Eclectic Analysis

“Human” by The Killers

Historical Background
• Released: September 30, 2008
• Genre: Alternative; New Wave; Indie Rock
• Label: Island Records
• Producer: Stuart Price
• Writer(s): Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, Ronnie Vannucci Jr.
• The single was released on 7” picture disc with the song, “A Crippling Blow” on the B-side.
• Lead singer Brandon Flowers has described this song as being “Johnny Cash meets The Pet  Shop Boys.”

• According to the bands official website, the lyrics of “Human” were inspired by famous Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson.  Flowers has said about lyrics, "It's taken from a quote by [author Hunter S.] Thompson. ... 'We're raising a generation of dancers,' and I took it and ran. I guess it bothers people that it's not grammatically correct, but I think I'm allowed to do whatever I want," he laughed. " 'Denser'? I hadn't heard that one. I don't like 'denser.' "
• The song lyrics were written along with some help from Stuart Prince during the production of their compilation album, Sawdust, but was not released on that album because it was “too good” according to Brandon Flowers.


Open listening
Listening to the song with an unbiased intent a few things popped out of the music right away. The first thing I noticed was the driving rhythm. Beginning on an extremely strong downbeat, a fast dance-paced rhythmic pattern is introduced on the electric guitar. I could not help but immediately internalize this beat. I felt victim to its heavy drum kick that kept me “moving” giving it a tribal dance feeling. This feeling prompts an earlier hot topic offered by Marshall Mcluhan about technological mediums linking our world on a human cultural level.  This tribal sound reminds me of this cultural link, calling us together through rhythm and music. I also notice the different textures that give it a soaring feeling. The classic rock drum kit keeps the listener grounded yet constantly moving while electrical timbres such as the electric guitar, electric bass, and various synth elements from electric piano to saw-wave synth sounds give us that lifted sensation. These combinations gives the song an overall get up and go feeling.

Syntax
Length: 4:05(album version)
Tempo: 4/4
Key: Bb Major/G minor(bridge)
Form: [A, A’] (verse I); B (chorus I); [A, A’] (verse II); B (chorus II); C (bridge); B (chorus); B’ (chorus); D (Outro)
Progression: {I-iii-IV-I/ iii-vi-ii-V} reduced to {I IV vi V}

• This progression is what adds to the momentum of the song. Coupled with the strong downbeat kick and the snare hits on beats 2 and 4, the progression causes a strong pulling force that drags us forward linearly though the song.
  

Instrumentation: Classic rock drum kit; Electric Bass; Electric Guitar; and two Synths
(Very modest instrumentation and yet its song is packed full of texture mostly synth sounds stretch across the stereo field to create a total surround sensation)

Usually, tonal music can be defined characteristically as establishing a tonal center, moving away from this center to a mid-point, and then an ultimate return to center to complete the circle.  This motion, described musically as tonic-dominant relation or I-V-I, is classically the cause for stability in music.  By the manipulation of chords around this base structure, any musical piece can have influence over the feelings of the listener by working with anticipation, expectations, and tonal completeness.  In "Human," the basis of this classic progression, that dates back to the greeks and even further, is utilized in an expanded form to give the sensation of cyclical motion.  The song loops around in a circle that ends where it starts and vise versa.  Most popular music uses some iteration of the progression I-IV-vi-V to cause this sensation of movement.  This progression is utilized for eighty percent of the song until we reach the bridge where we temporarily shift into a minor quality and quickly outline the relative minor adding a bit of tension and mystery layered beneath the lyrics that question the nature of humanness and existence.

Sound-In-Time
:00 immediately a deep bassy sawtooth wave form hit is heard then slowly fades and electric guitar begins with a simple galloping pattern
:04 out of the decaying drone of the opening sawtooth hit the drum beat emerges with a simplistic tick that sound like that of a clock
:07 first verse of the vocals begins/ muted synth-strings lurk quietly behind the vocals
:16-34 synth-strings begin evolving and sneaking up to the forefront of the mix
:35 Synth-strings peaks in full resonance now with a buzzier sound; hi-hat ticks widen and swell into a peak with a bright white noise sound
:36 hi-hat tick rhythm is taken over by kick drum which is exactly one half the rhythmic value of the ticks that are previously heard
1:03 full drum beat returns and a new electric guitar theme is heard and new synth timbres are introduced to the stereo field
1:17 vocals return, tom-toms now heard with a tribal sounding pattern in the drums, and another squeezed and even more buzzing sounding formant wave synth adds in
1: 45 swooping rush of wind sound crashes through
2:15 the mix simplifies as guitar cuts out and only a bass line, drums, sythn, and vocals are heard
2:29 some cymbal crash is heard which leads into yet another simplification of the mix to the original electric guitar pattern that began the song, along with vocals and a simple kick beat with some accents on the tom-tom(another hint towards tribal quality by using native American originated instrument used for communication—the tom-toms)
2:50 Mix begins to build again adding in one layer at a time raising in excitement
2:57 Full mix returns again now with vocals, full drum kit, synth-strings, electric guitar, bass, and the squeezed formant wave sounding synth
3:24 Vocals break for an instrumental elaboration
3:44 Vocals return and instruments again peel away one by one from the mix
3:54 only first guitar pattern and formant synth and vocals are heard
3:59 all sounds fade into the distance and the last thing to be heard is the original guitar pattern which doubles in on itself and then bounces away giving the red-shift sound in acoustics similar to that of an ambulance traveling into the distance and slightly decreasing in pitch

