MISSING MUSIC

There are many ethical implications of only playing music from the past. Much of what is studied is based off of a very Eurocentric world view, therefore ignoring all of the diversity within music that could be studied. When discussing this question, it needs to be taken into account what music from the past is actually taught, and what is allowed to survive.Focusing exclusively on the past would also severely limit growth and development within music. We would return to rules and formula that people have been trying to brake for a long time. Within music academia, there is such a focus on music of the past, which feels as if it is coming from a place of elitism. Those who can study older music, a lot of the time, are those who have the money and time to put into study. Contemporary music is a lot more accessible to the everyday listener, and is still a good study and often what can drive someone to pursue music. 

Despite all of that, there are still reasons to study music from the past. The music we have today exists because of the history. Some respect is defiantly deserved no matter personal opinion. There are also some very great pieces from the past that inspire me greatly to continue studying. My time in choir in high-school is one of the reasons I am studying music today, and during that we sang plenty of classical pieces that I enjoyed learning and helped my understanding of music. I do admit that some of my personal bias comes from being contemporarily trained vocally, therefore I typically study newer pieces, for example “All Grown Up” from Bare: A Pop Opera and “She Used To Be Mine” by Sara Bareilles. Overall, I believe it is problematic to focus primarily on the past due to the one way world view and inherent elitism that comes from that, but still believe it is important to understand the history behind music. You can learn just as much from contemporary music from as you can from classical. Music is constantly changing, and that needs to be accepted by academia.

If all the music from the past were hypothetically to disappear, there are a variety of songs and artists I would choose to study as a singer and mediocre guitarist. As musical theatre is my primary focus of study within voice, there is the entire genre of contemporary musical theatre. While there is the incredible mediocrity of shows such as Dear Evan Hansen, there is also the brilliance of shows such as Come From Away. A specific piece from come from away that I would focus on is “Me and the Sky”. It takes Captain Beverly Bass’ story of her time as a pilot around September 11th 2001 and explains the shock she felt, as well as her life and what she had to fight through to get where she was then. It is an appropriate moment to expand on one character’s emotions and is written in such a way that you can feel the triumph and fear within the singer’s voice. Many of my favourite albums are by contemporary singers as well, such as Harry Styles’ Fine Line and Mitski’s Puberty 2. Harry Styles’ album is an excellent body of work that is never going to be fully appreciated due to his fanbase being primarily young women and society’s misogyny. The album, in his words, is about having sex and being sad. He uses music to convey those moments in his life and created an album that is completely different from his debut album, showing his versatility as an artist. Each song is musically interesting and works together to create and excellent body of work. My personal favourites from the album are “To Be So Lonely”, “She”, and the titular “Fine Line”. Mitski is blessed with the talent to capture pure emotions into her music. Each of her songs are a look into her life experiences with her sexuality, social anxiety, and being a woman of colour. Her emotions are evident through both her composing choices and incredible lyricism. Puberty 2 captures all of this within the songs on the album. Some personal favourites are “Dan the Dancer” and “My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars”. Some other contemporary music that I feel is important are the Stardew Valley and Studio Ghibli soundtracks. Each song title on the Stardew Valley soundtrack accurately captures the essence of the song, which greatly portrays what is happening at that point in the video game. Some of my personal favourites are “Stillness in the Rain” and “Dance of the Moonlight Jellies”. While I do not know enough about the every Studio Ghibli film, from what I do know the music greater helps immerse me within the films and works with the animation to create Miyazaki’s desired atmosphere. All of these are contemporary pieces of music that I would want to study in case of all the music from the past vanishing. 

To me, Nietzsche’s quote means that we understand the past in the context of the present, and that knowledge of both of those times is crucial to understand how things work today, as well as to further develop as a society. You need to take into account everything that has happened, as well as what is happening, to further develop as a society or history will just continue to repeat itself. We need to focus on create and preserving all good sources to advance in our fields.Â