Connections
I love iTunes and the fact that I can purchase a song for a buck. That feels so low risk to me and seems more reasonable of a relationship between the artist, distributor and audience. One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about being able to purchase so inexpensively is the things I’ve learned musically. One of the biggest things that I’ve learned is the connectedness of all music. There really isn’t that far of a jump from Bach to Coldplay when you start exploring around. I suppose I ought to throw in the caveat that I’m speaking from my Euro-centric, or rather more correctly, US-centric, frame of mind on this as I can’t say these things honestly about Asian music as I haven’t listened to much of it.
My latest connection that I’ve learned is between Debussy and Stravinsky. I have always held Stravinsky in such high regard for his orchestrations and what he has created. Things like the “Rite of Spring” seem so completely separate from what was before him. I can hear his influence after in everything from big bands to John Williams (I still swear he lifted note for note a passage in “Rite of Spring” and put it into Star Wars Episode IV, the original movie from 1977). I had never heard a real connection to Stravinsky’s predecessors. It was like he made one of the largest inductive leaps I have ever realized between music of the past and what he created. While I don’t want to discredit him for his accomplishments I think I’ve learned a major infuence in his music: Debussy. I suppose those that are more learned that me in classical music will scoff becuase it is such an obvious connection but I hadn’t realized it until I purchased “Nuages” from iTunes. If that isn’t an ancestor of “Rite of Spring” I don’t know what is.
This summer my last living grandparent passed away. It was a sad thing in some ways but a grand thing in so many other ways. Due to my beliefs I am happy that she has moved on to her next stage in her existence. I’ve also, through an amazing book that my father has compiled, learned more of what alot of people like to term their “roots.” That always felt like such a large, distant concept from my own experience until I started reading this history he has begun to compile about himself and our progenitors. My grandmother’s passing became a catalyst to realizing these human connections that I never before had been aware of on such a strong level. I had been aware of the family connections before because I spent time in the past with relatives and it was an intellectually understood connection. Now I’m starting to see the greatness of this seemingly visceral connection to other people. Being able to attend the funeral with the knowledge I gained from my dad’s history helped me to connect with this group of almost strangers pretty quickly and in a meaningful way that I still like to keep in touch with a number of them.
All of a sudden I’m not just seeing my father’s reality in the light of a massive, inexplicable inductive leap from his ancestors, but I see that there was a Debussy that came before him and he is building on what his Claude did. What a wonderful thing it is to see, yet what a difficult thing it is to explain to other people. I feel like a multi-level marketing salesperson jumping up and down trying to convince you that you need this thing because it will make you rich through others’ efforts. I suppose the analogy is true, but it lives in a different non-finite reality. There isn’t a limited amount of profit that is to be had in this experience by only those on the top of the structure. Indeed, it is actually us who exist on the bottom most part of the pyramid because we can gain so much for ourselves through these other people.
Understanding my father’s childhood helps me understand my relationship with him and my understanding of myself, the same way that Debussy helps me to understand Stravinsky in a richer more meaningful way. Even though it removes the “genius” quality of any sort of new creation to what he did, it only does so in the way that genius is considered as a novelty by those who don’t stop to realize it. The effect being that the person disconnects themselves from that individual without being aware of it. “Einstein was a genius” is a nice archetype statement for what I’m saying. When you consider who came before him and what pieces were in place when he finally sat down to think about the problems that he solved you see it wasn’t such a far leap and that perhaps you might be nearer to that “genius” than you had thought.
“No, no!” you say, “that can’t be possible. I would never be able to figure out something that complex…etc., etc.” To that I would say that you are most likely doing one of two things:
- Trying to create a scapegoat for responsibility of yourself
- Afraid (or lack of self confidence)
I suppose really that these two things are actually just the second one if you really stop to honestly feel what it entails inside of you. The sad thing that I’m realizing, is you cut yourself off from other people as soon as you agree with the thought that passes across your brain that you are incapable of doing what someone else has done; and by so doing you lose a great deal of strength in your own life that can come from relationships with other people. I’m not advocating scoffing at or minimizing what someone else has done, but I am advocating letting go of outmoded beliefs in life that disconnect you from other beings on this ol’ mudball. Find true histories and seek out how someone got to where they were. They have to put on their pants in the morning the exact same way you do.
I wonder if anyone has ever figured out a way to represent this set of perhaps infinite connections we are able to have on this earth with others. Maybe that is what one of music’s main functions is.