Textual Representation

VERSE I
I did my best to notice

When the call came down the line
Up to the platform of surrender

I was brought but I was kind


And sometimes I get nervous
When I see an open door
Close your eyes
Clear your heart…
Cut the cord




CHORUS
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?

VERSE II
Pay my respects to grace and virtue
Send my condolences to good
Give my regards to soul and romance,
They always did the best they could

And so long to devotion
You taught me everything I know
Wave goodbye
Wish me well…
You've gotta let me go

CHORUS
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?

BRIDGE
Will your system be all right
When you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we're receiving
Let me know is your heart still beating

CHORUS
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer

You've gotta let me know

CHORUS
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
My sign is vital
My hands are cold
And I'm on my knees
Looking for the answer
Are we human
Or are we dancer?

OUTRO
Are we human?
Or are we dancer?
Are we human
Or are we dancer?


The main lyric of the chorus echoes like a caution to beware, as a sort of rhetoric for becoming conscious of our humanness or lack-there-of. Are we “human” who have free will and total control over choices or, as a choreographed “dancer,” just taking orders from the music that keeps us moving around cyclically towards some unknown goal we can not be certain exists? Also significant is the singular nature of the word “dancer.” This could be referring to the way there is no individuality only singularity in this cycle. We are all dancing toward the same material dreams of prosperity and fame. We collectively agree on being content with this blind focus on material value as a means for creating power and identity. It seems that it would take the knowledge of some omnipotent force to be able to decipher whether or not we are making evolutionary progressing or floundering about, stuck in a time warp, always on the move but not really headed anywhere. Just like a dancer confined to the playing space or stage in which (s)he performs according to the pre-described movements before (s)he has even arrived into existence.
Now with the understanding that there is some primal driving force at work, the opening verse (“I did my best to notice when the call down the line”) seems to take on quite a significant meaning. This recalls the ideas of Heidegger’s “throwness”, thrust into this world from birth with the task of figuring it all out as soon as we arrive. If you remember his term Dasein, roughly translated to “being there,” referring to being fixed in human form in a tangible day-to-day world.  You can use this perspective to see how doing one’s best to “notice” as soon as the “call” to existence comes might be an allusion to Dasein.
The next verse feels like an extension of the latter idea, explaining the feelings of dealing with the situation of being human and what being thrust into existence is like. How do you feel once you know you have been tossed into a world that is fully defined before you even have the chance to get in the “door” and impart your perspective? Rather, the very moment you show up your being told how and what to say, what to do, and how to use things, etc. This would make an open door an uneasy situation because it would suggest that some new experience might be just outside and that an escape through the door might be possible, however, since it was never an option before it could be totally confusing. It is much more comfortable, as humans, to stick to the cultural ritual in order to maintain the best chances of survival--strength in numbers. So unless we are all in agreement on going through the "door" we might as well shut it because it is much more safe that way. These clever themes, whether consciously intended or not, continue throughout the entirety of the song. Constantly, the words reach back to the collective experience of existence and calling into question if these agreements on the "dance like moves" are worth continuing.


