Here's a new video conversation between me and metal fan and math-man James Ellias about Heavy Metal music and "anti-catharsis." Over the summer, in connection with my new book, we had gotten to talking about "what's going on" for people with hardcore taste in music. Because our conversation was so wide-ranging and generated a lot of insights, I thought it would be worth continuing on youtube, so that you could hear it too. James is totally blunt and fearless, but also willing to be challenged and to find new truth, so it was productive. Here are some of the topics we touch on:

• Catharsis vs anti-catharsis
• Self-understanding and unpacking the meaning of music
• Whether music is “just a sensation”
• How sensationalism in music is like pragmatism in philosophy
• Self-Referential/Self-Conscious Expression
• Stupid-making music
• The honesty of children
• Humor is disarming
• Self-Aware Expression and Parody
• Bootleg Romanticism
• Music as a utility versus a metaphysical statement
• How to deal with bad music that you like
• The effect of noise in music
• Bohemian Rhapsody
• Coen brothers movies
• Crime and Punishment
• “This is Spinal Tap”
• Pictures at an Exhibition
• Ayn Rand and Metaphysics of Man
• Apocolyptica
• Emo vs Screamo
• Metallica “One,” “The Outlaw Torn”
• Metalocolypse & Deathclock
• Cole Porter “Anything Goes”
• Rage Against the Machine

In the Philosophy of Music and Emotion group on Facebook, we've been having a discussion of a blog post "Why I didn't create that song I wrote" by Francois-Rene Rideau which deals with his song setting of Invictus by William Ernest Henley.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Francois-Rene's blog post questions the possibility of very different settings of the same poem, if one is following the natural stresses and feeling of the poem. So comparing different versions reveals a lot.

​Lucas Misael Cuadra shared his new setting as well. (You should also listen to his awesome Gates of Fate)

Like I always say, a composer reveals more in his music than he realizes he is revealing, because the things he takes most deeply for granted are the ones that come across the most strongly. Francois-Rene wrote a tight, jazz-flavored song which makes the words clear and straightforward and has a relaxed and spicy feeling. Lucas wrote a richly romantic, lyric melody which is very continuous and glides through the poem with changes of motion and strength corresponding to the feel of the words. It's much more similar to my own setting--it lives in the same century or the same ethos in some sense.

My setting is broadly epic, moving from dark to bright over a long elaboration, with the words used in interweaving choral voices. I also included contemplative instrumental interludes between the verses of the poem, and more intro and coda instrumentals to round out the song.

I wrote this setting of Invictus on commission for the Ann Arbor-Saline Area High School, back in 1999 or so. I conducted the premiere myself. Unfortunately, the recording skips a second or two when the choir starts singing.

Another 5-star review of "Emotion in Life & Music" appeared on Amazon. Thanks to Molly Johnson (no relation!) for her positive thoughts on the book:

"I'm not yet finished with this book, but it's already brought tremendous clarity to my own likes and dislikes in music, explaining why I find some classical music (stuff I'm "supposed to like" because it's "great art") cold and unapproachable. As a musician myself I know how hard it is to explain music and its impact in an objective way, which this author succeeds at well. I was surprised to find that I am already applying Mr. Johnson's explanation to theater as well as music. It helped me understand why I liked a play I saw recently, because like a good musical work it untangles and integrates a complex set of emotions. (The play happened to be Ibsen's Lady From the Sea). I am looking forward to further insights as I go deeper into the book, and I think this will bear many re-readings. I'm also looking forward to applying his method to the music I play and listen to, and seeing how it applies to other art forms. I enjoyed Mr. Johnson's other work, Dancing with the Muses, as well. It is completely different in subject matter, but also valuable."

We are also having a vigorous discussion of catharsis in music, as well as the issue of generational character and why people tend to think that the music coming out during their teenage years was the one and only true, good music--such that everything else is a fall from that original height. Yet everyone thinks that of their own teenage music. This is on the Facebook discussion group Philosophy of Music and Emotion.

In going through some old papers, I came across notes I had made during a piano Master Class taught by Andras Schiff for students at the Mannes College of Music in New York back in February 2000. Reading over the notes, I was struck by how good the ideas were, and I felt they were definitely worth sharing, even though it’s been a while. That’s how things are when you deal with timeless art and ideas, as Schiff does.

The Master Class focused on Schiff's specialty, the music of JS Bach. He coached student pianists on four major works by Bach: the English Suite in E Minor, the Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor, the Goldberg Variations, and the Partita #6 in E Minor.

Bach’s music is often treated as merely erudite and “cerebral,” as academic and masterful; since it so often serves as the technique-builder for keyboard players (as well as for players of other instruments), it tends to be associated with “playing out of duty for technique” rather than “playing with feeling for enjoyment.” Schiff is remarkable for casting off the impoverished, purely technical approach to Bach, both in his playing and his teaching.

​"There is never anything mechanical about Bach,” says Schiff. He insists that the player remember that these pieces are *dances*. Not all the notes and shapes of melody should have uniform shape and articulation. Use variety of color. Think harmonically, and bring out the structure.

Schiff intimately knows the harmony of each piece, and can play the structure of the piece in chords from memory--a condensed version without the complexities of note-motions, just the essentialized progression of sonorities.

Schiff never loses sight of the music’s emotional dimension, its sensuous beauty and rich flow. Singing the melody and conducting in a demonstration, he says the Goldberg Variations express joie de vivre. This is not exactly what we traditionally associate with Bach the heavy moralist, the dour Lutheran, the monolithic German master!

Schiff recommends overholding—sustaining the tones of melody so that they slightly overlap with one another--to make the interval interference real, accentuating the expressive quality of the intervals.

Schiff is opposed to violent, aggressive playing; his own playing is more "buttery" and fluid and sweet. He insists that the player does not need a hard, harsh tone quality. There should be no “wooden” sound or stiffness, but freedom. Feel the pulse, he says, like a dance, a certain quality of movement. "You have to speak clearly if you want to be understood.”

"You have to play for the most intelligent listeners. Don't underestimate them. They know where the downbeat is." You don't have to hammer it. Avoid unmusical accents.

Schiff points out that Bach's manuscript handrwriting uses wavy lines, not straight ones like printed music. This reflects the affect Bach intended: a natural and organic flow, not a mechanistic and technocratic approach.

Compare the rectilinear squareness of the printed score (left) as opposed to the curvy beams connecting the notes in Bach's original manuscript (right).

The Triple Book Party we held on May 14 in NYC was great fun. Here are the videos of the talks.

When your main competitor on the Amazon best-seller list is Aristotle, you are in a good fight. :)

I'm pleased to announce that the Kindle version of my new book "Emotion in Life & Music" is now available.

• This Kindle eBook includes links to musical examples referenced in the text.
• If you purchase the print version of the book, you can get the Kindle eBook for free, through Amazon's MatchBook program.