Review and Addenda
Lets backtrack. The term Ironic music is only justified when one or more external ideas is equal to, or more important than, the musical idea. Not all of Boulez’s music is Ironic, neither is Carter’s, or Ives (re: quotation music — Ives also uses quotations, lot of them, pre-dating Berg).
John Cage is a composer who is known for adding “ideas” to his music. In this case, aleatoric music, or “the music of chance”. For example, Cage uses his interpretation of eastern philosophy (the “I Ching”) to transform the composer/performer relationship.
Typically, a composer controls their musical materials by specifying how the music is played. In aleatoric music a composer can play with the very idea of this control, by controlling, or not controlling, aspects of their musical materials (leaving it to chance). This idea of control also applies to jazz improvisation, especially free jazz improvisation, where the performer is not tied down to a key or steady beat. Lately there has been some discussion as to whether the Minimalist school is related to John Cage’s work. It is just as likely that the Minimalists are decedents of the German composer Carl Orff, who’s Kinder Music’s style and orchestration, show a very strong resemblance.
I think that even if you don’t want to use various ideas and techniques, you must search widely, and learn as much as possible.
Ironic Problems
One of the problems of irony is that it can end up celebrating the subjects it tries to skewer. Not only can irony pass for the real thing, it can become the real thing. Zappa’s song“Valley Girl” was his biggest hit. Did the record buying public get the subtext behind the “fun” novelty record, or did Frank sell out? Oddly, this might be Zappa’s greatest cultural contribution as well, if you don’t argue he invented rap music with “Cosmic Debris”. Anyway, since many people can chose to ignore (or misunderstand) ironic elements it cannot be the only factor to define “in” or “out”.
In film Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” does a pretty good job of ”against all flags” irony, as does Gore Vidal”s “Myra Breckenridge”.
To Do’s Lesson 3
1. Look up Boulez, Carter, Cage, Ives, and Aleatoric.
2. Examine several different compositions by the same composer, decide which ones are Ironic.
3. Examine Ives 100 Songs.
Pick a song and find the quotations.
4. Compose your own “phase” composition.
5. Investigate aleatoric notation and then compose your own aleatoric composition.