Introduction: Making a Space for Song - JEANETTE BICKNELL AND JOHN ANDREW FISHER
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JEANETTE BICKNELL AND JOHN ANDREW FISHER
Introduction: Making a Space for Song
The topic of song, songs, and singing extends are historical reasons for this tendency. One was
across a vast number of art forms and genres back the attraction of the concept of “absolute mu-
into prehistory. It stands astride the high-low art sic” developed within nineteenth-century roman-
continuum, ranging from classical music to pop- ticism and idealism. This concept embodies the
ular and folk music. Unlike other art forms that philosophically intriguing claim that the master-
include both high and low genres (such as movies pieces of the emerging instrumental canon, such
and novels), song and songs have always had mul- as Beethoven’s symphonies, possess a unique tran-
tiple functions other than being objects of aes- scendence and profundity. Such claims directed
thetic appreciation. The uses of vocal music range attention away from vocal music forms and to-
from the sacred (sung as hymns as well as heard as ward the problem of accounting for the meaning,
masses, anthems, and so on), to communal (camp- emotional expressiveness, and value of purely in-
fire songs and soccer fans’ chants), to ceremonial strumental musical works. When this was followed
(Jerusalem sung at public events, Barber’s Agnus by twentieth-century modernism, with its focus
Dei performed at memorials), to music for enter- on autonomous artworks and formal innovation,
tainment and for dancing; unlike other art forms, there was little reason to turn philosophical atten-
songs and singing play a role in everyday life. Ellen tion toward the less pure forms and multiple uses
Dissanayake remarks that anthropological studies that populate the realm of vocal music.2
of “small-scale societies amply illustrate the ubiq- Indeed, a significant reason to broach the topic
uity (and complexity) of communal singing dur- of song is that it highlights the narrowness of aes-
ing most daily activity.”1 When Dick Clark said, thetics as it was practiced through much of the
“Music is the soundtrack of your life,” he was un- twentieth century. Arguably, no artistic engage-
doubtedly referring to songs. ment is more commonly experienced than the
Because of the universality and centrality to experience of song, not only listening but also
human culture of song, our topic is very differ- singing: individually or in groups, singing along
ent from other topics that have expanded the with a singer on the radio or singing a song in
purview of aesthetics in recent years. Our topic one’s head. It is so fundamental to human cul-
is not a novel art form emerging from new tech- ture that some hypothesize that singing predates
nologies (video games, computer art), nor a new or is coextensive with the origins of language.3
form emerging from popular culture (reality TV Speculation connecting the origins of song and
shows), and it is certainly far from a new avant- language has always been rife.4 Given its promi-
garde art form, such as conceptual art. On the nent place in human society, it is not surprising
contrary, vocal music is an ancient and familiar el- that songs and singing have unique philosophi-
ement of every culture and central to music itself. cally interesting features. For example, songs in
Yet song has been passed over by philosophers performance can have referential dimensions that
of art who otherwise have been intensely inter- other art forms do not have (as Theodore Gracyk’s
ested in both music and literature. Instead, phi- article in this issue shows).
losophy of music has tended to limit its scope to In what follows, we sketch the crucial ways that
a subclass of Western art music, largely focusing vocal music differs from most other art forms.
on issues concerning instrumental music. There These explain why, with the possible exception of
C 2013 The American Society for Aesthetics2 Song, Songs, and Singing
opera, vocal music has tended to be overlooked both for aesthetics and for philosophy of music
until recently in philosophy of music. Conversely, that art songs do not.
these differences are what make vocal music, es- The legacy of Immanuel Kant’s Third Critique
pecially songs, an exciting topic for aesthetics and looms large in the history of music. His influence
the philosophy of music. deeply affected both the field of aesthetics and
the ideology surrounding the practice of classical
music.8 The Kantian picture of aesthetic judgment
i. are songs fit for aesthetic judgment? in particular helped to invert the relative status
of vocal and instrumental music. Whereas instru-
No attempt will be made here to define songs or mental pieces tended to be regarded in earlier
singing; both are enormously complex as phenom- times merely as sources of pleasurable, but mean-
ena and as evolving concepts. Although singing is ingless, sounds and vocal music carried the burden
not limited to vocalizing text, for the purposes of possessing important meanings and hence value
of this issue we can safely assume that it is. In (or disvalue), after 1800 the instrumental works of
the same spirit, “song” will be taken to include the romantic composers came to be regarded as
all music that involves singing text. By far the truly great art on a par with literature and the
most difficult and complex concept is “songs,” plastic arts.9 Vernacular songs, by contrast, were
and hence any generalization about songs has firmly relegated to the emerging concepts of pop-
to be understood as limited to some particular ular and folk music, and as such, were considered
historical–social context and some particular cat- lacking in artistic status.
egory of songs.5 Still, it is useful to distinguish The Kantian characterization of pure aesthetic
art song from non-art song because non-art song judgments promotes a particular model of aes-
is the more philosophically challenging category. thetic appreciation. Several features of this frame-
The category of art song is typically taken to re- work are especially salient for understanding the
fer to vocal works in classical music and includes relegation of vocal music. Pure aesthetic judgment
art songs, such as lieder, as well as opera, can- is to be a disinterested appreciation of an object.