Virtual Feeling
The virtual feeling discussion within the eclectic analysis is part of the referential area in which the emotional sense rises to the forefront of attention. “Human” has a blatantly cheerful sound, especially within the opening verse. Though cheery and bright, something seems to lurk just below the surface. The lurking causes an unexpected anxiety that juxtaposes the jubilation the melody, in Major quality, is attempting to preoccupy us with. Like the emotional equivalence of a person who is just on the verge of a full mental breakdown, the sound skirts along the razor sharp edge of stability. One can experience the instability through the timbre of the synths that warble, modulate, and buzz under the main melody. This is the lurking uneasiness behind the questioner’s plea for self-actualization. It is sort of propagandist by maintaining the illusion of a completely optimistic perspective. The beat drives us to continue the forward motion, without realizing the state of existence in the music, which is a total surrender to the sound-- complete submission to the external driving force. This slight-of-hand is amplified by the tribal beat that pulses and cleverly takes advantage of the primal need for order. The beat calls us together like that of the ancient drums signaling us to gather around the tribal fire. The beat provides a clock, keeping us all in sync so that we all can execute the choreographed dance with perfect rhythm. Out of this, one voice cries out for realization, “Are we Human? Or are we dancer?” The questioning of existence adds to the uncertainty of the sound. It is a paradox of the sounds of excitement and joy against the inquisitive nature of the rhetorical questions.

Onto-Historical
Being born in 1981, Brandon Flowers has most likely heard the music of bands like Kraftwork, Devo, and Depeche Mode. The influence of bands such as these along with being at the center of a whole world who was welcoming an electronic age, at an ever increasing speed, can absolutely be heard in the depths and breadth of this music. The songs existence in the current time period makes it more of an homage to the late eighties/early nineties dance music rather than authentic dance music. Companies like Casio, Korg, Yamaha and others where taking full advantage of new “chip” technology as well as DSP or Digital Signal Processing to create and emulate sounds for amateurs and professionals musicians to use. These new amazing sounds were considered quite exciting and aesthetically pleasing to those who enjoyed dance music and even other genres as well. Also, not to long before the availability of commercial synthesizers composers like John Cage, Harry Partch, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Harold Budd, and Wendy Carlos, to name a few, were utilizing electronically generated sounds to see if they could be implemented in new ways to create music. These adventurous many, who have been called everything from bullshit artist to geniuses, have nevertheless paved the way for the types of music we hear today. The advent of sampling and looping so often used in rap, R&B, techno, Hip-hop, Trip-hop, trance, funk, and more would not have been possible were it not for these pioneers who figured out that computers could make music too.

Open Listening
In this second listening, the actuality of the song truly comes out. You can hear how charged the lyrics are, how insightful the seemingly nonsensical and ungrammatical sentence structures really are. Now this time the layers separate quite distinctly from each other making it permeable to the sonic space that exists in the “center” of the music.

Meta-Critique
I enjoyed looking into this piece for a multi-perspective deeper understanding. The whole of the findings is sort of a mirror of the analysis process itself. In the way this song seems to touch on personal responsibilities for acquiring truth, so does this analysis serve as a method for discovering underlying truths. Pertaining to music entertainment, you usually click on the radio, sit back, and let it wash over you, oblivious to many of the implications the artist has planted deep into the roots of the music. Marshall Mcluhan would call this a Hot medium, stealing away your attention and just pumping you with information with little participation.
I feel one of the weakest parts was unfortunately the syntactical analysis. Without an available score I was only able to touch a very little on the musical relationships and musical elements. I was held only to the basic form and arrangement of the song. In doing another analysis of a piece of music I would make sure to somehow obtain the music to also look at the note-to-note relationships as there is much to be discovered within these relationships as well.

Meta-Critique: Steve Lukather Live 2008

This was ultimately your basic performance critique with small touches of phenomenological description and even some hints of syntax.  The author gives a nice rundown of the numbers performed.  A small amount of historical background is given, where Steve came from musically and who he's played with, etc.  Over all I think he did well with describing the evening but he could have benefited his readers much more by broadening his scope to more than just description.  To start, one more paragraph of historical background with just a bit more information would offer a lot to a reader who hasn't heard of Steve Lukather.  Then, it would lend itself service to a wider audience  and would be a perfect set up for his phenomenological description of the night.  It may also have been nice to get a bit about how the band was amplified, or not.  What equipment were they playing through?  There could have also been a small touch of virtual feeling across the order of the sets.  Meaning, if they had anything to do with the order in which the sets were played.  He may have discovered a theme to the whole performance.  That said it was a nice neat review of a happy little performance by Steve Lukather.

Steve Lukather - Live

Phenomenology As a Tool for Musical Analysis

An important tool in the analysis of musical works is Phenomenology. This method has been mostly disregarded in traditional analysis of music. In a publication in The Music Quarterly, a scholarly music journal Dr. Lawrence Ferrara discusses Phenomenology as it should be used to describe the sounds of a musical work with relation to sound-in-time/space. The phenomenological method seems particularly relevant as the limit of what defines music continues to be stretched in the 20th century. Ferrara describes the procedure in which to analyze a musical work under the phenomenological method as three key parts:

Open Listening- listening to the sounds taking mental notes of things like there order in which they occur
Reflection- take down some notes on what was heard initially.
Syntactical Description- desribing he sounds as such in time. This includes things such as duration, reverberation, etc.

