the option of change but I don't think I'm capable of it. It's maddening! I cannot "swell a progress, start a scene or two" when I am just a fool!

But then you grow old. And eventually die. Everyone does. And you can either do it knowing that you tried your hardest to carve a life that was "worth it, after all" or not.

So this is really a cautionary tale of what not to do. But the dilemma is so personal and nails it so well, down to the "it is impossible to say just what I mean!" line that probably every teen can relate to. I reread it when I'm sad, to remind myself that there is beauty out there, and that all I need to do is simple. I just have to screw up my courage and disturb the universe. It's as easy and as hard as that.

I'm hoping to continue this series on a weekly basis, so expect another "This is Beautiful" post next Wednesday!

“Selected Poems” by Frank O’Hara, edited by Mark Ford

I don’t usually read poetry, as you have probably noticed if you read this blog. But Frank O’Hara seemed different. His poetry seemed more alive, and more relatable than some others. He used simple words and phrases instead of the grandiose ones that pretentious poets seem to favor. So I thought that I’d check out his works with this anthology of poems.

The poems are all laid out in chronological order, pulling from all of his different collections. There is also some prose at the end, of O’Hara talking about his poems and his writings. There’s also a play, “Try! Try!”, that O’Hara wrote in with the poems which is interesting. All in all, it looks like a great selection of his work across his career.

O’Hara’s work is vibrant, as he later describes it, it is poetry that is between two people instead of between the poet and a sheet of paper. He writes a lot about his sexuality, there is even a poem titled “Homosexuality” in the book! My favorite is probably “Meditations in an Emergency” that contains a great passage about how he can’t enjoy anything green without knowing that there is a city nearby where people do not regret life. Because that’s what he’s writing about: people and life!

Reading poetry was nice for a change, especially with a poet that captures what he’s feeling so simply and vibrantly. I should look into his other works, maybe one of his original publications instead of just an anthology.

Variations on a Theme: Show Tunes

This month we are looking at show tunes! And since there are a lot of shows with tunes out there, this is heavily skewed to ones that I like, and therefore heavily skewed towards Cole Porter and the Gershwins. I tried to throw in a couple more obscure ones that I like as well, and didn’t pull twice from the same show. Start snappin your fingers and tappin your toes!

1. "I've Got Rhythm" from "Crazy For You" by George and Ira Gershwin

This is classic Gershwin, about love and about dancing at the same time. It’s the big dance number from “Crazy For You” which is why it goes on for so long, that’s all tap dancing. The beat is simply irresistible!

2. "Electricity" from "Billy Elliot" by Elton John

The musical “Billy Elliot” tells the story of a young working class boy who wants to become a dancer. The music is all done by Elton John, and I think it’s superb. This song comes at a part of the show when Billy is sitting for an interview, and the interviewer asks him why he dances. I just think that it captures so well the feeling of losing yourself in art, and why artists have to create, no matter what form of art it is.

3. "I’ve Got You Under My Skin" from "Born to Dance" by Cole Porter

This is such a good Cole Porter tune. It has been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to the Four Seasons. The lyrics are catchy, but at the same time get at the essential feeling of infatuation and having someone “under your skin” as it were.

4. "I'm Not That Smart" from "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" by William Finn

This is another contemporary musical, centered around a group of kids at a spelling bee. This song is sung by a student who isn’t the smartest, just happens to be good at spelling. His character is so innocent and endearing, while so amusing, that his song is one of my favorites from the show.

5. "Accident Waiting to Happen" from "The Drowsy Chaperone" by Lisa Lambert and Greg Morrison

“The Drowsy Chaperone” is basically what you would get if you made my life into a musical. It’s about this older man who loves jazzy musicals. He puts on a record of his favorite (“The Drowsy Chaperone” of course) and it comes to life on stage! It pokes fun of all of the tropes, from the dancing gangsters to the deus ex machina at the end. This song is sung by the leading man of the show, while blindfolded on roller skates. It’s very relatable.

6. "Nice Work if You Can Get It" from "A Damsel in Distress" by George and Ira Gershwin

This is one of my favorite Gershwin tunes, been covered by Frank Sinatra, Billie Holliday, a whole ton of people. I’m surprised that it isn’t more well known. It recently was the title of a new Broadway musical that took Gershwin songs from all different shows and put them to a different plot. Anyways, this song is great because it riffs off of the whole love being better than money idea by comparing dating to a job. Which has strange capitalist themes, but I’m ignoring that and focusing on how cute the song is.

7. "All I Ask Of You" from "The Phantom of the Opera" by Andrew Lloyd Weber

To be honest, I really don’t care for Andrew Lloyd Weber as a composer. He composes as though he’s throwing darts at a music staff, there’s no logic to his melody. And half of his songs sound the same (see: “Evita” everything sounds like freaking “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina”). Having said all that, there is a soft spot in my heart for this song. It’s simple, it’s melodic, and it sums up caring for someone very well.

8. “Hello, Dolly!” from “Hello, Dolly!” by Jerry Herman

Ah yes this is a classic show tune. Probably best known for the Louie Armstrong version. This show in general seems to be able to put a smile on anyone’s face, with its earnest characters. I enjoy the title track so much because that’s what we all want, to walk into a room and have other people greet us and say that this is where we belong.

9. "One Day More" from "Les Miserables" by Claude-Michel Schonberg

It’s the penultimate track, therefore it is time to bust this number out! “One Day More” is the song before intermission for “Les Mis” so it’s quite the show-stopper. All of the characters come together to sing about how the next day is going to change their lives. Which I think is a really cool theme to link them all. There’s a lot of overlapping melodies and counter-melodies, I just find it fun to try and pick them apart and recognize which characters are which.

10. "Blow Gabriel Blow" from "Anything Goes!" by Cole Porter

And we will end with one of my favorite musicals, “Anything Goes!” This is a classic Cole Porter show, but it has been revived multiple times with slightly different songs and plots. However, no body dares to touch this song. It’s sung by an evangelist nightclub entertainer (I find it hilarious that no one in the show finds that combination odd) and the whole cast gets whipped up into a frenzy. It’s just so fun!

That’s all we got this week for a very specific subset of show tunes, haha! Next month we will be having fun with Film Scores so stay tuned for that!