Courtney Wile - Synthesis Essay

Music will continue its transformation into something that accompanies a visual element. Do you agree or disagree?

Music is rarely a strictly auditory experience. No matter what the genre, or context in which we experience music, a common feature is that what we experience as ‘listener’ typically contains more than one form of sensory stimulus. While I agree that in the future music will accompany a visual element, I disagree that this is in any way a true transformation.

Throughout history, music has more often than not accompanied a visual element. This trend prevails today, and will continue into the future. At times, a distinction may be made between music accompanying a visual element, versus, a visual element accompanying music, depending on which is perceived as the dominant sensory experience. However, I interpret the question posed as focusing less on the subtleties of this distinction and more on the distinction between music standing alone, versus, music accompanied by other forms of sensory stimuli.

Dating back as far as the late 15th century (Renaissance Italy), both opera and ballet demonstrate this fusion. In both art forms we find music accompanying a visual element. In opera, the costumes, make-up, set design, theatrics, and dancing, work together with the music to tell the story. Ballet, as well, is a mixed art form, incorporating music and dance as the central components, with the added visual elements of set design and costumes. In both cases, the music may stand alone, however the result is more powerful when paired with the visual stimuli.

Music combined with a visual element is prevalent in the past, present, and future of music; nonetheless, there are some instances in which music was strictly audio. For example, during the late 19th century the origins of this trend are seen with the invention of the gramophone. Then came record players, CDs, and numerous radio programs, all of which are devices through which listeners can experience music devoid of a visual element. These devices, however, outline the brief window where music existed without a visual element.

Until the invention of the above technologies, live performances were the norm. In a live performance, though it is not he focus, the visual element is significant. Performers dress a certain way (often in uniforms); soloists stand (perhaps to facilitate better posture and breathing, though it is also seen as the proper way to address an audience). In chamber music the music is often visually satisfying, as the observer can watch (as they hear) a moving musical line travel from one player to the next. Though the visual aspect is subtle, it is present more often than not. Music without a visual element is the rarity.

The more modern version of the music accompanying a visual element is seen in music videos, movies, and other forms of live performance, such as Cirque de Soleil. Guest lecturer, Lyn Heward, discussed the importance of “collective creativity” and “keeping sensory stimulation alive” as artists. This rings true with music. Music is powerful, and can evoke extreme emotion on its own, however combining music with a visual element, be it dance, gymnastics, theatrics, or costume, can go one step further toward keeping the audience engaged.

Moving even further into the future, hints of which we see presently, music is at times almost overshadowed by the visual stimuli. This is experienced in video games, or movies, where music is intended to serve an accompanying function. However, even here, music plays a featured role. As Karen Collins demonstrated with her video game sound clips, even with the flashiest graphics and computing technology music is still able to do something that the visual element cannot. Collins gave a striking demonstration of this power of music when she played a video clip from the movie “Jaws” with a modified soundtrack. The emotion of the scene was completely transformed. Also, in computer games, safe zones are represented with one type of music, and enemies are represented with a much darker, lower pitched sounds.

Though I interpret music as something accompanying a visual element as the dominant trend for hundreds of years, I do see some ‘mini-transformations’ occurring. Firstly, there is a shift in medium of the accompaniment, as well as increased accessibility to visual elements without even leaving your home. The declining popularity of records and CDs shows a decline in listeners embracing the strictly audio forms of music. Their replacements, computers, ipods, iphones and the like, ensure that whenever there is audio there can be visual as well. It is not always the carefully crafted visual found in ballet, or opera scores, however the sensory stimulation is present.

As was pointed out by both DKD and Sandy Pearlman, another mini-transformation exists in the record industry. Since CDs have fallen out of favour the big labels are turning to non-audio rooted revenue streams, with the ‘360 record contracts’.

The classical music world is also experiencing mini-transformations. Leading orchestras are embracing advances in technology by putting on multimedia productions. The Montreal Symphony Orchestra recently performed Holst’s The Planets with video imagery projecting behind the orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic presented Final Fantasy videogame music by combining orchestra, elaborate lighting, and video feed displayed on large screens. Also, the New World Symphony is currently building a concert hall designed to accommodate theatrical lighting, videos, and other visual imagery, to complement the musical performance.
Music in the future will take many forms unimaginable to musicians of the past, but I view these changes as simple shifts in medium, not principle. Music as something that accompanies a visual element is historically more common than not, and this is the form music will continue to take well into the future. The forms of visual accompaniment have shifted – from live performance, dance, and costumes, to music videos, advanced computer graphics, and digital media – but the role of music remains intact. Advances in technology allow ‘listeners’ to experience the visual aspects of music from the comfort of home, but if this is disconcerting and you want to return to the brief window of time where music stood alone, the possibility remains to turn on the radio, pop in a CD, or dust off that old record.