Mahler is considered by many to be literally the greatest genius to have composed symphonies. True classical heads know his music and take it as a badge of honour to know it, the same way a hip-hop head would take pride in being able to rap along to “Rap God” the entire way through.
Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, performed in part below, is a work of heartbreaking emotional resonancy, composed while the composer knew that he was, figuratively, on his death bed. The music is loaded with emotion associated with Mahler’s own grappling with death, mortality, and what comes next.
Later in this volume, we’ll take a look at Stravinsky’s music, so unorthodox that it left concertgoers rioting in their seats. But an even better example comes to us from later on in the twentieth century, with the work of the avant-garde composer John Cage (1912-1992).
Cage was obsessed with the idea of silence, and booked time in a completely soundproof room in one of the world’s best studios to just sit and listen to it. He was disappointed; he could actually detect a low, rushing sound and a high-pitched sound. “What am I hearing?” he asked the engineer. “The low-pitched sound is your blood rushing through your body,” came his voice over the studio intercom. “The high-pitched one is your nervous system operating.”
Cage took away from the experience that everything we do is music, and composed a piece called 4'33 in response, playable on any instrument. What is 4'33? It’s four minutes, thirty-three seconds of silence; the music comes from the incidental noises of the audience and the performer. This isn’t a joke. I have proof.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4
Another piece, Organ²/ASLSP (As SLow aS Possible), is a pretty standard piece for organ, with one exception: timing isn’t specified in the sheet music, so the exact slowness isn’t specified. One church in Germany evidently has the same penchant for fucking with people as Cage himself did, because they’ve been performing it, one note at a time, since 2001. They’ll be playing it over six-hundred-and-thirty-nine years. They’ll still be playing it in 2640. Again, this is not a joke: there’s video proof. This is one note, mind you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30GzB2VHv_w
I wonder if he composed this?
“Wrecking Ball” is, naturally, credited to Miley Cyrus, but like a lot of pop music, it’s been written, re-written, and produced into oblivion, then given focus group tests and whatnot, until the single is perfectly designed for Top 40 radio, and to stick in your head once you hear it. The writing credit for “Wrecking Ball” boasts no fewer than six people’s names, none of which are “M. Cyrus.” Some Justin Bieber songs have nine or ten.
This is not to say that pop music is all crap–not at all! This process has produced hundreds of endearing and fun songs. As Britney Spears said:
Anyone can sit down and write some boring artistic song. Pop music is the hardest stuff to write.
But realize that listening to classical music is fundamentally different from listening to Top 40. They’re fundamentally opposed genres of music in terms of the creative process.
Over time, he developed a device that he could attach to the soundboard of a doctored piano. Biting the device, he could transfer the vibrations from the piano to his teeth, where they were amplified into his ears.
There is a story that upon performing the Ninth Symphony, Beethoven turned around to see the overwhelming applause from the audience. Hearing nothing, he began to weep.
Though not deaf, Jim Morrison (1943-1971) of American rock band The Doors was completely unable to play an instrument (technically speaking, he wasn’t even that good of a singer). All of The Doors' music was composed in Morrison’s head, whereupon he conducted his bandmates (who were all pretty stellar musicians) by humming or singing the melodies he was looking for.
