Thoughts

Link: http://www.newmusicbox.org/chatter/chatter.nmbx?id=5570

A composer at New Music Box is facing the titling dilema. Title the work? or use the generic "Untitled" for a piece. This was my response:

A piece without a name would be like a child without a name. How could you possibly refer to it, introduce it to anyone without a name? Even an abstract title like 5 Songs or Cycle of 7 Songs is better than Untitled because it at least lets people know a little fact about your piece. These structure/instrumentation titles are the equivalent for Untitled in a song cycle, but I would urge you to give the piece a proper name.

As concert musicians we cannot really get away with the lazy Untitled for a number of reasons. First of all, in the visual arts realm people usually only see the title after they have examined the painting, so the work is the introduction to itself. Here I am, it says. Then wanting to know more about the artist’s own ideas about the work, I turn to find the title. Even then, I am usually supremely dissapointed to find it labeled Untitled. I suddenly am left with the feeling that the artist didn’t care enough about the work to complete it. A title is part of the work.

In concert music, you will rarely have the opportunity for the music to introduce itself. The concert posters, the programs, news releases, etc. will be the first introduction to the piece, not the music itself. A title doesn’t have to please everyone, but it should evoke something about the piece that will hook the listener’s attention and make them anticipate it. Would you anticipate a piece more if it was entitled Sonata No. 1 or Short Ride in a Fast Machine? Song Cycle #5 or Quartet for the End of Time? Hybrids like this last example are great. They tell you what kind of piece it is and evoke a definite feeling. Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs is another example of this.

The audience is not the only group of people you’ve got to "sell" your work to emotionally. When I go through the stacks of art songs at the local university library (I am a singer as well as a composer), my eyes gloss over when reviewing the hundreds of cycles titled things like 6 songs and the like. There is no memory hook and nothing to make me even open the score. If that title indicates the level of creativity the composer wields, why should I bother? You have to get the singer interested from the title if you hope that they will perform your piece, it is your only introduction to them. Singers tend to think of themselves as artists, you must woo them. Singers who focus on art songs tend to like poetry as well, so be poetic.

Lastly, when registering your works with a performing rights organization (ASCAP/BMI), it is just good business to give your work a distinct label, rather than Untitled #1, #2, #3 or so on.

After listening to the advice of others, go with your own gut instinct. You should resonate with the title. Don’t let others cajole you into doing it their way. I have an electroacoustic piece that I entitle "Frogbot in Love." I love this title, but I had an acquaintance who loved the piece but despised my title. I refuse to change it. That is what the piece is about to me and anything else would be false advertising.

What meaning can music have? Can a tune portray a specific event or storyline? There are many pieces and works that are definately associated with stories and events, but is it really the music that tells the story? or is it the title of the piece, words and images that go along with music (as in songs or movies), or even the program notes at a concert?

I definately think music can and does tell stories, but only in the most broad of terms. Music is like a mythology, which in itself is a time-dilated metaphor for our own lives. We’ve been taught the stock characters: the hero, the villain, the quest, the true love, etc. . . . all we need is a few clues for how to relate the music to our own life (such as a title) and then we fill in the blanks, providing the imagery within our own mind to tell the story of the music.

Even ‘pure’ music, like Bach’s famous ‘Toccata and Fugue in d-minor’ has it’s heroes, trials, upward slopes, deep vales, conflicts and resolutions. It is wonderful that we can feel these things as the music progresses. Even if there is no specific story we are in a way living through a drama as we listen. Hopes are raised, conflicts ensue, we are surprised by unforeseen turns . . . I think this is at least one of the reasons that music moves us on such a deep emotional level. I think there are other reasons, but the innate drama of music is a major one.

Music: a constant stuggle between harmony and dissonance that passes through time . . .
Life: a constant stuggle between harmony and dissonance that passes through time . . .