Essence of Music

Blog about the Music why Doncha?

One blogger was "lamenting" the fact that music blogs all post about the musicians rather than the music. I left a comment on his blog to the effect that "It's the singer not the song".

I mean, what are we supposed to do? Nice tune. Key of Gm. Begins with a Cm7 for a couple of bars and then moves on to F7 for a while and finally to Bflat-maj7. The initial little arpeggio begins at ...

What the heck?

Nevertheless, there is some truth in what that blogger posted, so much so that I pondered it often but didn't come to any immediate conclusions till one day when I was listening to Australian virtuoso guitarist Frank Gimbale and thought to myself, "Whilst I don't dislike anything you're playing Frank, and you've tuned your guitar in such a way as to permit you new and exciting expressions, but you're still using a lot of the same old tried and true moves you normally would".

So I was prompted to wonder what it is that makes a tune truly unique, like Lennon and McCartney's Yesterday, Van Morrisson's Moondance, Page/Plant Stairway to Heaven, John Mayall's Room to Move, Gershwin's Summertime, Roland Kirk Seranade to a Cuckoo ... the list goes on. You know the kind of music I mean. Not just another song but distinctly unforgettable.

I thought long and hard and eventually came to the conclusion that it is purely the emotional content of the tune. Emotion, after all, is what music is all about. What else is being communicated?

Music can be composed "digitally" and by this I mean clinically, mathematically, but without emotion it always sounds as if it was composed by a machine, lifeless like a salt lake on a hot Sunday arvi.

This explains to me why some tunes sound as if they're played by robots using human's instruments. Of course robots should play robots instruments to capture the "soul" of the robot. (I love you R2D2, come home to the battery bank). A lot of shred and fusion guitar can fall into this trap, like a machine practicing its scales.

This brings me to the point wherein the late, great Frank Zappa enters the dialogue (you know you're getting old when lots of the acts that inspire you can be described as late, great). It's difficult for me to think of anything that Zappa wrote that is especially unique.

Hot Rats? Black Napkins? Extremely nice music. In fact all serious music written/played by Zappa is nothing short of spectacular. I saw Frank play Chunga's Revenge from about 3 metres away during an encore in Sydney the 1970s. Awesome is a serious understatement. This guy was nothing short of amazing. During that concert Zappa, talked to the audience, conducted the "orchestra", sang and played the guitar, and all somewhat simultaneously.

To add to this, Zappa was unbelievable prodigious in his writing. His discography is epic in proportion. Frank must've written in his sleep, in the shower, whilst praying (somehow I can't imagine Frank Zappa praying although anything's possible).

The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe!

So having said that music is all about emotion and then that F. V. Zappa didn't produce anything extraordinary, despite the possibility that everything he ever played was extraordinary I am left wondering just what is the soul of music?

I haven't come any closer to the truth, and remain totally undecided. That's my lack of opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

As I rest my inconclusive "case" I leave you with a virtuoso version of Stairway to Heaven that just reeks of emotion.

Perhaps there's nothing better than a dichotomous enigma, despite all of the opinionated opinionation.

Please enjoy: Stairway to Heaven live (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Nyaa-aa didn't expect that did ya. I'll bet you thought I'd put Zappa here.


Oh alright ... the emotional sound of Frank Zappa ... ... ...

Watermelon In Easter Hay




Joy to all beings
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terrence