Lakeisha Houston

Micah Robbins

English 1310.64

1 September 2007

Word count: 769

Classical Music: The Beauty of Change and Creativity

Music is one of the ways we, as humans, express who we are or what we feel. Because music plays an integral part in the lives of many people from a variety of different cultures, it has become a universal language. Whether you listen to it, play it, or create it, music provides a relief from the hardships of daily life. Although the musical genres each have their own unique style, classical music stands apart to me because of its undeniable beauty and its presence in my life.
Classical music is a style of writing and performing that stretches from the medieval time period to the 20th century. Because classical music was present during this long period of time, it was split up according to the social status, style, and technique of its leading composers. These categories of classical music consist of the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th century periods. Of those, Impressionism is the period that I find to be the most beautiful because it redefined the definition of beauty in music and did so by focusing on suggestion and the blending of tones rather than playing for religious purposes or playing with the purpose of telling a story.
Unlike earlier composers, impressionists broke all of the musical norms by integrating unusual chord tones and uncommon scales in music in order to give their listeners an impression. A clear representation of impressionism is found in Claude Debussy’s La Cathédrale Engloutie (The Engulfed Cathedral). Claude Debussy was inspired to write this piece because of a legend that was told by the French people. The legend was that the ocean engulfed the cathedral because of its wickedness, but the cathedral was allowed to rise to warn about the wages of sin. This is one of my favorite pieces because of the variation of mood and texture found throughout the musical phrases. The beginning of the piece is characterized by its light, soft texture, yet its deep resonate tone gives one the impression of rippling water that is hiding something underneath. As the cathedral begins to rise, the music becomes more dramatic and more dissonant with loud delayed chords as if something is slowly rising from the calm waters. When the cathedral sinks back into the water the fluidity and soft texture from the beginning of the piece returns and the cathedral is slowly welcomed back into the gloomy waters. The beauty of this music comes from the composer’s ability to pull you into a moment and capture your sense of reality. Although the rising of the engulfed cathedral is fictional, the composer, through dynamics and changing meters, is able to accurately depict the atmosphere surrounding the cathedral. Impressionism also represents how beautiful change can be. Without the defiance and ambition of Debussy and other composers like him, many of the great musicians that followed him would not exist.
Although classical music is not the only genre of music exclusively linked to expression, being a performer, it gives me the opportunity to express my interpretation of the piece and shuffle through the mind of the person who wrote the piece. Many times in classical music, the composer tells you exactly what to do and when to do it. It may seem as if this restricts the creative process of the performer, but it actually invites the performer to make the piece their own. A set of guidelines is given to the performer by the composer, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t “stretch” those instructions or make the instructions fit their own personal style. In Claude Debussy’s music, he includes the title at the end of the piece and offers dynamics and instructions as only mere suggestions because he wants the performer to play the music as they interpret or imagine it. The beautiful thing that I love about performing and interpreting classical music is that I can collaborate with a non-living person by using their instructions and my own creative impulses to make something extraordinary. The music that the composer has written is almost like a blank canvas waiting for me to make it into a masterpiece.
Classical music, especially Impressionism, helped me to have a greater appreciation for music and all that is has to offer. Classical music is the most beautiful genre of music because there is no language barrier that inhibits interpretation. No matter what language you speak or what culture you come from, everyone has the ability to connect to it.