tatas, choral works, and so on. If we treat the The pleasure received in the experience signals
classical music tradition as beginning when such that the object is beautiful only if it is based on the
music began to be considered a fine art, that is, form of the object and not on other motivations
became “serious” music, which is around 1800 ac- or causes. This provides a basis for finding purely
cording to the view propounded by Lydia Goehr, instrumental musical works aesthetically valuable.
we would be forced to leave out much that is liter- Moreover, pure aesthetic judgment is based nei-
ally serious vocal music, especially religious music ther on an emotional reaction nor on the related
(from Pérotin and Palestrina, through Cherubini, motive of finding that the object satisfies one’s
and so on).6 However, even if we move the vague desires, for example, to express a belief. In short,
boundary of art song back to the beginning of the to achieve the universality that Kant sought for
common practice period, around 1600, this leaves an aesthetic judgment, the object cannot provide
important categories of earlier high-culture song pleasure in virtue of gratifying one’s conception
in limbo. For example, there were songs written of what is good, right, or true. Rather, the ob-
by musicians going back to the Middle Ages, such ject is to be judged solely in itself, separated from
as the troubadours and minnesingers, as well as by any function it might perform. The Kantian idea is
famous composers before 1600. that whether an object is beautiful is independent
We can safely leave such boundary questions of what it does for us or of any emotional effect
undecided because the most interesting aesthetic it has on us or any commitments we have; objects
questions about songs apply to non-art songs are immediately beautiful or not.
(hereafter “vernacular” songs) of whatever cat- To what sort of ideal of the artwork as aes-
egory. There are many important subdivisions of thetic object does the Kantian model lead? Above
this overly broad category. In particular, there is a all, this is an ideal of artworks as autonomous
significant distinction between, on the one hand, objects, divorced from practical life, made to be
popular songs, which are ubiquitous in every soci- appreciated in themselves. This picture privileges
ety, and, on the other hand, folk or ethnic songs.7 instrumental musical forms, such as string quar-
Vernacular songs present a variety of problems tets and symphonies that lack representationalBicknell and Fisher Introduction 3
content; these have accordingly become the works that are the basic objects of critical interest
paradigm forms of musical masterworks. They in the philosophy of art, a field that has been built
are simply formally rewarding, beautiful in them- on a foundation focusing on a tradition of master-
selves as objects of musical delight. works? Stepping out of our tradition, the problem
Although these requirements are at best ideal- becomes clearer. As Philip Bohlman points out,
izations that do not fit any type of art perfectly, an “ontology derived from understanding music
they are especially inapt for the complex world of as an object is foreign to many music cultures in
non-art songs. Vocal music has representational the world, where, for example, there may be no
content, and it often has an intended effect. It equivalent linguistic category for affording iden-
famously has the power to move people emo- tity to pieces and works.”12
tionally. Traditional folk music frequently has a We can distinguish two important senses of our
primary function of telling an important story or modern Western concept of a musical work. One
reinforcing an important value; popular music of sense—call it the “broad” concept of a musical
past centuries often expressed social and political work—designates the product of some sort of cre-
commentary (compare broadsides), protest songs ation, by an individual or a group, that is solidi-
were intended to move people to certain beliefs fied over time to the point of being named by a
and actions, and so on. Given the representational referring expression. (This is consistent with the
content of vernacular song, the primary intention possibility of its properties changing over time.)
of such songs is usually to elicit a combination It is an artifact that is sung or played on musi-
of emotional, intellectual, and bodily experience. cal instruments. This requires at a minimum lin-
Thus, in spite of the power and beauty of early guistic habits, linguistic technologies, such as mu-
songs, such as a Child ballad (for example, “Ed- sical notation, and cultural institutions (such as
ward”) or an African American spiritual (“Swing church, court, or guild) that identify and preserve
Low, Sweet Chariot”), they lack the art for art’s the products over time, institutions that identify
sake status that is the Kantian legacy, and this re- and reidentify performances as performances of
mains true of contemporary popular songs (for the same work. This broad concept of a musical
example, Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” work allows for the work to change over time and
or even Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies”), which may over performances, as parts are added or dropped
intend to have various effects that listeners find out, lyrics are changed, different arrangements are
affecting as well as entertaining. made, sections are eliminated, and so on.
We do not mean to suggest that a more in- The second more historically limited sense—
clusive account of aesthetic value could not in- call this the “romantic” concept of a musical
clude popular songs, but rather to acknowledge work—expresses the regulative concept of a mu-
that songs have dimensions that challenge the tra- sical work delineated by Goehr.13 According to
ditional boundaries of aesthetics.10 Now that aes- Goehr, this concept came into play in Western
thetics has begun to erase the distinctions between classical music around the time of Beethoven, and
fine art, craft, and entertainment, space has been subsequently it governs many aspects of how the
created for examination of popular songs. The at- products of composition in the classical music tra-
tention to rock music in recent philosophy of mu- dition are treated and regarded, for example, what
sic, a topic in several articles in this issue, demon- counts as creating and performing a musical work.