These steps can be repeated as many times as needed but definitely more than once is recommended.  The analysis Ferrara uses in the article to demonstrate the procedure is Poeme Electronique by Edgar Varese. The piece is basically a series of intricate electrically recorded sounds and manipulated waveforms. Ferrara breaks these down into a rough time map, which after a second review seems to have a larger form after all. The form he describes is in 10 parts with each part sectioned into the type of sounds heard within. From this procedure he seems to have found an overall structure of how the sounds were paired by Varese, either consciously or not. After many more reflections Ferrara consolidated his form to see the semantic representation of the sounds in a categorical list that now can be used to describe the piece with structural and timed accuracy.
Dr. Ferrara finishes off with the topic of a meta-critique where one would review their work for the strengths and weaknesses in the analysis. He iterates that the main criterion for critiquing the work is making sure that in remains grounded in the work. Using his metaphor, it is from the soil of the work or piece that the analyst finds a structure radiating out but always remaining in the piece itself. From this plainly descriptive analysis the analyst can truly know the work he is speaking of in totality.

Reaction

I like this way of seeing the work because even as a musician one must be aware, at least on some level, of the effect of sound alone on space.  What are the series of events, so to speak.  This kind of focused inquiry may seem less than exciting however it offers another type of roadmap to any work of music.  An analysis of music especially with a formal background will most likely dislike this type of analysis yet things such as patterns can emerge from the research which is what formal analysis do like.  So here is a connection that should be of some value when attempting a descriptive phenomenological analysis as a formalist.

Dickie, Ch 6

In Chapter 6 “Aesthetic Perception: Seeing As,” of Art and the Aesthetic, Dickie filters through one of the most recent aesthetic-attitude theories given by Virgil Aldrich. His purpose, he says, is due to it being most current as well as being related to the central notions of Wittgenstein’s philosophy. Dickie explains that Aldrich raises the question of the proper aspects of an aesthetic object. Aldrich believes that there is a specific perception that will reveal a work of art or nature as an aesthetic object. Aldrich decides that there exists an individual power in an aesthetic object that can describe itself as such. A quote Dickie uses comes from an article printed in 1963 that supports Aldrich’s belief which is worth reiterating:

When the work of art is looked at in a certain way, one becomes aware of the aspects that dawn in the aesthetic space of the composition. These are proper parts of the work of art as an aesthetic object, and blindness to these is the sort of aspect-blindness that disqualifies one both for aesthetic perception and the assessment of the merits of the work as an aesthetic object in that view of it.

Virgil Aldrich, Philosophy of Art( Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1963)


Dickie asserts that if one is not already convinced that there is only one objective way to view an aesthetic-attitude theory and that all others are subjective in there descriptions then one would not be convinced in Aldrich’s ideas. The rest of the chapter uses Wittgenstein and E. H. Gombrich’s interest in changing aspects of ambiguous objects and how Aldrich’s two modes of perception play a role in this. Though a suggested perception an ambiguous object will change form. The well known duck-rabbit picture is used a visual example.



Reaction


I think that some of the things that come up here, as with most academic papers, seem useful ideas and some not as much.   As a generalization, western philosophy seems contradictory of itself to me.  Philosophy sets out to find truth through the exploration of all possibilities of some abstract and then tries to fit "it" into a visual model in order to better understand it and ultimately recreate that abstract in some way in the future.  Control issues? However, an abstract is just that--a formless idea without physical form or demonstration so its almost pathetic that the great thinkers of our human existence have been chasing at an improbable task and never realized their efforts might be in vain.  Though these assertions could be defined as existential in their nature, I believe our fundamental and quite typical human struggle is a continuous battle to gain power by defining, categorizing, and controlling the world around us.  Is this not futile?  Has not the entire development of western culture since the “Enlightenment,” which is a total misnomer (it should have been named the “further from the truth era”), been about the acquisition of control over nature in which small successes then  give the illusion of individual power?  What does this have to do with Dickie you ask? Everything, from my current perspective!  Simply because the entire field of philosophy relates to how we all view the world we live in.  We can thank the ancient greeks for opening the can of worms that has been stinking up western culture for a really long time now.  Proper aspects of an aesthetic object?   Individual aesthetic power?  Come on. The world we live in and everything we experience is nothing more that an illusion.  You may disagree and that is your right, right?  Your one true right, maybe?  Humans are visual based organisms who learn by use of visual models that are created by various stimuli in our environment, described in three dimensions, and transformed into electro-chemical pulses in our brains to make sense of what we experience outside ourselves.   These models are stored in memory, constantly recalled, to use in comparison to new objects or experiences in order to more efficiently understand these brand new experiences the physical world.  New against old.  How many times have you heard, “you have got to see it to believe it?”  Why is seeing a fundamental for truth.  If you can see it and touch it then it’s a sealed deal.  See + Touch =Reality?  Especially out of context in which the ideas of forms exist, right?  That seems to be current equation for truth in western society, no?   I am sure I could easily be challenged on this but this area of the perspective has gone greatly under-explored in western development and that may be just the routine that is underlying all human struggles while attempting to conquer struggle.  Basically, what I am getting at is I think we can no longer use old models to explain the new developing world as a means for understanding.  It's outdated for our evolution and its taking us in circles.

