I've been playing a lot of Froberger and Frescobaldi lately. I love these guys because there's no plot line, no plot points, no fucking "arc", no character development, no resolution, no hero, no villain, no moral. The subject doesn't get exiled by an evil stepmother into the relative minor, marry the countersubject in V of V, and return in triumph to inherit the kingdom in the scherzo. It's all roadside scenery. I love roadside scenery. It's what life is really all about, I think.
The 'hexachord' fantasia being played above -- quite nicely, I think, though maybe a little too fast, in spots(*) -- is based on perhaps the most boring subject imaginable: the first six notes of the major scale, say C-A or G-E, on the white keys. The boringness of the subject is the point: there's no intrinsic interest whatsoever in the basic material; it's all in what you do with it.
The tyranny of story-line and 'arc' is a relatively recent invention in Litrachoor as in music; in both cases it dates from sometime in the 18th century. A little earlier in music than the written word; I blame Corelli and Vivaldi.
Interestingly, some modern literary genres have dispensed with the arc; I'm thinking mainly of those huge endless science-fiction cycles, like Orson Scott Card vel sim. They read like fourteenth-century Arthurian prose romances, or Don Quixote for that matter, a deeply loving parody of the genre.
It wouldn't be SMBIVA if this post didn't have a little political sting in its tail. Here it is:
I wonder if the belief in 'progress' isn't an byproduct of the literary/musical arc -- a back-reading of modern fiction and the Beethovenesque symphony into history.
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(*) Which is to say, faster than _I_ can safely play it. It's being played on what is obviously an old -- 17th-century or earlier -- Italian organ; or possibly an extremely good modern facsimile. This raises the question of how important the pedals were. I can't play the stuff without resorting to the pedals; but doubtless Froberger had better chops. And maybe he played it slower. Or maybe he had a better pedal clavier than most Italian organs; southern Germany, okay, but still Germany. Home of the pedalboard.
Comments (9)
I don't know Michael...perhaps we should blame Christianity, which emphasizes God's plan and a historical arc towards a final progressive triumph and "purification" of the world?
I love "ancient music" because I love the tonal structure more than modern music. That's why I also love Persian and Arabic music. Of course, you can ignore me because I am mostly a seriously deranged metal head (as in black metal and doom metal LOL)
Posted by Brian M | June 27, 2012 11:46 PM
Posted on June 27, 2012 23:46
I dunno Brian. Christianity is a lot older than the iniquitous arc, which seems like a very modern development to me.
Posted by MJS | June 28, 2012 12:02 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 00:02
Wonderful post, Mr. Smith. The "arc" did rise in importance, then, and become defined as such, but its evil has always been there. The tale of Gilgamesh had its arc and its moral provisos--and the Torah, and the Bible, though it took later scholars to describe those in the way you're referring to them now.
"Story arc" is predestiny; is a promise that nothing can change because it is planned. Slipping it into the oldest and most integral human stories was part of the mental netseep that accustomed many/most us to terrible fates, imagination as jest alone, and ritual in place of freedom.
It's brilliant to see the connection to music. Composition, visual design, fantasy art, screenwriting and novels are now things that are "taught," rather than discovered. In place of flowing imagination, evil puts instead very detailed riddles, like romances, action dramas, murder mysteries, 3-5 progression pop rhythms, and commercial jingles, the endings of which can be predicted, and the adherence to formula which is worthy of industry praise and an indication of professionalism.
Posted by High Arka | June 28, 2012 2:15 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 02:15
There's a touch of rent-seeking to the arc. It damages and limits things enough that they soon need to be replaced and can more easily be made proprietary. From there, it's the "progress" of appreciation into passive consumption..
Posted by Al Schumann | June 28, 2012 6:16 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 06:16
Yeah, like standardized corporate voting rules to facilitate trade. Stories that promise opening, rising, climax, falling & denouement are safer bets.
"Whadda ya mean, ya want your ticket back? You got a story, didn't ya?"
(There must be something artsy in the air today; about 11 hours before Michael put that up, this one was whining about George Lucas in the same vein.)
Posted by High Arka | June 28, 2012 6:36 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 06:36
al, .. just two pebblings to indicate omissions ,is nothing sacred , said humming / thought provoking as always arka .. .
Posted by anne shew | June 28, 2012 9:03 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 09:03
Happily the attack on the arc has a vibrant history too. In my younger days I wrote a paper on Three Sisters, the conclusion being that Anton Pavlovich was mocking his bourgie characters' attempts to view their lives in terms of a story arc: "When we move to Moscow, when I get married, etc ad inf, everything will change, I will be happy at last!" I think I even relied on musical metaphors--Chekhov always inserting a deflating, discordant note just when his characters thought to soar. The upshot seemed to be that conventional plot structure is rooted in sentimentalism and wishful thinking.
(ps APC was also a big one for the roadside scenery, as I remember: the sea roaring at Oreanda in the Lady with the Dog, the trees blowing in the wind offstage in Three sisters, etc)
Posted by endolith | June 28, 2012 10:05 AM
Posted on June 28, 2012 10:05
The hexachord fantasia does seem to have simple sort of intentional arc: it gets a little more complicated as it progresses, more chromaticism, more notes in general. I'd say these little concessions to forward movement are key to the piece's effectiveness and charm.
So does one have to go further back to avoid any suggestion of an arc (if you happen to be an arc hater)? Or is a little arc okay, but not too much?
How would the Froberger sound if it kept complexity and chromaticism at an absolute constant throughout? Or perhaps varied them randomly?
Posted by Mark | July 1, 2012 10:43 PM
Posted on July 1, 2012 22:43
The hexachord fantasia does seem to have simple sort of intentional arc: it gets a little more complicated as it progresses, more chromaticism, more notes in general. I'd say these little concessions to forward movement are key to the piece's effectiveness and charm.
So does one have to go further back to avoid any suggestion of an arc (if you happen to be an arc hater)? Or is a little arc okay, but not too much?
How would the Froberger sound if it kept complexity and chromaticism at an absolute constant throughout? Or perhaps varied them randomly?
Posted by Mark | July 1, 2012 10:44 PM
Posted on July 1, 2012 22:44