strates that this examination has begun.11 In the paradigm case of composition, a composer
creates a definite artifact, giving it final form in
musical notation, and subsequent performances of
ii. do vernacular songs fall within the range the work are to be guided by the details and over-
of artworks? all parts of this score. The composer is conceived
of as an artist with something unique and original
A second important issue for vernacular songs de- to say, not principally an entertainer or an artisan,
rives from the very notion of an artwork. As a tem- and the work is to be respected, performed, and
poral art constituted by ephemeral elements (see preserved in its original form. Unlike the broad
Justin London’s article), music, like dance, has al- concept, the romantic musical work usually re-
ways presented ontological problems. Simply put: mains in a fixed form (or is destroyed; compare
What is it? Does it divide into units, the individual Brahms and Sibelius). Performances of classical4 Song, Songs, and Singing music governed by the romantic concept are in- a fixed character, and as such, some have argued tended to preserve the composer’s thoughts and that it should be regarded as the primary work are not intended to be vehicles for free-wheeling of art in rock music. (See articles by Bruno and virtuosity (unless it is specified in the score) or for Michael Rings.)17 independent manipulations or uses by subsequent arrangers and performers.14 The romantic concept of a musical work not iii. the dual form of song only governs our thinking about classical musical works, but also affects our assumptions about what Finally, there is the issue of the dual form of vocal musical works count as artworks. The fact that ver- works: a text wedded to a musical structure. This nacular songs are musical works in the broader combination can be regarded as either a hybrid of sense, and hence much more fluid over time (often two independently evaluable structures or as an products of a folk culture or collaboration and of- organic whole emerging from these two dimen- ten vehicles for reinvention by performers at later sions working together. Historically, the text has times), makes them elusive objects for aesthetic been the dominant object of interest, given that assessment by the standards of the romantic con- it is the bearer of linguistic meaning, and, accord- cept. In Stephen Davies’s terminology, vernacular ingly, the text has tended to be viewed under the songs are very “thin” works; they are minimally category of poetry. For example, folk songs were specified.15 As such, they afford a wide scope for discussed as “folk poetry” in the early collections arrangements and interpretations. of folk songs.18 Furthermore, the music of popular In light of music history, we can view vernacu- songs until the twentieth century was often simple lar songs as coming into focus as artworks through and predictable, and thus it did not appear worthy a series of developments. First there was music of serious consideration as significant art by itself. printing—even for popular songs—then collect- Hence, the burden of interest tended to fall on ing and publishing folk and popular songs in the the text for vernacular songs and on how the text eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and finally was transformed for art song. The tension is ex- copyrighting songs in the twentieth century. This plicit in this comment by Mark Booth: “Song text progression tended to fix more of the form of a is poetry; then again song is not poetry as we usu- song compared to earlier times when lyrics were ally understand poetry.”19 Nonetheless, he presses changeable and melodies often simple and repet- on “to ask what meaning and what value can be itive and used for many different lyrics.16 Even located in song text.”20 early twentieth-century composers of popular mu- In the case of both art songs and vernacular sic (such as Tin Pan Alley songwriters) were not songs, there has been a tendency to what might be regarded as artists, and their products were prin- called the “propositional” model—the view that cipally seen as entertainment. But at least there the music is merely an emotional enhancement was now a definite object regulated (more loosely to the text.21 That this is inadequate as a general and differently than for classical music) by the model for understanding the relationship of lyrics sheet music and copyright law. Nonetheless, such to musical structure in popular songs has become a score is still very thin compared to the score increasingly obvious since the advent of rock mu- of an art song, which determines many more fea- sic and singer-songwriters. Even when the music tures of a performance. This history helps to ex- of a song is considered an equal partner to the plain why philosophical and critical attention has lyrics, however, it is all too easy to view songs recently come to be especially centered on record- as the additive result of the music and the lyrics ings. This focus is reflected in articles in this issue considered independently of each other. A more as well as in recent philosophical discussions of complex view is that a successful song possesses rock and jazz. The recording of a song—for exam- an appropriate mirroring relation between words ple, Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away”—takes the and music. This implies that the result, the song, final step toward becoming a definite eternally is not due to mere addition, since it is a function unchanging object. Insofar as the song “Not Fade of a relation between the two dimensions. Such a Away” has been performed and rearranged hun- model may work for art songs, where the lyrics are dreds of times, it remains an elusive object (see usually a preexisting poem. But it still implies that Franklin Bruno’s article), but the recording has the text and the music can be usefully viewed in
Bicknell and Fisher Introduction 5
isolation from each other, and this raises problems count for the properties of musical works and the
for adequately understanding popular songs.22 properties of their performances. Although this is
a contribution to the ontology of musical works in
general, it has particular salience for songs, that is,
iv. the articles in this issue musical works with texts.
The basis for Gracyk’s account is the parallel
Appropriately, the core problem of song’s dual between sentences and songs. He applies the
form is the topic of the first article in this issue, standard distinction in the philosophy of language
by David Davies. Traditionally, the fundamental between semantics and pragmatics, the implica-
problem for the aesthetics of vocal music has fo- tions that are added in the uttering of a sentence.
cused on the relation of the text to the music. Just as sentences are uttered, songs are per-
Which one predominates, or, if that is the wrong formed. Gracyk proposes, in common with other
question, when and how do they succeed together philosophers of music, that musical works are
to form a successful unified musical work? Davies types and performances are tokens of those types.
notes that there are many great songs with lyrics Songs are “thin” types that allow for considerable
that seem lame, even ridiculous, if isolated from variation from performance to performance. In
the whole song. He proposes to solve this prob- addition, he argues that songs, and indeed “many
lem by drawing on a larger theory of artistic com- musical works,” have “semantic content through
munication. What differentiates artworks in gen- their association with specific linguistic structures
eral from artifacts that merely communicate is that or because their syntactical structures function
artworks have distinctive ways of communicating symbolically due to musical conventions” (p. 25).