Art is what...?

“The attempt to define ‘art’ by specifying its necessary and sufficient conditions is an old endeavor.”
-Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (Cornell University Press, 1974)

The latter is the opening line of Professor George Dickie’s book where he begins to dive in to the world of aesthetics and art. He said art only as imitation of “something” is far less satisfying after theories of expression broke its hold on philosophical circles. As soon as the ideas of art as expression were explored and eminently expended, philosophers moved on from definitions admitting that there was, in fact, no way to define art as a condition. Dickie believes this is untrue and that there are two relational properties that are available to define art. Dickie attempts to do this by presenting a filtration of prior notions and a further clarification on what makes a “work of art” and what is aesthetics. A work of art, he says, is not to be understood as every aspect of the work but a part in which represents the embodiment of it. Separate from this is its aesthetics which are what make the work “art” through the eyes of the appreciator who’s job it is to experience this material in a new perspective that becomes artistically significant from a typical day-to-day experience with the object. An example given is that of some paintings done by a local chimpanzee. The paintings were displayed at the zoo, however, Dickie contends that these must not be described as art. Transversely, if these paintings were displayed at the local museum they then become art because the action of displaying them in an institution gives them the credibility to be recognized as a “work of art.” So Dickie is basically limiting art to the definition of how the art is treated in physical space and location.

Reaction
I have to stop here and comment because although these ideas make rational sense they totally negate the fact that art IS the process. The “work of art” is the product in physical form of that abstraction which is art. I need to freely assert my own un-argued ideas though forward of me to say but, art is all around us, a constant, it exists at every moment, it is everything.  An artist may contemplate how to represent a thought physically before he begins.  However, even if what results is a mindless product, meaning an impromptu creation or improvisation, it is still brought into the physical world as a representation something going on in the brain of the artist at that moment.  Art is not limited to what the artist he himself creates, but rather a perceptual change of the viewer--A moment of enlightenment defined as a new “viewing” of something physical or abstract. This is how something suddenly becomes art. The institutionalization of a “work” makes it art because the intuition itself is a symbol of conditioning for us on how to treat the material inside. Just like, a school is symbol of conditioning that instructs us how to treat the actions inside as the acquisition of “concrete” knowledge.  Its function is a place to learn.  Its presence in the physical world alone signals its function of what it represents according to past human experience.  We "normally" go to a school to learn (in the formal definition of learn). A school could not represent a place for “fine dining” unless a new collective human experience changed our conditioned response because the institution has changed its function; an agreement on the new function of a school.  The same goes for art with the example of a piece of driftwood.  The wood is already art before the person experiences it but it passes into human consciousness as art as soon as the spectator's perception changes.   That piece of driftwood represents something to the person. Viewing an artists’ completed work is an example of perception due to art's open-interpretation. Unless the artist tells us how to view the work we might make our own interpretations on whether it is art or not, what it represents, and how it is affecting us when we experience it.

Ferarra, Chapter 7 An Eclectic Method for Sound, Form and Reference

The Eclectic Method

Up until this point, Dr. Lawrence Ferrara has given us a complete overview on the history of philosophy in art and its key points and key players in his book, Philosophy and the Analysis of Music: Bridges to Musical Sound Form and Reference. Finally now, in Chapter 7 of the book he has revealed the bridge between these philosophical approaches by demonstrating and defining an eclectic analysis. In his explanation, he insists that a listener must “maintain a stance marked by openness to any level of musical significance” when using an eclectic analysis of musical works. It is from this openness that one might tap into all the significant questions possible behind the existence of work itself. There are ten steps to Ferrara’s eclectic analysis in the subsequent order, Historical Background, Open Listening, Syntax, Sound-In-Time, Musical and Textural Representation, Virtual Feeling, Onto-historical World, Open Listening again, Performance Guide, and finally a Meta-Critique. Their breakdowns are as follows:

Step One

Historical Background - here is where we begin by asking questions like, “What are some important dates of the piece and its composer?”; “What were the characteristic styles form this period?”; “What was the socio-political climate in which the composer wrote?” Many times in early classical music the church had a large influence into ‘how’ and ‘what’ was allowed to be composed. This is the section to deal with these types of questions.

