Words and music; style and content.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

If we look at the words of a number of songs, we can see without effort that their content is different, often radically so. For example, the content of Bob Dylan’s “Masters of war” is different to that of Cole Porter’s “Always true to you darling, in my fashion”, which is yet different to Porter’s “Night and day”. All different again in terms of content are Thomas A Dorsey’s “Take my hand, precious Lord”, James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift every voice and sing”, Louis Jordan’s “Saturday night fish fry”, and “I’m gonna move to the outskirts of town” and Youssou Ndour’s “Toxical waste”.

If we look at the style of the words of these songs, we can also pick out differences in the way they’re put together. Some stylistic differences would be technical – are any of these songs written in iambic pentameter or what? Other observations would relate to the way the words are made to flow with the music or against it, the type of language used. And so on.

But when we come to look at the content of the music that is part of those songs – or any music whatever – what can we say about content as distinct from style? There’s plenty we can say about style in music, but I’m at a loss to say what the differences in content between one piece of music and another are.

Does this mean that music is style without content?

(I suspect there will be technical statements that could be made but the skill of a great musician is surely to get through to an audience that is unequipped educationally to appreciate his skill; ie, keep off the technical stuff, please, music isn’t made for other musicians.)

MG

[JSngry]

"content" - whatever meaning the "style" triggers in you.

I guess.

[AllenLowe]

mal-content -

(speaking Spanish, and only for myself)

[Brad]

I'm not sure I really understand; are you talking about the difference between lyrics and music. Lyrics is the content around which the melody is wrapped.

[JSngry]

Except when the melody drives the lyrics?

[John L]

This is a difficult topic. In a piece like A Love Supreme, Coltrane was clearing attempting to put spiritual content directly into the music. Did he succeed? I think so.

[king ubu]

Except when the melody drives the lyrics?

Like in "Night and Day"?

[BillF]

In literature style and content are inextricably linked and I guess it's the same in music, except we're rarely explicit about content in music. The exceptions are pieces which are purposely descriptive - a jazz example would be Tadd Dameron's Fountainbleau, where the music depicts the swans bobbing on the lake, etc. People who are close to a type of music are usually unaware of its "content" - a lot of pop music is about teenage angst to my ears, but its fans wouldn't be aware of that. To turn again to jazz, a guy once told me he liked jazz and named Johnny Dankworth and Cleo Laine, but when he heard me playing a Cannonball and Coltrane disc (Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago), he said "I don't like this neurotic stuff". This was a "content" I hadn't been aware of; if I'd never heard music like that before, I might have heard that in it.

Edited December 16, 2009 by BillF

[AllenLowe]

well, might we not say that style is an aspect of content and that content is an aspect of style? kinda like form and content; important to realize, also, that mannerism is not style (though a lot of artists of all kinds confuse the two).

[papsrus]

But when we come to look at the content of the music that is part of those songs – or any music whatever – what can we say about content as distinct from style? There’s plenty we can say about style in music, but I’m at a loss to say what the differences in content between one piece of music and another are.

Does this mean that music is style without content?

MG

It seems to me that various styles of music can express the exact same emotions. And if this is true, it suggests there is some meaning, or content, that transcends mere style.

Both the blues and certain pieces of classical music, for example, can express the exact same emotion -- a sense of longing or heartache. Yet they do so using very different approaches, or styles.

So the style of music is simply a means of expressing the content -- the emotion of longing or heartache, for example.

Both BillF and John L alluded to basically the same notion above, I think.

[BillF]

A lot of jazz parlance suggests "content". Consider "jazz messengers", "tellin' it like it is", "hear me talkin' to ya" and "preachin'".