When considering the analysis of a piece of music for the first time, it is sometimes useful to start with the ‘elements of music’. As a first step – try placing the following elements in order of priority – in other words how important isthe element to the analysis of the track? For example – if a piece of music only has one chord throughout – it may be argued that the element ‘harmony’ will receive a low grading? In Dylan’s music – it could be argued that lyrical content would get a high grade. The elements are as follows
Melody
Harmony
Lyrics
Form
Texture
Tempo
Metre
Timbre
Dynamics
Mix
Listen to one of the following pieces – (‘Car Wash’ by Rolls Royce; ‘The Times They Are A changin’ by Dylan, or ‘Sir Duke’ by Stevie Wonder, and give them a grade (1 to 9) followed by a reason for your choice.
A few things to discuss this week. Firstly, I have been working on attempting to formulate an easy to understand musicological model that takes into account production – the music itself – and its reception. I will be discussing this with students over the next few weeks – but I would be interested in any thoughts regarding accuracy – and most importantly – is there anything missing? The link to the model can be found here
Barthes would regard an author as a capitalist construct, and ‘modern’ authors attempt to loosen the connection between art (music) and its creation. I other words the meaning of music is in its destination not origin. Eco links into this – mentioning by name a number of composers who engrain ‘openness’ into their music – something which has ramifications not only for the listener – but also the performer and composer. This begs the question – is ‘a work’ a combination of all of its recordings,performances, rough mixes, cover versions etc – or is it a single instance? If it is the former – how do we negotiate a piece of music?
Read through the pdf files in the links and let me know.
I have a new Journal article coming out in the next week which discusses some askpects of the Welsh Music scene. It will be published in the Journal ‘Popular Music History’ – a short abstract copied below.
This chapter intends to explore current issues surrounding the opportunities and limitations inherent within the Welsh music scene, for composers and performing musicians within the popular music industry. It is apparent that Wales currently presents a number of prospects to obtain exposure within national boundaries, with BBC Radio Cymru, Gwyliwch Y Gofod,Bandit, Sioe Gelf and Gofodall being indicative examples of Radio and TV specifically targeting Welsh talent. Indeed, Welsh music and artistry has long been internationally prevalent through popular artists like Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey during the 1960’s, rock bands such as Man, Budgie and Badfinger during the 1970’s, The Alarm and The Manic Street Preachers emerging during the mid and late 1980’s, and Super Furry Animals and Catatonia during the Brit Pop influenced Cool Cymru period of the 1990’s. However, it could be argued that many of these artists compromise their Welsh identity by singing in English, with Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Super Furry Animals and Catatonia being particularly interesting examples of ensembles originally part of a Welsh-speaking scene during the 1980s–1990s, who were later to perform their music in English, often for commercial imperatives. As outlined by David Owen, Welsh speaking bands such as Crumblowers and Ffa Coffi Pawb“realised if they were ever to make a successful career they would have to sing in English” (2006) – this is a politically contentious decision facing Welsh-speaking ensembles to this day. The financial imperative to gain exposure outside of Wales can be considered more important of late, due to the recent reductions in Performing Rights Society (PRS) royalty rates, a factor which has made it significantly more problematic for musicians to operate professionally within Welsh boundaries. This chapter investigates the sometimes opposing political, commercial, and nationalistic pressures on Welsh musicians to sustain a living. Furthermore, it considers how these factors can potentially affect their Welsh identity, a term which was identified by Hill (2007) as being inherently problematic. After documenting a brief contextualisation of the history of Welsh popular music and its dialogic relationship with the construction and portrayal of identity, the chapter will proceed to outline how opportunities and threats are impacted by this construction. It argues that both the government and the music industry need to negotiate the gray area between economics and cultural authenticity, leaving musicians free to portray their ‘Welshness’ as they see fit. The necessity for a unified industry that facilitates musicians to exploit their intellectual property rights inside and outside of Wales is also emphasised as an important factor regarding the capacity of the Welsh music industry propagating employment for its workforce.
It is so long since I last blogged, so I thought this seemed a good time to set a new year’s resolution to upload a post at least once a week. So – here goes – a brief synopsis of what I have been up to last year (as far as I can remember).
Due to the amount of work I have had to do on the edited collection on Frank Zappa (More later) – I made a decision to not present at as many conferences this year. I did however do a couple. The first was in Liege in March – on ‘Loops in Popular Music’ – a really interesting international discussion at the local university. I presented the paper with my colleague – Dr Ben Challis – and after the proceedings of the conference were processed we were asked to update our work for a book chapter. The book is in the French language, and at the moment is being edited – more of this in a later post.
This was followed by a conference at Edinburgh University, which was organised by Prof. Simon Frith and focused on live music – part of a 3 year project funded by AHRC.. This gave me the chance to discuss the research I had recently completed into the live music industry in Wales, and was a great opportunity to listen to loads of industry professionals and academics discuss their research. An overview of the papers can be found here for those that are interested. The research into the Live Music Industry in Wales also led to a talk at the Institute of Welsh Affairs (which was really well attended), an interview with the Minature Music Press, a talk at the Hay Festival and a couple of radio interviews.