content, calling “for a distinctive kind of regard However, the semantic content of a song is to be
on the part of the receiver” (p. 16). These dis- distinguished from the pragmatic implications of
tinctive ways vary from art form to art form. Just its performance; these involve what is referred to
as what Davies calls the “vehicular medium” for and what meaning is intended and accomplished
poetry is language, but language used differently in a specific performance. Indeed, he argues that
than for prose, so the media of songs, which he de- only individual performances rather than musical
scribes as a “compositionally composite” art form, works have pragmatic content. As he puts it,
are not everyday language or even poetry, on the a musical work is not a structure in use but a
one hand, or ordinary musical sounds or themes, structure for use.
on the other, but sounds and lyrics that are fab- Pragmatic implications can override the seman-
ricated to work together when sung. Put another tics of a sentence when it is uttered in a particular
way, “when we attend to the words of a song, it context, for example, to establish a particular
is different properties of those words that play a reference. Just so—and here Gracyk gives several
role in the articulation of content”; in short, we actual examples—pragmatic implications of a
do not listen to lyrics as poetry any more than as song as performed can determine the reference
prose (p. 20). and, accordingly, the meaning of a song. The
Music is a performance art: there are two di- performance, not its semantic content, determines
mensions to any musical performance, the work the pragmatic implications of a song. He illustrates
performed and what the particular performance these abstract claims by examining several cases,
brings to or adds to the work. Vocal music adds most notably Jimi Hendrix’s famous performance
to instrumental music dimensions of meaning at of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Woodstock
both ends of this exchange; the text and the musi- and Dylan’s 1974 performance of “It’s Alright,
cal structure define a work with semantic meaning Ma (I’m Only Bleeding),” in which Dylan’s
as well as formal properties, but the particular per- line “(E)ven the president . . . Sometimes must
formance can add to both the musical properties have/To stand naked” is generally taken to refer
and the meaning of the lyrics. This is most espe- to Nixon’s Watergate scandal. While such flexi-
cially true for popular and folk songs, in contrast to bility of meaning may be relatively rare for pure
art songs (lieder, opera) and religious works (can- instrumental works, it is a common dimension
tatas, hymns, and so on) that appear to have more of popular songs.
determinate meanings. Gracyk’s article develops The focus on performance continues in Jerrold
a broad ontological framework within which to ac- Levinson’s article, a philosophical analysis of6 Song, Songs, and Singing
jazz singing. Drawing on his earlier distinction cally seen or heard only once. There are (rela-
between “critical” and “performative” interpreta- tively) durable works in (relatively) durable me-
tion, Levinson explores a cluster of issues related dia, such as stone sculptures and painted canvases;
to jazz singing and, in particular, to the role of the and there are durable works in ephemeral media,
singer.23 He writes, “In many modes of art making such as songs. Songs are “durable” because we can
it may be possible for the artist to more or less encounter them on numerous occasions in differ-
hide from his or her audience. That is, it may be ent performances; yet the medium of live musical
possible for viewers or listeners to understand and performance is ephemeral—it is time itself. Also
appreciate what is offered artistically and yet form possible are ephemeral works in ephemeral me-
little idea of the personality, or at any rate the per- dia; for example, musical works that are composed
sona, of the artist” (pp. 41–42). But jazz singing, with the intention of being performed at a special
he suggests, is not one of those modes. Jazz singers occasion and only on that occasion.
enjoy greater freedom of interpretation than do London argues that “Little Village” belongs in
singers in classical traditions, and they typically another ontological category. It is an ephemeral
engage in these freedoms to a greater extent than work (an improvisation according to a schema)
do singers of rock and popular music. (Indeed, as that has been captured in a durable medium
Levinson claims, to sing a song without interpret- (recording technology). London’s taxonomy may
ing it is arguably not to sing it in a jazz manner at prove to be fruitful for thinking about musical im-
all.) Levinson asks what a vocal jazz performance provisation more broadly.
can convey; that is, what might jazz singers com- The next two articles, like London’s, consider
municate without intending to do so, both about ontological issues raised by songs. Rings’s arti-
the songs they sing and about themselves? He has cle is a discussion of genre-reset cover versions
a “hunch” that in most cases an interpretation in rock music and how listeners appreciate them.
