Change of the American Soul

On Friday evening, September 24, 2010, BYU held a concert of the combined University choirs. Each one of the choirs performed at least one work by an American composer. Of those performed there seemed to be a message communicated in Everyone Sang, by Dominick Argento, and Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy by Kirby Shaw. The message was a dialectic of composition styles and feeling in music from post war America to present day America.

Everyone Sang is an extraordinarily difficult composition to sing. It follows contemporary choral compositional technique. The rhythm alone is enough to throw even the most educated musicians. I found myself looking for some sort of direction in the music. The downbeat was nowhere to be found, there was no sense of tonal center, and chaotic entrances of random vowels were enough to throw the audience for a loop. This style of composition does not cater to an uneducated populous of easy listeners. It was intended for a highly elite group of musicians and listeners that would be able to make meaning out of the nihilistic sound that filled the air. This marks a shift in American music and artistic mentality. Music no longer seeks wide spread approval from it’s populous; it seeks to make a point, some artistic point that is purely for art’s sake. If this music is any sort of indicator for the sentiment across the United States, then we have fallen into a chaotic confusing mess of life that isn’t communal any more or shared. This music doesn’t invite the listener in, it excludes the general public and seems to say, “listen, if you can.”

However, if the piece is viewed through the lens of the title, then this music takes one a different feeling. The random entrances, and different pitches, and lack of cohesion could easily be viewed as a mass of voices striving to be heard amongst all the rest of the noise. If this is intended to be a reflection of American national character, I would say it’s spot on. I think that people the nation over have so many worries, ambitions, fears, and opportunities, that they are striving to get above the noise of life to just be heard. It accurately reflects the religious, ethnic, and political plurality that has become America.

Shoo Fly Pie and Apple Pan Dowdy is written in a Jazz big band style. It is reminiscent of the post war era, where Jazz and Big Band music filled music halls and the radio speakers of most American homes. Its message is that of a home grown life. Pie’s cooked at home, and dear old mom baking for her family. This work invites the listener in. It compels you to participate with syncopated rhythms, and Jazz chords that lift you right out of your seat and make your body want to jam. The feeling in the audience was reminisce of the good old days, nostalgic looking back at when times appeared simpler and easier to understand. When compared to Everyone Sang this work compositionally meets that standard; it is simpler and easier to understand. So much so, that the body innately seems to know what to do when that rhythm hits your ears.

The difference in these two choral works is drastically different. They both reflect the fundamental change that America has gone through in the last 70 years. While it is difficult to distinguish if it has changed for the better, the compositional style and feeling of the works marks a difference in the soul of American culture.