Black Butler Musical Google Drive

[Christopher]

Edit: After a semester of thinking about music, I am still unsure as to what constitutes "good" or "bad" music. I am also still inclined to think about it teleologically. Our discussion on profundity seemed to me to be very similar to our discussion on good and bad music. Perhaps we are simply stating preferences... perhaps we are muddling our terms... perhaps there is an objective "good" for music. Although I don't have any new answers, I have added a few more "good" pieces for you all to enjoy.

I originally thought "oh good! choosing a bad piece will be so simple! there is so much bad music out there!", but the task of actually sitting down and finding one was rather difficult. As it turns out, I have either seriously over-estimated the amount of awful music or I have had to repress the horrible "pieces" I have heard.

But this piece- "Ade! Ich Muss Nun Gehen", by Friedrich Nietzsche- sprang to mind. On the surface, there isn't much to point to as to what makes the piece bad. Nothing sticks out as horribly offensive: no poorly-handled dissonances, no random fragments of melody, and no awkward rhythms. A casual listen-through might even spare the song some dignity. But something about the song is... annoying. While trying to put together my thoughts, I listened to the song on loop and wanted to pull my hair out. Nothing breaks any "rules", the form is predictable... too predictable. As Levitin points out, there is a sweet spot between too simple and too difficult. This song is much, much to simple. There is nothing surprising and unexpected to catch the listener and draw them in.

And there is also something vaguely comical about it. For example, the thumping, plodding descending bass line at around 11 seconds is reminiscent of a portly older man trying to make his way down the stairs- neither elegant nor subtle. The exclamation at 40 seconds makes sense musically, but seems forced.

In order to give a good piece the respect that it deserves, I chose a rather short piece, the Prologue from the Prophetiae Sibyllarum, by Orlando di Lasso, to play in class. This piece, unlike the last, seems to ignore a lot of rules- like, for instance, general tonality (his works were pre-tonal, but I speak of the "rules" of our modern, tonal ears). Yet, even in ignoring these rules, the piece presents a delightful challenge to the listener and can still sound beautiful to a less experienced music-lover. But the piece isn't just a jumble of rule-breaking tricks- it makes sense. The final cadence is wonderfully satisfying.

I am tempted to think of good and bad music teleologically. To think that music has a purpose and that any music that fails to reach that goal is "bad" and any music that succeeds is "good" (and that there are varying degrees of goodness and badness depending on how close or far it is from that goal). For instance, a chair that has no sitting surface is a bad chair. But what would such a telos be for music? The best I can think of is that the telos is to unfold an experience of the beauty and/or the sublime. But then music seems to be just a tool and then I am left unsatisfied with such an approach.

What makes a song good? Before answering this question, I believe we first must answer the question: how shall we determine the qualities that make a song good? I approach this as I would any concept. How would we determine what qualities make an object a house? We examine many objects that people call houses, determine what qualities those objects have in common, resolve contradictions, and produce an account with an eye towards keeping as much of common opinion as possible.

Second, a good song manifests human excellence. In other words, it is not the case that any ordinary person could create a song like it. Its creation required enormous skill. It impresses. It earns our admiration. The difficult that the creator traversed amazes us.

When I listen to Octandre by Edgard Varese, I want to turn it off, to flee, to never listen to it again; it annoys me because it is not pleasing, because it rejects the rules of classical music that have made songs in its style compelling to listeners for centuries, because it does not elicit an emotion that serves one of my goals. If I loved the flouting of rules in and of itself, then I might call the song good, for it would serve one of my goals. But such is not the case.

I found Sapolsky's investigation into the time windows of new taste experiences compelling. In explaining how we continue to listen to the music of our teenage years - a point also well made by Levitin - in part because we "crave familiarity" and want to maintain a sense of identity across the years. Turning this logic around, music as a means to identity preservation can also explain why some music is "bad." This is the primary reason that I have chosen Disturbed's "Down with the Sickness "( =09LTT0xwdfw) as my example of "bad music." I played football in high school, and I used the anger that fuels a lot of metal to pump me up for games. This type of music played into the aggressiveness and anger that I have since tried to separate myself from. Additionally, there are characteristics of the music itself that I could describe as "bad." It is loud and grating, repetitive, contrived, and commercially driven.