will convey more about a singer’s musical or “Generic resetting” is the presentation of a song in
performing personality than about the song. a different genre than that of the original record-
Levinson’s article raises the issue of what ing. Rock music has a particularly rich range of ex-
we could tell about a singer’s personality by amples, likely because of the centrality of record-
her performance of a jazz standard. According ings in the rock tradition. Rock fans come to form
to London, much of why we value Sonny Boy strong associations between songs and particular
Williamson’s recording of “Little Village” is for its recordings of them in a way that is arguably less
portrayal of “Williamson-the-bluesman.” London germane for fans of music in other genres. These
calls “Little Village” an example of “musical associations are then ripe to be reinforced, chal-
bullshit” but does not, in doing so, mean it real lenged, or undermined as listeners’ expectations
disrespect. While “Little Village” was produced are violated by hearing familiar songs “dressed up
with “thorough-going indifference,” it succeeds in the clothes of a new genre” (p. 56). Listeners
as a showcase for Williamson’s attitude and style, get pleasure in hearing the progress of a recog-
in other words, for aspects of his performing nizable song through an unfamiliar stylistic land-
personality. scape. To explain how the process works, Rings
London’s article examines “one of the most in- draws on Kendall Walton’s now familiar distinc-
famous episodes in Chicago blues history” as a tions between the standard, contra-standard, and
window into issues of musical ontology and aes- variable features of artworks.24
thetic value (p. 45). Williamson’s “Little Village” One of the key points of Rings’s arguments is
is notorious for the profanity-laden exchange be- that the genres (or subgenres) of rock are not
tween Williamson and producer Leonard Chess only formal, stylistic categories, but also culturally
at the beginning of the track, and the recording significant groupings, representing different atti-
is greatly prized by blues aficionados. But what tudes, historical contexts, and perhaps even po-
kind of work is it (if it is a work at all) and how litical ideologies. (If you are skeptical, contrast
best to appreciate it? London offers a taxonomy the political and cultural meanings implicit in a
of works, according to whether the work itself and hard-rock rendition of a song with its generically
its medium are more or less durable or ephemeral. reset version in bluegrass or ska.) The same song
Durable works may be encountered on numer- performed in different genres can provide listen-
ous occasions, while ephemeral works are typi- ers with very different aesthetic experiences. InBicknell and Fisher Introduction 7 doing so, genre-reset covers also prompt us to for speech. Kivy distinguishes between four types think about the relationship between words and of realistic songs. The first three are differenti- music in song and how performance styles play a ated according to how well the musical event is crucial role in creating meaning—a theme we saw integrated into the film’s dramatic structure. “Or- explored earlier in Gracyk’s article. namental” song performances are merely deco- Cover versions also play a role in the next arti- rative and perform no dramatic function, “em- cle, by Bruno. What is the musical work in rock? bedded” songs echo a theme of the movie, and That is, what is the primary artwork that is cre- “integrated” songs are pervasive and embedded ated in rock music, the primary focus of critical in the very heart of the drama. The fourth type attention? Bruno disputes what he takes to be the of song Kivy considers is “music track” song— current consensus among philosophers concern- singing that is heard by the film’s audience but ing this question. This view, attributed to Gracyk, not by its characters. Kivy finds the function of Fisher, Davies, and Kania, is that the primary work music track songs to be analogous to that of a in rock is the recording; for example, Presley’s Greek chorus. The songs emphasize what we as echo-laden “Mystery Train” or the Beatles’s heav- the audience already know, tell us how things are, ily edited “Strawberry Fields Forever.” This view and hint at what is to come. He offers the intrigu- does not deny that rock recordings provide ren- ing suggestion that this way of understanding the ditions of songs in the traditional sense, but that songs of a film soundtrack may provide a way of the songs so instanced are too “thin” to be the understanding the music track as a whole. primary musical work in rock. Bruno describes six Penner draws on and extends earlier work by different sorts of counterevidence to this consen- Kivy and Cone to address the question, “What is sus. One important type of evidence comes from fictionally true about the ontological status and covers, which Bruno asserts, contra Kania, are cen- authorship of the music in opera?” (p. 82). In con- tral to rock. Bruno takes covers of songs to be trast to much recent scholarship in opera theory, prima facie evidence for the importance of the Penner argues that an opera’s music is an “inex- songs themselves as musical works and for their tricable part” of the ontology of its fictional world importance to rock musical thinking and critical and that song is the normative or “default” mode discourse. This position should be compared to of communication in that world. Penner’s position that of Rings, who treats covers as generic reset- is in explicit disagreement with that of Carolyn tings of specific recorded works. Bruno goes on to Abbate, who has argued that an opera’s music is question arguments that take the greater “thick- not part of its fictional world and indeed arises ness” of the recording to imply that the thinner from outside that world. Penner offers several il- entity, the song, is not also an artwork. He ex- lustrations where denying opera characters epis- pands the argument with a spirited defense of the temic access to the musical portion of their utter- status of popular songs, even simplistic ones such ances raises problems of interpretation. She also as “Not Fade Away,” as artworks in their own questions the tendency of poststructuralist narra- right over and above their renditions in individ- tive theory to degrade real authors and composers ual recordings. He ends by noting that we need a in favor of fictional authors, arguing that recourse more nuanced account of how the identity of the to fictional authors is frequently a less fruitful in- popular song is fixed given that actual practices terpretive strategy. Penner concludes that “opera with popular songs diverge in several ways from is only irrational if one refuses to approach it on the stricter model of works and their performance its own terms” (p. 89). instances derived from practice with Western clas- The final four articles take us beyond the na- sical music. ture of song and songs in art to broader concerns The next two articles, by Peter Kivy and Nina of ethics, politics, and community. Interestingly, Penner, examine songs and singing within the con- each article takes as its focus a form of Ameri- text of longer narrative forms: movies for Kivy can popular music. A recurrent narrative concern- and opera for Penner. Kivy addresses the status ing American popular music involves the charge of “realistic” singing in the movies (fictional spo- that whites have consistently appropriated black ken cinematic drama), drawing on the work of Ed- musical forms; commercially successful rock, jazz, ward T. Cone. Realistic singing is understood by and blues performed by white musicians has in- the audience as singing, rather than as a stand-in volved reaping financial rewards that should have