The Zappa Book has been progressing nicely and is due to be handed into the publishers at the end of March 2012. Although not conferences, I was lucky enough to do a couple of talks at the University of Valencia and Cardiff University this year on some of the thinking behind the book. Although I am really pleased with how the book is shaping up, one of the book’s key contributors David Sanjek sadly passed away just prior to Christmas. He had handed his chapter in just a couple of weeks before and had worked so hard on it. His death came as such a shock to everyone and I have decided to dedicate the book to Dave – he will be sorely missed.
I have also had a couple of other publications released this year on Zappa, but rather than go into specific details – anyone who is interested can get details here.
Finally, thanks to Spotify, I have managed to listen to so much music this year. In no particular order – the best music of the year includes:
As part of the Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship course that I have blogged about many times before, the students have to document a blog which discusses their perspectives on areas of the music industry. I thought it makes sense to feature specific blogs every now and then. So – this week there are blogs on subject areas as broad as tribute bands, Steve Jobs, Music and Dance, the Future of the Music Industry and DJ Technology.
I am sure I wont remember to do this every week, but I will try and remember some of these posts every now and then. Lot’s of interesting discussion.
A quick post here to ask a question really. When digging around on the internet tonight, I found a couple of tracks that I played on/composed that were being given away free. The first is off a Jazz Renegades album called Freedom Samba. The entire album is being given away here. The 2nd is a track I co – composed for an album called A Certain Kind of Freedom, which is has been mixed into an ‘early acid jazz’ mix. This can be listened to here, with my track coming in at arouond 16:44. Both of these albums are deleted, so the question is: Is it better for this technically illegal practice to take place, or that artists get paid? I have my own views, but am interested in what others think.
It was the first session of the Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship today. We covered Study Skills: namely an 800 word essay on a topical area of the music industry, a 10 minute presentation on the music industry (using screen capture software), and the setting up and documentation of a music industry related blog. The 2nd half of the session was related to teaching the students how to claim accreditation for the experience and qualifications they already have. This will be followed up by weekly tutorials supporting students to do this. All of the students come from a wide range of backgrounds in the Welsh music industry, and I am really looking forward to helping them work through the course. In the coming weeks I will share RSS feeds of what students are blogging about, in addition to other bits and pieces. Watch this space.
On another note, for those of you that have time, I have a radio interview tomorrow at 11.00 with Scott Travers. Catch it online live at http://www.newusb.co.uk/
Well, I thought I would never get around to writing another blog. A mixture of a broken laptop and ‘life in general’ has resulted in me not writing a post for a couple of months. I intend to change that over the next few weeks! Over the two month period of blog absence I have been working on the edited Zappa collection for Ashgate entitled ‘Zappa and the And’. Progress is good, some chapters finished, a few ‘on route’, and a few just starting the journey: one this is for sure – I am confident it will be an excellent contribution to Zappa’s legacy. As the book has been taking up so much of my time, I have had little time to write much else, although I did have a Zappa chapter come out a few weeks ago in ‘Contemporary Theatre Review‘ It is part of a special issue on Music and Performance and has a number of really interesting chapters by other academics. A snapshot of my chapter on The Zappa Family Trust can be found at here. (So many people helped me with this research, and they are all listed in the first footnote). Alongside my colleague Ben Challis, I have also started to complete (if that makes sense) a book chapter on popular music and loops. I blogged about this a while back, but we are now working on finishing up for a book chapter that will be published in a French publication – more details when they become available.
Much of my time over the last few months has also been taken up with starting up the Foundation Degree in music industry entrepreneurship I blogged about a while ago. The first cohort of students were inducted last week, and the course officially starts this Friday. As the programme develops I will blog about the challenges etc, and one of the things I am hoping to do over the next few months is spend some time putting together an advisory panel, and also recording some interviews with key music industry personnel, who can offer pertinent advice to the students. Again – more info soon.
Finally, my research into the live sector of the Welsh Music Industry was finished, and it has resulted in some good media coverage. I am not very good at keeping links etc, but a recent radio interview can be found below (my bit starts at around 39 mins), and an interview for the Miniature Music Press here.
Ok, to finish off, what have I been listening to. Well, as I type I am listening to Ergo Phizmiz, an artist from the UK, who really is continuing the experimental subversive art that I so love in Frank Zappa’s music. He has an amazing collection of free music that he makes available via his web site here, it really is worth a listen.
The funding I recently obtained from the European Social Fund to develop a Foundation Degree for the Convergence Areas of the Welsh Music Industry is now been put to good use. The structure is now more or less fully developed, enabling practitioners to gain academic credit for up to half of the qualification. This is complemented by enabling the attendees to learn about the various structures of the modern music industry, in addition to the means through which they can exploit their creative talent. Unlike other Foundation Degrees that usually take two years full-time, this qualification will take around 15 months part-time, and is largely delivered by distance learning. There are 75 full bursaries over the next three years, with the first cohort starting in September this year. The pedagogical model for this was developed a couple of years ago in a paper I wrote for the Journal of Research into Higher Education, and is now ready for the testing stage.
