Music and intellect 7.1: And in the place thereof?…

I believe it was Forrest Gump who once remarked that “music is as music does.” While this may not be the exact quote, I obviously cannot be bothered to ascertain its veracity. As a proponent of Mr. Gump’s unique and insightful philosophy, it is difficult for me to admit that he may have over-simplified a rather profound issue: what is the value of music in contemporary society? A rather difficult question, to be sure, that holds in its stem the seeds of its own irrelevancy: in the current state of education in the United States, no value whatsoever is placed on the study and appreciation of music ergo the question is largely ignored.

Why?

What has changed in the scant thirty years since a music appreciation course was a requisite to completing a secondary education? Why do twenty-somethings (I cringe every time I use that phrase) have no idea who Rachmaninoff was, much less an inkling as to when he was an active composer? I admit that such knowledge is perhaps secondary to a primary field of study; in the same vein I would not expect a scientific type (myself excluded, obviously) to understand the implications of the imagery used in Joseph Conrad’s “The Lagoon” any more than I would ask an English major to describe neutron migration in the presence of graphite moderation. However, I would pose the following question:

With what have you replaced music appreciation?

My guess: nothing. In short, we have devalued that which uniquely identifies us as a consequential species in order to elevate the trivial and transitory pleasures of the latest electronic gadget or Aeropostale shirt. I do not lament this revelation, however; rather, I am quite amenable to its inception: I now have a singular metric available to ascertain the cultural education level (as I have previously stated, I give no credence to academic degrees in irrelevant subjects) of people with whom I am forced to speak.

What do you know of J. S. Bach? Of the Russian Five or the French Six?

I had assumed as much.

I will state at this point that I do not judge a person’s character based solely on musical criteria; instead, I simply try to discern with what they have filled their minds- the eternal or the transitory. Sound presupposes humanity: from the harmonic whirl of atomic sub-structures to the gentle oscillations of breezy summer afternoons, the noise of nature surrounds us; the only way to categorize said sounds as music is to have ears capable of perceiving them as such.