There are many reasons why I think Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" ( =tkJNyQfAprY) is an example of "good music." As an album, The Wall - sometimes considered a rock opera - is primarily Roger Water's creation, reflecting on his own life from his father's early death in WW2 and life with a single mother to the "empty spaces" and drug use brought on by fame. As such, the song is brimming with sincerity. However, I think the main reasons that I like Pink Floyd are more contingent and personal. Levitin talks about how musical taste can be a way of "externalizing the bond" of a social group. I first listened to this song when I was 12 with 3 of my best friends at a summer camp. Our counselor - your typical college stoner - played the song non-stop and we grew to love it. However, unlike "Down with the Sickness,"Pink Floyd has remained one of my personal favorites by keeping its message and emotional range in sync with my growing and changing identity. For example, I am a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and Roger Waters recently released a version of "We Shall Overcome" directed at the people of Palestine.

Good

"Upular," a remix by Pogo, is a work made up of sound excerpts - mostly dialogue - from the film "Up" set to a simple percussive beat. It is a novelty, but that does not preclude it from being good music. The piece is impressive because it is music composed largely from non-music. Yet, it still has most (all?) the features we typically associate with western music: a theme, an A A' B A structure, melody, rhythm, etc. It has a catchy tune, but is still innovative. It is technically impressive -- the arranger had to sift through the entire film to find sounds and phrases that form appealing musical phrases and fit together in a certain key. It may not have much depth or "truth" unto itself -- Frith might criticize it for this reason -- but it does evoke emotions or feelings of a sentimental film. Though, in broadening our traditional conception of music, it does challenge us to rethink our own definitions of music.
The piece takes a medium with which the listener/viewer is familiar and places it in an entirely new context while still retaining the familiar qualities (the video helps) of the original. =A2yt1ooLQGo

Not So Good

Art Garfunkel sings "The 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)" with his young son after the break-up of Simon & Garfunkel. The song, written by Paul Simon, is (super) good; the performance of it is not. The performance seems to rely largely on its fan base and its appreciation of the original song, and the timing makes it all a bit too gimmicky. I would characterize this as lacking in Frith's categories of truth, taste, and intelligence. =zHEKrIJqPIk

I chose to play Dave Matthews Band's Ants Marching as my example of good music. The band is full of incredible musicians, which best comes out towards the end in an electric violin solo, but really what I like about the song is an association it carries to a leadership weekend I led for underclassmen at my high school- it was a really wonderful weekend, and this song played into the message's climax late Saturday afternoon- since then listening to the song has always brought me back to that time. I'm no music lover- I rarely listen to it, just not finding the time, and although I do have iTunes (although no music player of any kind), even my computer only has 13 songs on it, all of which have particular meanings hearkening back to different times in my life, leading to my liking them. I think this is what makes for good music- connections to goodness of other kinds.

As bad music, I chose The Fishhead Song. It's annoying. It's meaningless and purposeless. But mostly, it was the song my best childhood friend would sing whenever there was a free moment that could possibly be filled with the annoyingness that fourth grade boys could be characterized by, and it's badness was defined by its purpose. Fortunately, it's only two-and-a-half minutes long- the torture need only last so long...

For my example of good music I chose Bob Marley's live performance of "No Woman No Cry". This is the type of song that puts the hair on the back of my neck up everytime I hear it, it really strikes a chord with me. It's interesting to say however that up to this point I've never really paused to think of why I like it so much. If I had to say one thing that really sticks out to me it is how much emotion and feeling Marley pours into the song. He is not simply recreating a recording, but breathes new life into the song with this performance. The song also has a 'jam session' feel to it that I love, especially the guitar solo. Finally, I also love how it changes and mixes up, passing from a deep relfective feel to cheerful and exciting all in a smooth and coherent manner.

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