In Proust’s seven-volume epic “In search of lost times” there is a 40-page passage on one central character’s reaction to a piece of music he hears at a dinner part.
In the book the music is titled “Sonata for piano and violin in F sharp” by M. Verdurin but in fact the piece is really about Proust’s reaction of a piece of music by French composer Gabriel Faure.
Proust’s description of the music is so impassioned, beautiful and poignant that you can actually hear the music as you read about it. The ability to write about music in an interesting way is rare indeed.
I love all kinds of music as I’m sure you do too but I really am clueless as to how to describe the fleeting and mysterious pleasures of music. It’s almost like trying to describe love. You know it when you feel it but you’re not sure why.
Edward Albee loved music so much that he wrote “The Box” and “Quotations from Chairman Mao” as if their structure was a musical number. These two plays are always performed back to back by combining a story of a women on a cruise, with the poem “Over the hill to the poorhouse” by Will Carleton, some quotations from Chairman Mao and a variety of comments about life and art from a box on stage. It remains one of my favorite theater experiences.
But I am sure Albee would not be willing to sit with me and discuss music. In fact, I’m not certain he’s still alive.
The only hope I had was to find a music writer from Long Island who might be willing to talk to me about music and why we all love it so. Well after some hunting I tracked down a guy who lives in Rockville Center and who writes professionally about musical groups. His name is Jon Kleinman.
Jon was raised in Rockville Center by parents who were professors. He was educated at Oberlin College with a degree in philosophy and psychology as a minor. He is also trained in classical trumpet and now works for SUNY Old Westbury.
However part-time he writes for major music magazines. His central interest is blues and jazz but I persuaded him to give me some reactions to some of the most popular music YouTubes in history. And by popular, I mean YouTube music videos that have from 20 million to 3.5 billion views.
The interview was like a pop quiz where I played 1 minute of each video and then asked him to give me his impression and here is what he told me:
1) Faure’s Pavane in F-sharp minor. This piece of classical music that was written by Faure when he lived near Paris was the actual piece that Proust was writing about in his novel. It is formal and sad and moving.
Jon told me “this piece contains bass clarinets, clarinets and flutes which stand out against the strings and have a really expressive quality to them. The melody is dynamic with crescendos and declines. Very nice.” I could see that I was already over my head so I quickly turned to a more modern piece, a song that music experts say was the most popular song of the 20th Century.
2) The Rolling Stones “I can’t get no satisfaction.” I was lucky enough to have heard this live in Shea Stadium when the Stones toured here many years ago. We were seated in the mezzanine and I noted to my wife that the mezzanine was actually violently moving up and down during this song because the crowd was going so wild. And that turned out to be true because Shea Stadium had to be closed for three days afterward to repair the cracked concrete.
Such is the power of this song. When I played it for Jon he smiled and said “You just can’t argue with the Stones. That happens to be the most famous guitar riff in history. There’s something about an electric guitar with distortion that can’t be ignored and Jagger has a sneer to his voice which presents a great critique against 1960’s consumerism.”
3) Bob Dylan “Sad eyed lady of the lowlands.” Jon immediately said “Elvis freed up the body in the ’50s and Dylan freed up the mind in the ’60s. With his lyrics he had a way of getting people to think. I’m not sure but that may have been that was Al Kooper on keyboards.”
4) AC/DC “Thunderstruck” I have always felt that this is one of the most amazing, exciting and joyful songs ever written and you can see how the crowds who attend this Australian bands concerts were in a full-on frenzy when they heard the guitar and the chant “thunda” over and over. After viewing this video Jon told me “Frank Zappa once said when properly operated an electric guitar is the most blasphemous instruments ever made. They use solid body guitars with special amps and produce the sound of testosterone and rebellion mixed together. Upper middle-class kids raised in Rockville Center weren’t supposed to like their stuff but I did anyway.”
5) Bee Gees “Night Fever” The Bee Gees wrote the soundtrack to the John Travolta smash hit film “Saturday Night Fever” in 1976 at the height of the disco craze. Jon told me “This is what we call ‘four on the floor’ beat very simple and catchy. The disco movement rose fast and then died even faster. It presented too much of a threat to middle class white macho men because it presented the male as sexual and feminine.”
6) Taylor Swift “Me” This Taylor Swift video cost a small fortune to make and set all sorts of records such as 29,000,000 views in a 24-hour period. It was made in Paris, uses some French language, bright pastel colors as she pairs up with superstar vocalist Brendon Urie. Jon smiled after seeing this video and remarked “This is what we call the musical equivalent of junk food. This kind of music started out in the ’80s with MTV and technological use of synthesizers and electronic drums.
If you like candy you’ll probably like this stuff.”
And now I know why the world loves Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” and Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk.” It’s the very same reason we like Hostess Cupcakes, Twinkies and Devil Dogs. They taste soooo good! They are not too good for you, they do not build muscle, they will add pounds to the waistline, they have no nutritional value and do not foster good health. But they taste sooooo good!
And that’s just a few of the things I learned about music from Jon Kleinman.
Unfortunately for me, it looks like I have to bone up on my classical music taste and cut down on my sugar intake. But honestly, who doesn’t like Bruno Mars “Uptown Funk” with this pink dinner jacket, his cool white fedora and all his hip hop moves. It may be candy but its very cool candy nonetheless.