Step Two

Open Listening – This is pretty self-explanatory. Now is when we actually listen to the piece, along with a score if available, and take in the overall sounds, structure, and messages in the work.

Step Three

Syntax – In this step we can begin to look at all the structural forms in the music.
We would look at the significant forms present(i.e. Verse-chorus-Verse; ABA; etc.)

Step Four

Sound-In-Time – Also referred to as a phenomenological description, we can begin to deal with how the sound itself affects the listener. Things like what metaphorical aspects are present and the analysis itself can now shift into a more poetic description of the music.

Step Five

Musical and Textual Representation – Here in the analysis we move into the first of three referential perspectives. Here we can talk about things that specific voicing or phrases represent. Does the specific timbre of the lead melody remind you of something relative to the music’s message as a whole? Are there rhythmic aspects which call up a certain idea?

Step Six

Virtual Feeling – Part to of the referential approach. How does the music sound? Is it happy, sad, anxious? This does not mean the music is itself sad or happy but something with the phrasings has a quality reminiscent of an abstract feeling.

Step Seven

Onto-Historical World – The third and final referential part. This is something that grows out of the syntactical and sound-in-time analysis. What sort of worlds does the music play around in? Here is where you bridge the analysis you have done in steps three-six. Staying grounded in the levels of the previous steps you can look for locations in time that are present in the music. Even though the piece was written in Germany in the 21st century can you hear something based on the musical form and referential context that speaks of London during the Victorian era?  These questions should relate mainly to the artist them-self, being of the world in which the 'art' was created.

Step Eight

Open Listening – Here again is the return to the music itself. Any level of significance may be discussed. Using the previous six sections is there now something that becomes eminently clear since you have all these areas now active parallel to each other?

Step Nine

Performance Guide – This is to aid performers in the overall comprehension of the work. It is a section to wrap everything together to instruct a performer how these elements found “inside” the music can be utilized in a piece. This is where your discoveries can be fused to a multi-leveled frame in which to help a performer prop up their own nuances in performance.

Step Ten

Meta-Critique’ – Lastly a meta-critique is a place to express how well the eclectic analysis itself came together. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the topics discussed in the analysis?

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REACTION

Ferrara points out that there are many forms of analysis of music, (Shenkerian, Cliftonian, etc.) however, if you are to deal with music like a scientific method you will miss much that exists behind the music due to the limitations of the specific analytical method. Yes, they are affective in there own right but a full rounded comprehension is better. Ultimately, using an eclectic method unites theory and practice in a full and complete form.

“Freedom Blade,” by This Will Destroy You

Referential Analysis and Meta-Critiqué

Within the following I will attempt to reduce the recording of “Freedom Blade” by This Will Destroy You with a referential analysis. An interesting piece for an American instrumental post-rock band, “Freedom Blade” has elements of what might bring to mind the first moments of a morning. With an ethereal quality the music develops much like the collective energy of humans in the morning just before sunrise. Slow to start off; building as one moves from the unconsciousness of sleep into the full awareness of an awakened state, so does the music build in intensity and complexity. The rhythm has less of a driving motion as it does a presence that sets up a pattern and then continues throughout. This is like the very first inspiration that gets us moving and drags through to the end of the day--A consistent prodding on the psyche to move forward in time. The particular voicing seems important to this piece. In the bass and keyboard you can see the Sun as it steady moves forward with full intention of making an elliptical journey back to where it started. Just like the music in its entirety, we are no longer at the place in which we began and yet, somehow, we are exactly where we started. There is also emptiness behind the music that could be attributed to the instrumentation that gives it a translucent texture. The song screams to be called a soundtrack as the listener is forced to toy with visual representations of the delicate phrasing. This piece is presented in a way that lends itself to interpretation, which can be important when dealing with referential analysis.