8 Song, Songs, and Singing gone to black musicians as well as, so the cri- songs (many of which, of course, were far from tique goes, producing music that is less original, standards worth interpreting). less authentic than its models in African Ameri- Brown also raises the issue of ethicism—should can culture. Lee B. Brown begins with a notable aesthetic judgments be affected by our moral re- example of possible appropriation by comparing sponses to the songs?—by not only noting in- two icons of popular vocal music in the 1920s stances of minstrel references in performances by and 1930s: Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong. Is both Crosby and Armstrong, but also the more Armstrong the true originator of jazz singing and problematic blackface performances by Astaire Crosby merely a white appropriator of his style? and Crosby in movies. He also considers a con- Brown explores the general issue of appropria- trasting ethical critique based on minstrelsy: Wyn- tion by focusing on a current theory of cultural ton Marsalis’s criticism of rap music as “ghetto appropriation, the minstrel hypothesis. This hy- minstrelsy”—that is, Marsalis hears black black- pothesis in general form “claims that all American face minstrelsy in rap, “From Zip Coon to the popular music is indebted to blackface minstrel guy from the ghetto who’s going to threaten you” theater” (p. 92). Central to this account is a gen- (p. 96). To analogize rap to minstrelsy certainly eral white “impulse” to identify with the cultural puts a different face on rap music. “other,” that is, blacks. Barry Shank has applied In contrast to several other articles in this an- this theory to Bob Dylan’s music; Shank claims thology that spell out what individual singers and not just that Dylan is influenced by black musi- performances bring to the meaning and charac- cians but that he aims at, to quote Shank, “per- ter of a song, David Goldblatt’s account of doo- sonal transformation, whereby a young white male wop emphasizes what a community brings to a attempts to remake himself through performing whole genre and what groups brought to individ- black music . . . the classic trope of the great Amer- ual songs. Rather than being a minor moment in ican tradition of blackface minstrelsy” (p. 94). a presumed monolithic evolution of commercial Brown deconstructs the idea that Dylan’s music popular music, doo-wop, in Goldblatt’s account, and more generally all of popular music is based proves to be a useful antidote to the many as- on the identifying mechanisms of minstrel the- sumptions and indeed criticisms of popular mu- ory. Brown interprets the function of identifica- sic promulgated by Theodore Adorno and many tion, on this theory, as a search for authenticity. others. The minstrel hypothesis in whatever form raises Goldblatt shows how the doo-wop genre is dis- a number of issues of interpretation: (i) is there tinctively determined in both structure and con- a subterranean (or analogical) representation of tent by its social origin and physical setting, which black culture in Dylan’s songs or popular music was singing on urban street corners. Conceptually, generally (just as minstrel shows literally, if con- this places doo-wop at the intersection of popular descendingly, represented black culture) and (ii) is and folk music, if one assumes the traditional def- there a hidden expression of a desire to identify inition of folk music as music that has evolved in such music as has been influenced by black primarily through a community’s creative impulse precursors? and its process of selection. Goldblatt stresses the Brown goes on to show that Crosby and Arm- point that the musical genre was created by young strong influenced each other and both contributed singers in neighborhood street corner settings, to the creation and evolution of a new sort of a cappella groups, not bands, prior to being pulled singing, jazz singing. Brown details Crosby’s con- into the domain of commercial music. In doo-wop, tributions to the use of the essentially intimate “songs for commerce and monetary consumption microphone and the use of “jazz inflections”— are preceded by singing embedded in ordinary holding notes and playing with the time. This, lives, in great frequency and in public spaces, and along with Armstrong’s ability to swing and scat, outside the domain of professionalism” (p. 101). appears to represent a different aspect of jazz Goldblatt praises doo-wop, suggesting that the singing than Levinson’s focus in his article on “in- genre should be evaluated by different aesthetic terpreting” jazz standards. Such stylistic innova- criteria than those derived from the classical mu- tions, as pioneered by Armstrong and Crosby, ap- sic tradition. For example, in “In the Still of the pear to have more to do with transforming singing Night” when “the lead sings, ‘I remember’ in the into jazz music than they do with interpreting line ‘I remember that night in May,’ the backups
Bicknell and Fisher Introduction 9 repeat the words ‘I remember’ throughout the re- Carvalho’s examination raises the question of frain, words that do have independent content but whether songs highlighting injustice could ever add nothing to the ongoing ‘story’ expressed in the successfully motivate, on Attali’s view, because the lyrics. Make no mistake, I am praising this aspect implicit violence of the propositional content is of doo-wop as a kind of virtue” (p. 106). Similarly, channelized by the art form. Carvalho suggests an concerning authenticity, he argues, “Authenticity important distinction, however, when he says that in doo-wop was not simply a result of growing out “Black audiences could identify with Holiday’s ex- of a teenage culture; it was a central ingredient perience of being lynched in the very singing of the in its composition . . . .Its criteria should be drawn song” (p. 115). For the white audience the song from the subculture that it helped to generate” was used “to absolve their guilt,” but for the black (pp. 108, 109). audience the song was something much deeper. John Carvalho’s article focuses on one extraor- If Attali is correct, and if music does (at