An irreverent social history of music

BY KAYDEN CANNILLA ‘24

As I study in the library, my favorite brain break is browsing the shelves on the second foor to see if anything jumps out at me while I take a stretch. Two weeks ago, An Irreverent and Thoroughly Incomplete Social History of Almost Everything caught my eye.

It’s a compilation of quotes from historical fgures from Ancient Greek to the late twentieth century, teaching history through colloquial, bawdy, and fippant comments. My image of historical fgures can be reduced to busts of Greek philosophers and Englishmen in white wigs, but it’s refreshing to remember that humans were not the formal pictures we always see of them, especially when something ticks them of.

It’s surprising to me today to come across people who have no ear for music; with such an extensive library and immediate access to genres, I have to believe that there’s music out there for everyone. Of course, be - fore globalization and the invention of recorded music, access was limited to the instruments that had been invented in your culture. The earliest instruments created by humans are wind instruments, with evidence of a Neanderthalian fute from 60,000 years ago. Flutes were greatly respected by Greeks and Romans, though not by everyone. One Greek proverb states, “To fute players, nature gave them brains there’s no doubt, But alas! ‘tis in vain, for they will soon blow them out” (200 CE). Instruments nevertheless continued to advance, though there were still those unreceptive. A dictionary from the late 1800s listed the following defnition: “Clarionet, n. An instrument of torture operated by a person with cotton in his ears. There are two instruments worse than a clarionet—two clarionets.”

It further interests me to see people famous outside of the music world express their musical distaste. Sir Isaac Newton, inventor of calculus, was known to be the opposite of musically inclined; “[Newton] said he was never at more than one Opera. The frst Act he heard with pleasure, the 2nd stretch’d his patience, at the 3rd he ran away” (1720 CE). Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria wrote to his mother asking for advice on whether to employ an up-and-coming composer named Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, to which she replied, “you do not require a composer, or other useless people” (1771 CE). Aldous Huxley, writer of Brave New World amongst others, had an aversion to newly invented jazz, and after seeing a jazz band for the frst time he remarked, “I felt like a man who, having asked for wine, is ofered a brimming bowl of hog-wash. And not even fresh hog-wash. Rancid hog-wash, decaying hog-wash” (1929 CE).

Hearing the crass and informal way people of times past speak about music contextualizes a lot of modern music criticism for me. It is by nature wonderfully subjective, and changes to the norm are inevitably met with both excitement and criticism. To some, hearing a piece test the limits of music, arranging rhythms in ways never heard before is a thrilling innovation, to others it’s tasteless. I think nostalgia plays a big role in people’s taste, I often hear modern people yearn for “real music” like in the 1970s and 80s. Of course, there was distaste for newfangled pop music then; according to iconic singer Bing Crosby “popular music in this country is one of the few things in the twentieth century that have made giant strides in reverse.” I wonder what he would say about mumble rap.

BY COLE GARDELLA ‘24

When I frst saw the trailer for M3GAN, I thought it looked awful. The efects looked dodgy, the acting was unenthusiastic, and the jokes, if you can even call them that, were downright cringeworthy. However, the reviews for it have been extremely positive, so much so that a sequel has already been greenlit. So, a friend and I went to the movies to see M3GAN this past weekend with fairly high expectations. Nonetheless, as we walked out of the theater, not only were our expectations left unmet, all of the worries I had about the flm when I initially saw the trailer was confrmed.

For those of you who have somehow avoided the viral marketing campaign for this flm, M3GAN follows the story of a roboticist at a toy company who builds an artifcially intelligent doll to help her recently orphaned niece cope with the loss of her parents. The eponymous doll eventually develops violent tendencies, which she views as necessary actions in order to keep her human companion safe. As you could imagine, the outlandish plot paves the way for a lot of humor or at least attempts at humor. For my theater especially, there wasn’t much more than a few chuckles here and there from the audience.

M3GAN is a horror comedy, so you’d hope that if the comedic aspects were subpar, then maybe the horror elements would make up for it in some capacity. Un- fortunately, that is not the case for this flm. The scares and violence are very tame, likely due in large part to the studio wanting to keep a PG-13 rating, which allows the flm to reach a greater audience than it would have with an R rating. It truly puzzles me what people are seeing about this flm that I am not, and my opinion on it only worsens the more I think about it. As far as horror movies go, I think M3GAN is one robot that’s best left deactivated.

BY ITAI GELLER

Some of the most outstanding vistas can be found in Norway, a mountainous Scandinavian country containing massive glaciers, coastal fjords, and inland mountains. Thankfully for those of us who have not visited, we can still appreciate its geographical diversity through the eyes of Johan Christian Dahl, a Norwegian Romanticist Painter best known for his unique landscape paintings.

Dahl is a notable fgure in Norway, as he is one of the few artists from the country to be recognized in greater Europe for his work. Dahl’s paintings have made appearances in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery, owing to his unique realist approach to landscape paintings. His appreciation for his native country’s landscapes can be directly attributed to the infuence of the Romanticism movement in Norway during his lifetime

Comic Corner

By Vitek Sabath

(1788-1857).

Although the Romanticism movement touched broadly on concepts such as emotion over reason, heroism, and individuality, it also rejected industrialization and supported the preservation of the natural world. The movement was born in Britain but eventually made its way to Norway after the country aspired to redefne its national and cultural identity as a result of aggressive urbanization. In response, painters such as Dahl sought to remind their fellow Norwegians about the importance of preserving their country’s natural beauty.

My favorite landscape painting by Dahl is called View of Nærøy Valley, a landscape painting of stunning proportions which depicts a populated valley surrounded by magnifcent mountain ranges. A river snakes through the valley; wooden cottages pepper the plains. The river is incredibly lifelike, taking on a greenish tinge as it refects the color of the surrounding area. Dahl makes a fantastic choice painting the perspective of the valley at eye level; this contributes to the colossal nature of the mountains. They lurk over the town, casting a shadow on the areas surrounding the river. I enjoy his use of foreground elements to contribute to the realism of the landscape; travelers ride past the river on horseback and a sliver of mountain pokes out into the right side of the painting. Dahl also bathes the village in a setting sun, illuminating the village and its foliage with hints of bright green and yellow. These factors create an appealing composition to marvel at endlessly.