A note about style: it is important to familiarize your self with as many different styles of music as possible. There are no rules for what you should like or dislike in music — discover it for yourself.
An overview of styles you might try :
“In,” “Out,” and “Ironic”
In or Out — I am not referring to trends of popularity, or a political meaning, these are terms borrowed from Jazz terminology.
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“In” music is that music which sounds familiar, diatonic, pentatonic, tonal, equal tempered, and most often lead by a steady beat. This category includes most pop music, as well as some classical, jazz, Motion Music (i.e. minimalism), and film music. What you mostly hear on any radio station. Familiarity can change music that is initially “out” music into “in.”
“Out” music refers to music that has vestiges of “In” music, but breaks through these conventions in some way harmonically, rhythmically, or in form. (I will take this up in more detail later.) This also includes composition materials such as different scales, (Many MIDI keyboards have different scale options try them out!), electronic sounds, etc. contribute to stretching the conventions of “In” music. Some of the composers and performers that would fall in this category are: Arnold Schoenberg (atonal and 12-tone compositions), Edgard Varese (atonal and electronic music) John Coltraine or Sun Ra (Free Jazz improvisation). Free Jazz improvisation may not be connected to a steady beat or pulse, a key center or any particular scale. A study of John Coltrain’s complete recordings would be a great idea!
The third category is what I term “Ironic” music. This is music that uses an idea, or several ideas (usually a textual idea) to change the meaning of the musical composition. (Imagine the picture of a hat and the caption “This is not a hat.” A text idea that can become even more important then the picture, or music itself.) Examples of this would be the deceptively simple music of Erik Satie, the Opera’s of Virgil Thomson, or the rock music of Frank Zappa, look at his satirical texts in a rock music context!
But Irony could also be any external idea being used to define aspects of a music composition. For example, in Elliott Carter’s string quartets, and in other works, instruments have pre-compositional defined roles, they are not just playing the music but also playing ironic character parts. Rather than work a string quartet as four equal instruments, or as four aspects of the same voice.
I must also include quotation music in the ironic category. Alban Berg’s Violin concerto’s concerto is an important starting point.
Hold it!!! Isn’t this just program music?
Well, it’s related. Program music refers particularly to instrumental music that has a scenario, a story. The story is illustrated by the music. In that sense program music is a mixed genre composition. Program music is an Opera, a Ballet, or a play without words. Examples: Fantastic Symphony, by Berlioz or The Unanswered Question, by Charles Ives. However ironic music requires no complete scenario and is not limited to instrumental music. Pierre Boulez, in his Structures I, uses mathematics as an ironic element to define all aspects of the composition.
Of course if we take this concept too far, any pre-composition idea could be seen as ironic. Not all external ideas are ironic some are just composition choices. For example, deciding what instruments you are composing for — two pianos, is not ironic, deciding that they will be twelve different pianos of increasing size is. Ironic music is not automatically “In or Out.” In my opinion, Ironic music can only be “out” if it is musically “out” not “in”, with an excuse such as a standard tonal piece given a pseudo-intellectual title to throw it in the avant garde. (I think I will expand on this idea in the next lesson.)
In literature, and the fine arts we are very accepting of intellectualism. Rock music reviews in particular are known to overlay many intellectual ideas onto basically commercial dance music.
In music and music theater, on the other hand. we will only accept literary Intellectualism if the music is In, very “In”. Not the other way around. We live in a time where musical intellectualism is not valued. That is not a judgment, just the times we live in.