Rockin' Out

One of the many failings of the California educational system that your faithful correspondent is a victim of is the appreciation of music. Kindergarten and the first grade were dedicated to the learning of rhythm via cowbell and tambourine. But to paraphrase Mr. Darcy, "Any savage can play rhythm." The fifth grade was a short experience with the trumpet. And other than the singing of rather inane songs like "My Grandfather's Clock" I was left on my own by the wiser and greater minds of the professional educationists.

The result is that during my adolescent and young adult years I drifted toward the popular dreck such as Mountain, Jimi Hendrix, Quicksilver and Led Zeppelin. As I grew older those particular artists and bands seemed rather simple. They all had good licks, but their ouvre' was lacking. I don't mean the lyrics. Most lyrics are pretty silly. Even operatic lyrics, which make Italian, German and Russian opera listenable; one has no idea of how silly the words are. One listens just for the music of the voice and the instruments.

As I grew older I began to appreciate the Grateful Dead, bluegrass and baroque. When asked what kind of music I like I reply, "The Grateful Dead, bluegrass, Vivaldi and Bach." To which the questor will say, "But Lord Nib, those are incompatible musically." To which yours replies, "I'm musically ignorant. But there is a similarity in all."

And, after years of pondering this seeming problem I think I've come up with an answer that will satisfy the musicologist. The answer is depth. The average rock band has four lines of attention. Actually three. Bass and drums, lead guitar and rhythm guitar. Each of the three depends on the two others to make sense. The Grateful Dead had sometimes two lead guitars, a bass guitar blazing it's own trail, two drummers, often playing counter rhythm, and a piano trying to keep up with it all. The result was a music that could be appreciated for the melding of disparate elements or appreciated for each element alone. The same holds true for bluegrass. Traditionally in bluegrass each instrument is given a place to shine with short solos, but when the bands play as a band there is no pride of place taken by any instrument. The guitar is just as important as the fiddle or mandolin or bass, and yet each is capable of standing alone. What is "Wipe Out" without a lead guitar?

Vivaldi (often called the Red Priest because of his red hair and the fact that he was a priest) and Bach (the triumph of Protestant music) have a depth, for your's truly, that results in the listener almost drowning. There is so much going on that it's almost like watching the workings of a clock.his results in that which results in this which results in this other thing and the final result is three o'clock and it's a almost a miracle that all the activity ended up to make some sort of sense. While listening to the different parts of a Bach or Vivaldi piece one can almost hear three or four different pieces of music; the violins, the recorders, the harpsichord and the whole.

But best of all, the Grateful Dead, bluegrass, Vivaldi and Bach all sound fun in a serious sense. They are serious fun for both the musicians and the listener. They do not have the silliness of some of Mozarts or Van Halens stuff, the ponderousness of Beethoven or Led Zeppelin, or the absolutely pre-punk self regard of Wagner or the Doors.

My quartet depends on absolute musicianship and a sense of joy in music. They all, in a sense, sing and play odes to the triumph of Odysseus, the glory of God, the love of Christ, and the wonders of life. And who could ask for more? They are all complicated and the music of my quartet is complicated. And life is complicated.