Meta-Critiqué

If this analysis is even correct in its context then it becomes obvious that it is quite limiting in what can be said. In the analysis of anything, music or otherwise, it seems incredibly important to fully be aware of the “things” presence as a whole. Meaning its form, historical presence, referential meaning, and phenomenological contexts. It is very hard to talk about this critique because to be honest I am not 100% sure it is in the right context. The delineation between a Husserlian Phenomenological analysis and a referential analysis are still a bit unclear to me. In trying to do this critique, whether it is correct or not, seems to show that it is tow hard to have one without slipping into another. This is kind of a reiteration of what I said originally about not being able to properly analyze anything with out a total circular comprehension of the “thing” in question.

Ferrara, “Ch. 5-Heidegger’s Philosophy of Art”

Heidegger takes a turn in is his work after publishing Being and Time of which would lead him to what is believed as the original Greek thought. Heidegger explains that the way of early Greek thinking was that of apprehension but not with the traditional connotations as we understand the word today. Early Greeks thought of apprehension in its purest from as the acquiring, collecting or gathering of things. The things more specifically could be ideas. Through meditative thought one could release them self from the will of wanting something and be completely open, then, to wait for what we are actually waiting for. This waiting that is spoken of is also not the typical idea of the work. Waiting is used in a manner to explain a lack of expectation for something. This waiting otherwise, as Heidegger explains, would be connotative of human wants—waiting for some subjective thing to appear. By releasing into a state of waiting, without the influence of desires, one opens to the ability for the thing to appear. The thinker is not merely passive because he/she may question the viewer at anytime as to what they are experiencing.

The idea of work and art is discussed in this chapter. The difference between the material of what the art is made of and the idea it encompasses are now being brought together because it is not what things are made of or what they represent or mean that is important but what they are for. Heidegger uses “les souliers” by Van Gogh to explain his meaning. The shoes are made of leather, thread, and nails. They are what they are meant to serve which is to protect the feet. By looking at equipment as they are and not how they are used we can see what the Greeks called aletheia or “truth.” By looking at the being of the shoes you can see the truth of their purpose. This is important to Heidegger’s conception of art. Taking a leap away from the traditional aesthetics Heidegger says to look at what is going on “in” the work to see the truth of what they are meant for, something that is normally concealed. If the work is a representation of the being of some object then it is in how it is presented that shows the truth of the object not the actual likeness of the real thing it represents.

The next extension of this chapter moves into the new distinctions Heidegger laid down early in his work On the Origin of the Work of Art. This distinction is that of “Earth” and “Worldliness.” Earth is just that, the actual materials by which the work is made and Worldliness is what is created within the work of Art itself. The “World” of any art, according to Heidegger, is what is unconcealed to us, inherent in the work. For the shoes painting, this would mean that the paint, fabric canvas, and possibly wooden or metal frame are of the concealed ‘earth’. They are present in a way that is the “truth” occurring in the background of what is the unconcealed in the “world” of the painting that is to say the shoes and the story they depict. The rift-design is where the two, both earth and world, come together. The rift-design is most literally the design or form under which the art was created. This is the syntax of any work of art.

For art to happen there must be an appreciation by the viewer. Heidegger views the role of the appreciator as important as the creator because it is in the viewer that the artwork is preserved. Meaning, the artist brings something into being as a work of art but it is only in those who admire it art who can preserve the piece in its being. Ferrara mentions and old familiar adage that goes “if a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer given was yes it makes physical sound that animals might hear but without the presence of man there can be no meaningful sound because meaning is a human concept. Furthering the importance of the alethia of a work of art, if one can divulge the struggle between the earth and the world of the art then and only then can the truth be brought out of its being. “Art works must be studied in such a way that all of their elements combine into a conscious experience,” is what Dr. Ferrara is saying Heidegger wants us to know.

Reaction

I do not have much to say in the way of this philosophy. I understand it, especially about art and its origin under Heideggerian dictum but I feel like it is making an extra layer somewhere. I am not sure of what I mean by this, however, something does not sit right with me when I think about what art means and what makes mere objects separate from art. What I find quite interesting about these ideas are that they run parallel to much of the eastern philosophy in both religion and scientific thought. Much of these ideas are about bringing Dasein or being-there into some oneness with experience and existence, in particular in Heidegger’s interpretation of early Greek “Meditation” thought or being in “waiting” for what is present to show itself. This is well known in Buddhism for example that by allowing the truth to present itself by getting out of the way one can truly see the physical world for what it is. Western philosophy as derived from the Greeks is riddled with vanity in that is seeks to know answers of the truth of existence and experience but for egoist purpose. There seems to be a small bit of personal credit for “understanding” in the West. As if, for one to understand it makes this “His” knowledge and able to control or at least predict with it. Someday we will ‘really’ see the true meaning of the existence of all things and it will be very far away from what we currently think we know according to western fundamentals.

