John McWhorter on Awakening Music

The moderate-liberal commentator writes: "In general, until recorded sound, if you wanted music and/or singing, you either had to do it yourself or have someone else do it. This was why pianos were once staples in living rooms and young women were encouraged to learn to warble in what used to be called a 'living room soprano.' That's all over now. Our technology gives us music of infinite variety perfectly rendered at the touch of a button. Why should we envy people waiting for some marching band to come through, or shelling out cash to hear or dance to live music for a few hours, or enduring the iffy piano playing of daughter Florence with her 'sweaty little hands,' as it was put back in the day?

This means that we moderns tend to have a more distant relationship to the mechanics of music making than our great-grandparents did. Some of us happen to be musicians — but it's no longer as precious as a skill. In 1900, Flossie's little hands, sweaty though they were, meant the difference between music in the air and dead silence. Yes, cash-strapped public schools have tended to cut music classes since the 1970s.


But in the old days people learned how to make music as much from private lessons with local teachers as from playing in ensembles in school. The main difference between then and now is that we do not need to learn to sing or play instruments. I certainly cherish my CD collection and sound system. But last Sunday's Tony Awards revealed a downside of our distant relationship with the mechanics of making music."He continues: "Clearly, the Tony evaluators thought 'Spring Awakening' merited the orchestration award simply because they liked the songs. Orchestration — oh right, the band. That sounded great. Loud, good beats. Bingo.

Best Orchestrations, right? Wrong.

They were unable to comprehend that even if they decided to decree 'Spring Awakening' as the Best Musical, and even — albeit for commercial reasons — the Best Score, of the four candidates for Best Orchestrations, the one for 'Spring Awakening' easily was least deserving of that particular award. But how would they know? Few of them have ever had to put together a combo for the school dance or have made their way through commercial orchestrations of popular songs of the day and heard how some were better than others. Few have ever had occasion to observe how a band playing a song sounded richer than just playing it on the piano. All they have to do is to press a button to hear music. For all the good that comes from the technology that allows this, it's sad that it means that Bruce Coughlin and Jonathan Tunick's artistry goes unperceived at Tony time."