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February 12, 2004Aaron Copland Says Bring The Noise(this is a continuation of the discussion here) A while ago I singled out the "noise" as a missing piece in Jack White's definition of music, as applied in his negative assessments of hip-hop. My assertion was that the visceral quality of the sounds, as distinct from melody/harmony/rhythm/lyrics, always helps to shape our musical experience, and is a crucial element of hip-hop's appeal in particular. From Marley Marl's seminal screeches on "The Bridge", on to the Bomb Squad's "Bring the Noise" aural manifesto, on to El P's funcrushery, on to Dizzee Rascal's grime, hip-hop has focused on cultivating and exploring this element of the music, the quality of the noise, more than any western pop form I can think of. I recently came across some corroborating testimony on the subject from Aaron Copland, who unlike me possessed the musical vocabulary to express the ideas properly. This comes from an essay named "The Sonorous Image" in his book Music and Imagination (published in 1952): One of the prime concerns in the making of music, either as creator or as interpreter, is the question of how it will sound. On any level, whether the music is abstruse and absolute or whether it is intended for the merest diversion, it has got to "sound." I'd like to see what Copland would say if he was around to apply his concepts to hip-hop.. |
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