Nonsenseness of Perfect Pitch; Metamorphosis (11)

-A world without fixed pitch and without rigid rhythm-

One of the things I gained

from living in a country of immigrants

is being constantly exposed

to cultures from all over the world

That comes with both something wonderful and something challenging

At first, you lose sight of where you stand

When you live in someone else’s country,

you realize

that it is not your “home”

The problem is

you don’t even know

whose home it is

You keep your own language

you keep your own culture

you connect with people from where you came from

and when all of that happens

within the same container,

it starts to feel like

an all-you-can-eat buffet of everything

Once you notice it,

the solution is actually quite simple

basically,

you just decide everything

the way you want

Of course, there is a bottom line

In that kind of life,

different cultures sit next to each other

as something completely normal

within your daily life

And then something becomes very clear

how food and language

have been passed along, connected,

and evolved over time

Since I was someone involved in music,

the music I heard

was fascinating

Photo by Tetsuya7870

Trade is incredible

When people move,

everything moves with them

Things are carried, mixed,

and reshaped

And you can hear that happening

in music

That surprised me

Especially not in “traditional” music,

but in the kind of music

people casually listen to while driving

But recently, technology has advanced so much

that this genuine variety

is becoming flattened

That worries me a little

Living in that environment every day,

while I was drifting away

from classical music,

something strange happened

The fixed pitch of Western music

came undone

But when I sit at the piano,

especially one tuned for early music,

I simply cannot play

It feels as if different notes

are coming out of the keys

and I cannot adjust to it at all

And then, melodies that move and sway

at first I thought,

what is this?

I did not think about it deeply

I just noticed

that the pitch is fluid, constantly moving

But there are many instruments

where you create pitch yourself,

so I did not pay much attention

This is especially clear

in older folk songs

Sometimes I would listen

wondering what harmony would go along with it

And then there is the sense of pulse

There seems to be some kind of pattern,

but if anything,

it sounds quite free

Sometimes people sit together

clapping and singing

Sometimes, when the song begins,

someone starts to dance

When dance comes in,

the rhythm becomes easier to grasp,

but even now,I cannot fully explain it

This is also often true

in modern “pop” music

Though the kind played loudly at parties

is usually arranged in a more contemporary way

It feels similar

to genres that spun off from classical music

in the sense that

the rhythm becomes more fixed

Then the natural flow of language

enters into it,

and it becomes even more interesting

When you study classical music,

you might find accents placed

on something like

the third of four sixteenth notes

That is somethingI simply cannot do

This is where learning different styles

finally becomes meaningful

Just as when you wear a kimono,

there is a way of moving

that feels most natural,

music from different cultures

has its own way of moving

If you do not know it,

you just take it in

but this can actually be quite difficult

Because

even if you play all the notes,

it does not work

It is not your default setting

That is why, in classical music,

we constantly train

pitch

and

a sense of meter

If your ear is strong,

pitch comes quickly

If your sense of movement is good,

rhythm becomes easier

That is all

You do not need to worry

about not having a good ear

If the rhythm feels complex,

you simply get used to it

Pitch that moves freely

and the freedom of rhythm

these are the strongest tools

Let me end with a quotefrom Bartók,

whom I deeply admire

…..freed from the tyrannical rule of the major and minor keys.

……..The melodies were full of free and varied rhythms and changes of tempi, played both rubato and gusto.

————- Bartók

When things are formalizedand remain there,

something essential is lost

The cycle of life

is born, grows,

reaches its peak,

then gradually fades

and decays

A single work

contains that same cycle of life

All it depends on

is the time in which

its creator lived

We ourselves

do not go to work

in Rococo style, do we?

If we did,

that would be quite a surprise

😉