September 27, 2007
We need a music worth our time
File under Dionysus the feelings a rock concert aims to induce: careless ecstasy and careless unity, dissolving in the careless crowd. Is Dionysus all-embracing, or is he instead all-consuming, all-digesting, reducing all to homogenous shit-stink? Why has no one mentioned that John Lennon’s “I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one” is a sentiment suitable for chanting at a Nuremberg rally?The solution to mass-market Dionysianism is the obvious corrective tilt toward the Apollonian. Apollo is the contrary principle of form, clarity, precision, and individuation. Sculpture is the art of saying No to the rest of the mountain.
Apollo and Dionysus need one another, but only Apollo seems to understand this; Dionysus is busy vomiting into the toilet.
more from n+1 here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 10:24 AM | Permalink
Comments
When Apollo tries to emulate Dionysius is when we see someone vomiting in the toilet...and it's typically not Dionysius. When Dionysius tries to emulate Apollo is when we see vomitting in church.
While we typically see these two as polar expressions that live within us, they also live independently and are wise to be true to their own instincts and not their counterpart's ideals.
Posted by: doug l | Sep 27, 2007 11:47:56 AM
Drunker than a boiled owl?...How does that work? Somebody enlighten me, please.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Sep 27, 2007 10:33:43 PM
I guess the difference between Lennon's song and a Nuremberg chant is the word "hope"? That and the notion of the world as one, not one kind as in minus the Jews, gays, communists, disabled, etc.etc.
Posted by: Amelia | Sep 27, 2007 11:06:52 PM
Very cool if overwrought writing. Seems like the "corrective tilt" toward Apollo here is really just a fancy explanation of the aging process. If jazz and classical music seem nicer at a certain age, perhaps it is only because one gets to sit while listening instead of thrashing all over a dance floor. Of course it has to be more complicated musically, to keep one sitting and listening. But wasn't it fun dancing? I enjoyed it, though I didn't have to vomit in the toilet to get the full effect. I think if you over indulge in one experience, you are likely to do the exact same thing when you "tilt" the other way. Maybe it's better to hold both Dionysus and Apollo in one's mind at the same time?
Posted by: Anne Marie V. | Sep 28, 2007 12:45:54 AM
I think there's plenty of Dionysus in jazz and "classical" music (hate that term), but it's true, you can listen to them sitting down, and that is an advantage at a certain age. But that's not the only virtue they have. Kids used to dance to jazz in the swing era, and there have even been riots over certain "classical" pieces.
However, you would never catch me trying to argue that they are "superior" forms of music. People can enjoy whatever music they like.
Posted by: JonJ | Sep 28, 2007 12:14:18 PM
I would certainly define much of the better part of "rock" music as having form, clarity and all the other stuff the author seems to think constitutes a good piece of music ("Dark side of the moon", anyone?). Whatever happened to all the other composers who lived in Bach's time? Who ever heard of Froberger or Geminiani, apart from musicologists? Much of the "Classical" music of the past is, well, boring in the extreme. So is a lot of Jazz. It's not the idiom, but the music itself. The author simply has the advantage of hindsight. History has picked the cream of the crop for him (even Bach himself was essentially unknown until the 19th century). Who will hum Ms. Clarkson's corny couplets in 200 years time? No one, I think. But a very selected few, as in any era, will stay on. And "Imagine" is one if them. If there's a rally with "Imagine" as it's theme song, I'm there in the front row.
Posted by: dkmy | Sep 30, 2007 6:23:32 AM
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