continued…

Finally, integration of all the previously mentioned parts and elements is the most important overall element in determining whether or not a piece of music is well written. Themes that support one another and flow from one to the next are one application of this principle. Harmonic, rhythmic and melodic components that compliment each other, that work together are another application of musical integrity (as mentioned previously). It is hard enough to make a piece that flows logically all the way through. It is even harder, though much more rewarding (writing and listening), to create a piece that provides pleasantly unexpected twists and turns but is still logically and convincingly connected.

Next I will cover a brief survey of music eras, periods and/or style and what have you. I will mention a few composers here and there to use as examples to illustrate my point. A comprehensive list of composers is not practical or necessary because any music can be applied to the standards listed in the previous paragraphs.

Renaissance music is sometimes interesting from a historical perspective. However I have no intention of claiming that any of it was good music. Baroque music is usually too ornamental, lacey, overworked, overwrought and (paradoxically) fluffily cumbersome. Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is probably the closest thing to good music as can be found in this era. Many people seem to be fascinated by Handel’s music for some peculiar reason. I can’t stand it myself and furthermore I don’t think I ever heard a piece by him I didn’t like. I listen and think things like, “Why did he use that chord there?” and “What a terrible way to end a phrase” and “That segue didn’t sound convincing at all” and “Was this guy drunk when he wrote this?”. J.S. Bach is the composer most frequently recognized as The Cornerstone of Western Music (consult any formal Music Textbook). The man was obviously talented and prolific. His Toccata and Fugue in D minor is occasionally listed as the most important piece of music ever written. To me it sounds like a wonderful series of exercises but hardly much more. I think it would be appropriate to say that his Brandenburg Concerto’s are very good music, but past that I am not interested in venturing. The fact is that many sections of Bach’s music could possibly be labeled good but not many entire pieces. And further to its discredit, I don’t like it. The main problem being that, even if his music contains very fine qualities, Bach’s music largely leads into epistemological confusion. In between the beginning and end of a phrase it is all too easy to get complete lost and disinterested unless you aren’t interested in paying close attention to what’s going on. And if are paying very close attention you aren’t always going to be properly rewarded. I suppose this approach could be considered successful as some type of pleasant background noise. However, this is also the difference between a Peter Paul Rubens painting and a wallpaper design of an interior decorator. And what’s the deal with his chord progressions? He usually does a clever and professional job with his voice leading and cadences, but they are buried underneath an avalanche of winding melodic dead ends and harmonic (I think I’ll use another yet burdensome diminished chord here) meandering that he rarely, if ever, gets to the point.

The Classical Era has much good music. Although like every other period in history it has a majority of bad or at best mediocre music. By far the two best from this period would have to be the later works of Haydn and Beethoven. Everyone I know is familiar with my thoughts and feelings about Beethoven, so I won’t reiterate here. I will say that Haydn was the first serious and well-known composer to effectively eliminate the useless ornate elements of baroque style from music. His themes and structures were clear, clean and precise. I would include Mozart but it was pointed out to me that he technically belongs to the Baroque Era (in which most of his music does belong, but not, I think, his later works which were good but more Classical than Baroque). I have written at length about both the Classical and Romantic Eras elsewhere so I should be brief as possible about both.