some dinary song, “Strange Fruit,” and the extraordi- level) model the violence that is implicit in so- nary performances of that song by Billie Hol- cial control, what are the implications for rap mu- iday, who became identified with the song for sic, in which performers declaim rather than sing? reasons that Carvalho explores. He views this Is this an attempt to make explicit the violence song through the philosophy of music of Jacques that singing in a pitched system suppresses and Attali.25 “Strange Fruit” is a song that is almost “civilizes”? Perhaps this mode of performance painful to hear, and that is its point; it was written was an attempt by the earliest rappers to reject to motivate social change, to highlight the social (or at least criticize) their social situations. Tak- injustice of racism and its violent enforcement by ing as his central example an explicitly violent lynchings. For Attali, music is central to civiliza- rap album, Aaron Smuts evaluates the morality tion and its origins; he asserts that it is “a way of our engagement with songs and, in particular, of perceiving the world” and an “instrument of with the mode of listening that occurs in “singing understanding.”26 On Carvalho’s reading of At- along.” tali, music implicitly models the violence that is Smuts argues that such engagement with songs required by civilization. Attali describes music as a is morally different from our engagement with “channeler of violence, the regulator of society.”27 other narrative art forms, including film, litera- He views noise as violence and music as the chan- ture, and theater. Crucially, listeners who sing nelization of noise and, in its origin, as a “simu- along assume the persona of the speaker. If the lacrum of the sacrifice” required for civilization. songs in question celebrate cruelty and suffering Carvalho applies this rich and complex theory (as does the material that Smuts considers), then to “Strange Fruit.” This song was intended by its singing along encourages listeners to imagine do- progressive white composer, Abel Meeropol, to ing evil and, furthermore, to enjoy imaginatively highlight the racist horror of lynchings. However, doing evil. As he puts it, singing along with such Carvalho finds it to have a darker side in Hol- material allows listeners “to eloquently express iday’s performances. He argues that the “good anger and pronounce on their own fierceness with intentions of the song’s composer and arranger style” (p. 123). If it is intrinsically bad to enjoy were unable to undo the structural violence in the evil regardless of whether that evil results in harm music and in the culture for the presentation and (as Smuts argues) and if our engagement with reception for the song itself” (p. 118). Carvalho fictional narratives is a kind of guided imagina- argues that there is violence throughout the song, tion, then those narratives that encourage us to in its lyrics, in the way it is narrated, and in Holi- imagine doing evil with enjoyment are morally day’s performance. However, for white audiences problematic. he argues that the lyrics and the melody “get un- der our skin, but they don’t get in our heads. They satisfy our need to feel profoundly, but they don’t v. conclusion spur us to action” (p. 115). Holiday’s white audi- ences were encouraged to hear “this Black woman From the point of view of philosophy of music, channel the calamitous, shouting, screaming, ‘civi- instrumental and vocal music have performed an lizing’ noises of racial violence as beautiful music” intricate pas de deux over the last three centuries. (p. 116). In the eighteenth century, purely instrumental
10 Song, Songs, and Singing
musical works began to interest music theoreti- JOHN ANDREW FISHER
cians. By the nineteenth century, such works by Philosophy Department
the great composers largely supplanted vocal University of Colorado–Boulder
music as higher art in the minds of philosophically Boulder, Colorado 80309
inclined thinkers. Undoubtedly, understanding
internet: jafisher@colorado.edu
the nature and metaphysics of autonomous
instrumental musical works involves challenging
philosophical issues. Yet it would be a mistake
to regard this historical progression as charting 1. Ellen Dissanayake’s review of The Singing Nean-
a journey from attention to something that is not derthals, in Evolutionary Psychology 3 (2005): 375–380, at
art (songs) toward something that is (sonatas). In p. 377.
2. For an argument that the focus in philosophy of mu-
reality, these are two broad types of music, each
sic on purely instrumental music is justified, see Andrew
calling for philosophical attention. Kania, “The Philosophy of Music,” The Stanford Encyclo-
To concentrate solely on musical works with- pedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 edition), ed. Edward N. Zalta,
out texts removes music from its important place http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/music/.
in social life. The articles in this issue indicate what 3. See, most recently, Steven Mithen, The Singing Ne-
anderthals: The Origins of Music, Language, Mind and Body
can be gained by adopting a wider perspective that (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005).
encompasses vocal music. Not only do they illus- 4. “Herder held that the origin of speech and song were
trate the metaphysical issues raised by songs, but one.” Philip Bohlman, World Music: A Very Short Introduc-
they also begin to point toward a way that philos- tion (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 40.
5. In line with our focus on sung text, we will treat
ophy of music can connect to political, social, and
songs as a subclass of the category of song, and hence ignore
ethical issues. At the same time, vocal works raise the contemporary sense of ‘song’ used to refer to purely
purely aesthetic questions. Vernacular songs raise instrumental works, such as Monk’s “Epistrophy” or the
questions of identity over time due to their “thin- Ventures’ “Walk, Don’t Run.”
ness” and openness to the variable determinations 6. Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical
Works (Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 121.
of performance and context. Both art and vernac- 7. While it is notoriously difficult to provide any precise
ular songs raise the challenge of analyzing this hy- definition of “popular” music, we can say that it is neither
brid art form and of understanding how to appre- limited to “pop” music nor to music that is widely liked. See
ciate and evaluate it. Moreover, the embodiment John Andrew Fisher, “Popular Music,” in The Routledge
Companion to Philosophy and Music (New York: Rout-
of popular songs in recordings has proven to be es-
ledge, 2011), pp. 405–415. For the joint emergence of the
pecially intriguing relative to the traditional onto- concepts of folk music and popular music in the nineteenth
logical scheme of score, work, and compliant per- century, see Fisher, “Popular Music,” pp. 408–409.
