This continues the first post. Click here to read it.

Here, I’ll argue that “natural” is a term that refers to everything that exists. I will also prove why analogies are meaningless. Finally, I make the case using contemporary evidence that music periods are utterly meaningless and should be done away with.

3) Natural? What?

Lazy critics and teachers toss around the word “natural” or “unnatural” when they really mean “I like this” or “I didn’t like this.”

But, “natural” is a very odd word. What does it really mean?

We can divide the world into “natural” and “unnatural” (or non-natural). This is how we tend to think about the world. Colloquially, we think that what humans make isn’t natural, and what bears and tigers do is natural.

Let’s take this division further. Natural refers to what exists in nature (bears), and unnatural necessarily refers to everything else (us). What this means is that everything that exists is natural, and we don’t have to worry about the rest, since the rest isn’t there.

But we’re here. We’re natural, since we’re from nature, because we’re using the condition “that which is from nature” to divide the dichotomy. Since nothing exists outside of nature, then everything must be natural.

Music exists, so it is natural.

Instead of hiding behind words like “natural,” take the extra step and make a statement about music that’s not based on personal taste using evidence from the score.

4) Your analogy is like garbage

Analogies are great until you try to say something.

Some people (no one I studied under) told me piano playing is like flying a plane. That makes absolutely no sense. At what point when I play piano do I find myself pulling into an airport terminal? Turning on the seat belt light? Using a vocal fry to communicate?

When you make a chart that lists out items compared in an analogy, you’ll find that the items compared don’t have anything in common.

It’s often said that being a sound designer is like being a sculptor. That is, until you realize that sound designers don’t work with marble, sound isn’t solid, you can’t touch a sound, and you certainly don’t use Pro Tools to make a bust of Caesar.

5) Modern music is from a century ago: Stop using periods

Music periods are utterly meaningless.

Classification is based on a set of characteristics. Academics group music from certain periods, like the “baroque” using a certain date range. This is a horrible way to classify things, because those dates are shared among everything.

Recall that our classification systems use unique characteristics, not shared characteristics. Classifying music by a time period is far too broad to have any real meaning.

This makes no sense. The music from the “baroque” “period” that lasts is here because it’s outstanding music, not because it follows some ideas that people made up centuries later. A few centuries later.

Here’s music that’s all published within 25 years (1970-1995). Notice how these pieces have nothing in common. And I’m not even using periods as broad as academics are.

Agree yet?