It is self-evident that the centre of attention of this blog is what is referred to as 'classical music'. This is because, at least in Europe, it is the longest lasting and largest accumulation of reflection on serious issues affecting humanity which exists in a musical form. In around 1,600 years of existence of the tradition it draws on it has created complex forms which allow the exploration and expression of a vast range of human experience. It is consequently a great art form.
However, as stressed in the quotation at the head of this blog, and previous articles, what is important in art is not genre or style – although there is a necessary relation between genre, style and content given the fundamental principle that form and content are inseparable. Radical differences in content, that is in what is being expressed, require different forms. Music which reflects a radically different experience to classical music will necessarily have a different form. Not to listen to a different form therefore means is to exclude content.
A form, however, can be used to express thoughtless ideas, of no significance or striking banality, as well as important content. A large amount of pop music heard every day contains no serious thought whatever ('moon in June') while a large amount of relatively contentless music written in 'classical' forms has simply been forgotten. The fact that a piece of music is written in a particular style, therefore, gives it no claim to valuable content, which is worth preserving, whatever. That is determined by what it is expressing, what is its content, not what style it is written in.
The biggest contemporary example of this is naturally pop music -a musical style originally most fundamentally rooted in the experience of the black population of the United States but which now dominates world music. Another, less widespread, style which has evidently produced great content, Jacques Brel being one example, is French chanson.
Another excellent example of the same point is 'The House of the Rising Sun'. Its subject, prostitution, is the enforced experience of tens millions of women in history and therefore something totally needing widespread reflection on. However the only major work of classical music dealing with a prostitute that immediately jumps to mind is Berg's Lulu – other works deal with it incidentally (and someone may of course point out another example ignored here!). But, given the scale of the experience of the immense oppression constituted by prostitution throughout history, and the enormous number of women who have suffered from it, the proportion of works in classical music, indeed in 'classical' art, dealing with it is quite ludicrously small – an example of shutting out reality and therefore limiting art. Furthermore the centre of attention in Lulu is psychology, not the real brutal character of prostitution - despite her murder.
In contrast 'The House of the Rising Sun' deals much more accurately with the poverty involved in prostitution and its interrelation with poverty, gambling, alcoholism, and brutality, than anything in classical music. Its musical form is simple - a strophic (repeating verse) song to put it technically. But in this case simplicity aids to the 'grinding' effect. As someone for whom Schubert is one of the greatest of all composers, and the greatest song writer due to his range, 'The House of the Rising Sun' is as great as anything he produced – a great work of art in the most direct sense. Among the many contributions of Bob Dylan was to put 'House of the Rising Sun' centrally in the pop music repertoire - his adaptation, one of the best recorded, being evidently the basis of the even more well known version by The Animals.
A disadvantage of both Dylan and the Animals is that the song is sung by a man - the subject is more powerful, because more directly personal, when sung by a woman. Taking female vocalist's versions, in my opinion Joan Baez's voice is too pure and Nina Simone's version too up tempo to convey the brutality and pain of the song. Dolly Parton's arrangement is totally different to Dylan or the Animals but her highly coloured voice is highly effective.
Another notable version, again in my opinion, is by Frijid Pink – the highly distorted guitars being appropriate to convey feelings of panic and terror (it is available on Rock Monsters).
If anyone knows of other particularly good versions the author of this blog would be highly delighted to know!
But, to return to the beginning, 'House of the Rising Sun' perfectly reflects the fundamental philosophical and artistic issue dealt with by this blog. It is content and treatment, not genre, which defines what is great art.