formance. In addition, the use of song in dramatic 8. Goehr, The Imaginary Museum, pp. 168–175.
narratives, such as operas, musicals, and movies, 9. Herbert Schueller notes, with reference to Adam
Smith, “Expression is meaningfulness, and to most writers
raises puzzling questions about mimesis: what pre- (one thinks of Adam Smith), instrumental music was gen-
cisely is being represented when performers sing? erally an unmeaningful art, one that cannot imitate since
As these formulations show, some issues reflect its ‘unmeaning and inarticulate sounds’ are not exact.” Her-
canonical issues in aesthetics, some are endemic bert Schueller, “‘Imitation’ and ‘Expression’ in British Mu-
sic Criticism in the 18th Century,” The Musical Quarterly 34
to song, and some may shed new light on tradi-
(1948): 544–566, at p. 557.
tional aesthetic questions, such as what counts as 10. These boundaries have been attacked by Richard
an authentic performance or an interpretation of Shusterman in Pragmatist Aesthetics: Living Beauty, Re-
a vernacular song? thinking Art (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992) and “Form and Funk:
Increased philosophical attention to song does The Aesthetic Challenge of Popular Art,” The British Jour-
nal of Aesthetics 31 (1991): 203–213, as well as by David
not require examining new or unfamiliar art forms. Novitz, “High and Popular Art,” in The Boundaries of Art
It merely requires examining familiar art forms (Temple University Press, 1992), chap. 2.
with a philosophical eye. 11. Theodore Gracyk, Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthet-
ics of Rock (Duke University Press, 1996) and Listening to
Popular Music (University of Michigan Press, 2006).
JEANETTE BICKNELL 12. Bohlman, World Music: A Very Short Introduction,
Toronto, Canada p. 6.
13. Goehr does not promote this concept; she merely
internet: bicknellj@hotmail.com describes it. In fact, she expresses how inappropriate it isBicknell and Fisher Introduction 11
for much music: “Consider, finally, how cynical classical 17. For a discussion of the musical work concept,
musicians tend to be of popular music, on the grounds that a Goehr’s account, and popular music, see Michael Talbot,
given song has a simple form or that the music ‘doesn’t last,’ “The Work-Concept and Composer-Centredness,” in The
or that popular music is expressive of infantile emotions. Musical Work: Reality or Invention? (Liverpool University
Why should all music meet the conditions imposed by ro- Press, 2000).
mantic aesthetics?” Lydia Goehr, “Being True to the Work,” 18. Bohlman, “Herder’s Nineteenth Century,” p. 12.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 47 (1989): 55–67, For example, Das Knaben Wunderhorn (1806/1808) was one
at p. 59. of the first anthologies of folk music. It was an “[a]nthology
14. An important discussion of this concept and how of ‘folk poetry’ lacking melodies, but with texts that would
it came to overshadow the broader concept (still oper- become the cannon of Central European folk song in the
ating in Rossini’s practice) is Carl Dahlhaus, Nineteenth- 19th century.” Bohlman, World Music, p. 33.
Century Music (University of California Press, 1989): “The 19. Mark W. Booth, The Experience of Songs (Yale Uni-
difference between these ‘twin musical cultures’ which versity Press, 1981), p. 23.
Beethoven and Rossini stand for . . . points to nothing less 20. Booth, The Experience of Songs, p. 25.
than a far-reaching rift in the concept of music. . . . The 21. See Jeanette Bicknell, “Song,” The Routledge Com-
distinction between opera and instrumental music . . . was panion to Philosophy and Music (New York: Routledge,
a major, if not the decisive, factor in the resultant du- 2011), p. 439.
ality of styles” (p. 8). See also Leo Treitler, “History 22. For discussion of such views, see Jerrold Levinson,
and the Ontology of the Musical Work,” The Journal “Song and Music Drama,” in The Pleasures of Aesthet-
of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 51 (1993): 483–497. Tre- ics: Philosophical Essays (Cornell University Press, 1996),
itler shows the inadequacies of the romantic concept even pp. 42–59, and Aaron Ridley, The Philosophy of Music:
for classical music, and he is critical of its appeal to Theme and Variations (Edinburgh University Press, 2004),
philosophers. chap. 3.
15. For ‘thick’ and ‘thin’ terminology, see Stephen 23. Jerrold Levinson, “Performative versus Critical In-
Davies, Musical Works and Performances: A Philosophical terpretation in Music,” in The Pleasures of Aesthetics, pp. 60–
Exploration (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001). 89.
16. Bohlman mentions that the ballad “Edward” (Child 24. See Kendall L. Walton, “Categories of Art,” The
13) exists in “many versions” and “countless variations,” in- Philosophical Review 79 (1970): 334–367.
cluding German versions and settings by Schubert as well as 25. Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Mu-
many Appalachian versions. Philip V. Bohlman, “Herder’s sic (University of Minnesota Press, 1992).
Nineteenth Century,” Nineteenth-Century Music Review 7 26. Attali, Noise, p. 4.
(2010): 3–21, at p. 4. 27. Attali, Noise, p. 13.You can also read
