Lewis or Taruskin Response

Instructions

You will write an essay in response to one of these two articles:

George Lewis, Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives

Richard Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage 

Please refer to the writing rubric for this response assignment. 303 writing rubric.pdf Download 303 writing rubric.pdf

Your essay should have a clear introduction, body and conclusion with well thought-out transitions.

Keep your responses in the range of  4-5 pages of writing (1200-1500 words). 

The writing prompts below are provided to help you structure your paper and to clarify some difficult concepts. Do not just copy/paste the questions and answer them in the order given!! 

You should identify the main argument in the article. This will not necessarily be stated directly. Instead, you will need to think about what underlying similarities or relationships connect all the different ideas in the the article. This should be your starting point in the written response.

Your essay should not just summarize or explain the ideas in the reading, but should also identify potential problems with the claims the articles make (the prompts will help you do this). 

In addition to reading the articles, you must listen to all of the pieces / artists that are mentioned. Your demonstrated familiarity with this music will be a consideration when grading the assignment.

While the point of the assignment is to specifically address the ideas in the assigned reading, you may certainly make reference to other music and ideas that we have covered so far in class, or from outside the class (provided you explain and cite them adequately). 

Writing Prompts

George Lewis, Improvised Music After 1950: Eurological and Afrological Perspectives

If you intend to write your response to this article, you should read the unabridged version. Download unabridged version.

Social Implications of Indeterminacy and Improvisation / Exnomination

The reading excerpt begins with Lewis identifying the social implications of indeterminacy and experimental practices in music. What social/political connections does he make?

What does he say about Cage’s own ideas about the political implications of his music?

What does Lewis say about Cage’s relationship with improvisation vs. chance music. What is Cage’s relationship to Jazz?

Explain the concept of Exnomination. How does this connect to the concept of autonomous art?

What effect does this have on funding and artist livelihood? What are the arguments that Lewis identifies in Euro-American accounts of the origin of indeterminacy in avant-garde music?

Freedom:

What does Elvin Jones have to say about the relationship between freedom and control in (free) improvisation? What are your thoughts on this?

Is formal structure important in (free) improvisation? Do the events in an improv require relationship to or membership in an over-arching musical structure to be meaningful? What about in an ‘autonomous’ musical work? 

Personality:

What does Lewis say about the significance of Personality and personal narrative ("telling your story") in Jazz vs. in Cage’s music? What role does it play for the performers; for the composer(s)?

What do you make of the argument that Cage’s apolitical stance is a form of exnomination? Does it matter that Cage as an out gay avant-garde composer was part of a marginalized subculture?

Does Lewis sufficiently distinguish between different forms of prestige (commercial prestige, institutional prestige, intellectual prestige, etc.) in his analysis of the power relations between Cage and jazz artists? Is this an important consideration? 

Do you think Lewis's Afrological / Eurological categorizations strengthen or weaken his argument? Are they persuasive? Are they overly general? 

Some things to consider:

It is certainly the case that there are many different African, European and American cultures, subcultures and individual experiences. In fact, even the more general qualities of European and African culture have changed and developed considerably over time. Are the terms Afrological and Eurological sufficiently broad to encompass this?

One way to look at this is to examine the practice of improvisation in European musical cultures in the 19th/20th centuries, which usually amounts to an examination of the relations of power and prestige between "low" and "high" culture, as well as the tension between preindustrial and postindustrial societal formations (that is to say: improvisation is more characteristic of popular/folk music than classical music in this period, but "pre-industrial" classical music (e.g., anything before Wagner) often involved improvisation as an important element of music-making).

On the other side of the equation: what is your take on accounts from jazz players about "pure musical experience" or the experience of "losing oneself in the music", etc. — and how might this be related to the possibility of autonomous art in jazz? 

Does Lewis's account oversimplify the varieties of experience available to participants in “Afrological" music?

Does the implication that Afrological musical experience is reducible to individual sociopolitical experience/function create the possibility of an oppressive cultural stereotype?

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Richard Taruskin, No Ear for Music: the Scary Purity of John Cage 

Cage and Postwar Modernism: pp. 261 - 267

In what ways is Cage's music similar to Serialism (compare, for instance, Structures with Music of Changes). Do they sound similar/different, and if so, how? How were the compositional techniques similar/different from those of Serialism?

What is Taruskin’s explanation for why Cage received so much criticism, not only from lovers of traditional music (as might be expected) but from other postwar modernists such as Boulez and Babbitt? 

According to Taruskin, what role did creative misunderstanding play in Cage’s development as a composer? In particular, what is Taruskin’s take on Cage's misunderstanding of Satie?

In what ways does creative misunderstanding play a role in our reception of him as a composer, then and now?

Taruskin writes about Cage’s heroic renunciation of technique, analysis, and the value of ‘an ear for music’. What is heroic about this?

Cage and the Romantic Notion of Genius: pp. 268 - 272 

In this section Taruskin develops an argument that places Cage firmly in the tradition of Romantic Art. Taruskin address three elements that are central to Romantic notions of art — (1) the creative genius, (2) the concept of autonomous art, and (3) the concept of progress in art. Summarize the argument on each of these points. Do you agree with Taruskin’s argument? Why/why not?

Cage and the Concept of Autonomous Art: pp. 272-277

According to Taruskin, part of the idea behind autonomous art (aka: the esthetic) is that “true” art is free from utility, free from social, political, economic function, etc. As such, there is a sense in which art is distinct from ‘everyday’ life. Part of the drive behind the Avant-Garde and Dadaism was to bring art back into life and life back into art. Now, consider Taruskin’s claim about 4’33”. Is 4’33” an attempt to bring everyday experience (and sounds) into art - perhaps a sort of democratization of the artwork? Or does the piece take everyday experience and lift it to a specialized, elite realm - such that now even ‘real’ life has been made into autonomous art? What arguments does he make to support his claim? 

Compare the reactions of non-specialized (i.e., ‘everyday’) audiences to the piece vs. the reactions of audiences that have a training in modern music/aesthetics. Does this support/undermine Taruskin’s argument. Do you agree/disagree with the argument?

Do you think Taruskin’s biography of Cage is fair? What do you make of his implication that Cage’s own intentions are not as important as the social function of his music and its reception by and influence on others? 

Some interesting related material:

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