The subject of if qualifications such as these are worthy contributions to academia is well covered, and during the time I have been living in Wales have discussed it a number of times on Radio and TV. In fact the BBC recently covered the start-up of the course in a short article, and I was surprised to see the same old approach – are popular music qualifications worthwhile? I would argue that on a number of levels they are.
Firstly – the government are informing us they are. University degree courses are about to become more flexible (in terms of delivery) and will have to have explicit links with industry due to the understandable expectations of students. Thus far I have managed to build a number of important links with industry for this course, and this is something that I hope will continue in the months to follow. The idea is not only to get feedback from these important stakeholders, but also to provide potential experience for the students on the programme. As I now have to consider myself an ‘academic’ as opposed to a professional musician – it is essential that full use is made of colleagues who are currently earning their crust within the profession.
Secondly, why does the word ‘popular music’ or ‘music industry’ signify that it is a ‘Micky Mouse’ course? When I developed the original Popular Music Course at Glamorgan 8 years ago (After moving from Bournemouth) – this was covered in the Daily Telegraph – who actually accompanied the article with a picture of Walt Disney’s favourite character (I kid you not). As I stated at the time, popular music is responsible for generating a huge income for the UK, something which has prompted people such as Tony Blair to recognise the importance of music to the economy. The live music industry alone generates over 1.5 , billion, so why should we not study the means that make this possible? As outlined in a recent report I done for the Welsh Music Foundation into the live music in Wales – Popular Music generates by far the most money for the Welsh economy – so to repeat myself – it makes sence to study it!
As with all of my posts, I limit myself to around 15 mins, and I have now reached this point. If anyone is interested in the Foundation Degree in Music Industry Entrepreneurship – please get in touch. And please – don’t call it a Micky Mouse course!!!!
I have just spent an hour or so listening to a ‘best of Pat Metheny‘ collection on Spotify. Having been listening to this man’s music for around 30 years now, it is crazy to think some of the tracks that impacted me then – still do today. Without getting too involved in the dialogic between philosophers such as Plato (who would have argued that the music that touches us is a physical representation of a perfect/spiritual ‘World of Forms’) and Hagel on the one side (who would have argued that it was part of a disparate chronological system that is moving toward unified perfection), and Husserl and Heidegger on the other (who sort of believed in reality being based on individual perception) – why do I still like this music?? Why does this music mean so much to me??
It seems to me thinking as a musicologist, his music is interesting on both a primary (the formal structures of the music, how it resonates with itself and other music) and secondary (how the music conveys emotion and relates to factors such as technology, visual gesture, etc) level. Jean-Jacques Nattiez has an interesting model which differentiates between these levels. As this is a short post, I will try and explain in as few words as possible.
The Poietic: How the music was constructed. With Metheny, it is possible to consider factors such as the construction of his solos, his sound, the way he uses a band as a compositional tool etc. However, perhaps the most significant and interesting example of late is apparent in his Orchestrion project. Imagine how much depth one could get into talking about this!!!
The Immanent:The actual structures of the music – it’s descriptive qualities. One of the things I have found most interesting about his music is it sounds so melodic, but it has a sometimes hidden complexity. If anyone has looked at The Pat Metheny Songbook, you will get a feel for how this music works on a notational level. From here you can look at things like the form of the music, the instrumentation, the ways that texture is employed etc.
The Ethesic: The ways in which the music is received. If we do this in a progressive manner, we can ask questions such as: what impact does the music have on me? why does the music make me feel like this? Does the music have a life that is beyone Metheny’s intentions
Nattiez would argue that in order for the music to have primary signification, it has to resonate with all three of these categories. In other words the music’s making, structure and reception has to be apparent. If one of these areas are missing (how the music was constructed for example) – this has the potential to be signified at the secondary level. For example when writing about Metheny a while ago – I wrote the following – all of which is secondary
“I would suggest that Metheny has done more than anyone to redefine the jazz aesthetic. Almost from his first album in the mid 1970′s, his music not only portrayed a totally identifiable and original guitar style, but also an open-mindedness regarding what jazz can be. I have always been fascinated about the way that he (and other musicians) uses technology to formulate his music both in the studio and live, but his ‘Orchestration’ album takes this process to a new level’. Not only is he able to perform alongside himself in the ‘virtual’ manner he achieved on Watercolours (1977) New Chautauqua (1979), but this time alongside a more embodied version of himself. Building on the work of guitarists such as John Mclaughlin and Larry Coryell, Metheny’s music and image has created not only a new definition for what jazz can sound like, but also the processes regarding its construction and visuals. To my mind he has to be considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of all time, and I can only plead with the people who consider and construct the histories of jazz to give him the great respect he deserves.”
Well that’s it for this post – time to have a rest over the weekend.
Professor Paul Carr Music Consultancy 