Gebauer and Wulf, “Mimesis”

Since the times of ancient Greece, philosophers have contemplated and developed concepts on art and society and the crucial elements in both that help the development of future generations. One of the key elements of such developments was mimesis. Mimesis is the act of basing analysis on an ideal model of some previous object or action and using this model as a guide to make further developments. For Plato, mimesis was restricted to art, literature, and music. Plato placed great emphasis on the monitoring of the poetry youths were exposed to because as good influences lead to good behavior, bad influences lead to unhealthy behavior. Because mimesis was refined and now centered on an object, or an aesthetic object rather than imitation of behavior, Plato stresses the importance of using discretion when exposing youth to aesthetic objects. He does not believe that young people can get stronger through a negative influence or experiences with negative models. Only positive influence will allow young generations to grow. So members of the “guardian class” are responsible for shielding all negative interference from youth for the betterment of all society. Because poetry plays such an important role for education of young people at this point this is focused on. Aristotle expounds on Plato’s work, emphasizing the significance of mimesis as an act for re-creation but advancement (i.e. embellishment or improvements on existing objects). Mimesis is a good thing. Mimesis not only is the means of imitating a role model but using that role model to make ethical critiques of that model and advancing to the next level of behavior.

Gebauer and Wulf expound on this idea of mimesis and imitation to be illusions. Touching on poets and poetry, they explain that the poet is often praised for his/her understanding of human behavior but put down the question of what is the behavior that must be overcome to understand this behavior. Mimesis now has been corrected to be understood as approximations of what is observed and but must be brought into a physical world for further definition through mimesis over the course of history. Any object or image brought into the physical world by the artist is a phenomenon of some reality only as emulation.

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Reaction

It becomes very difficult to absorb this perspective if you already have a decided opinion about learning, education, and development. Education in a classic viewpoint really lies on the basis of conformity. “Do” and “Act” like an ideal model and this will lead to intellectual growth, personal growth. This is basically how mimesis is defined here. This is why the close monitoring of all educational material is so important in the classic views. However, philosophy has viewed the world from outside the sphere of experience in order to dissect human experiences and rationalize causalities. The issue that comes arises is discoveries are made and concepts codified and then set down and expected to be seen as truth. In other words, the teacher who finds a truth will then “teach” it as a truth for a student to take it on as there own truth. But, this can’t be beneficial because even if something has the illusion of truth it may not really be the truth for that individual. It can be if we conform to an idea, we give in and follow a dictum according someone or something else’s truth. This comes from early childhood and how we rely heavily on adults to aid us through the dangers of childhood to survive to our own adulthood but what would happen to our perspective if parents did not raise us. Would we be completely ego minded and take complete credit for our survival and existence? If so would we even give credit to mimesis?

Ferrara, "Intoduction" Summary and Reaction

The comprehension of music in western society has improved significantly since methods of analysis were first codified. This is somewhat due to the availability of music in western culture. In an age of electronic supremacy, one can simply type a few words in a computer and have a list of musical selection, including sound samples, at their disposal in less than 30 seconds( or less if you type fast.) Or even hold up you iPhone to a speaker and have it tell you what the recording is. No longer is music an aristocratic privilege but a readily available commodity in western culture.
Being that music is so common, Dr. Lawrence Ferrara insists that we adjust our methods of analysis of a musical selection. Ferrara states we must expand our comprehension of music beyond one single form of listening but rather open up to three methods of analysis at the same time. These layers include traditional formalities, sound-in-time, and referential imports that are present within the entirety of music. This simply means all the things that influenced the creation of music down to the performance of the piece and what it does for a listener.
Ferrara continues with his introduction to explain how “straightforward” the breakdown on the following book will be laid out. The successive chapters will serve to systematically introduce the reader to more and more expansive views on how to analyze a “bit” of music. It seem with such a presence of formal scholarly analysis floating about the academic world that it should only make sense for this book to put emphasis on how to dissect and discuss music from a referential point of view. This new way of eclectically approaching music is important as we push the limits of the definition of music in the 20th century.

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Personal Reaction

If the language of the introduction is indicative of the chapters to follow it is clear it will be very wordy. It is only an opinion but, new concepts that over-state a simple facts by weaving convoluted sentences only slows the process of comprehension of a new concept (i.e. makes new material difficult to digest.) I also believe that Ferrara will probably try to bring us up to speed with the history behind 20th century music very quickly which will add to its difficulty. It may not be too easy to absorb what is being said due to this choice of presentation; however, it will be enlightening and highly informative toward a new transcendental way of experiencing music that might be necessary as the boundaries of music expand.