How to Play a Song with an Airplane Propeller: Surrealist Music
by Muhammed Razeen
Surrealist music is defined by usage of seemingly random, jarring noises interwoven with an audible but heavily irregular “normal” sound. Surrealist music prided itself on synthesizing an uncomfortable, convoluted listening experience for the audience - a popular strategy employed by many surrealist composers, including Erik Satie, George Antheil, and Kurt Weil. These artists helped popularize an age of musical instrumentation that later influenced post-war Modernism - specifically adding the tactic of using a stream of consciousness, and mixing dogmas of traditionalism with destructivist critiques of society as a whole - both common themes in the 42nd Parallel.
Surrealist music added depth to the already transformative art styles ingrained in Modernism. Aspects of unusual “instruments” such as airplane propellers and alarm bells were used often in surrealist, musical performances, tempo was often erratic and incredibly quick, and surrealist music was often scored with cinema. This surrealist music/film combination synthesized a powerful, slightly eerie on-stage performance. Performance arts in the 1920s onward began to experience a short burst of bolder on-screen action with the advent of surrealist music - open criticism aimed at just about any controversial topic: the aftermath of World War I, skepticism over the first attempts of aviation, alongside many others. Topics that were previously taboo became possible to discuss - under the guise of “nonsensical” artistry. Surrealist music in particular was most effective at initiating this debate - after all, on-screen musical performances were likely to be viewed as popular and often gathered large audiences - as opposed to other forms of surrealism (exception being surrealist cinema), which were less circulated.
Essentially, surrealist music encouraged Modernist writers to begin critiquing common structural “impediments” of society with a twisted lens - criticism being hidden in jolting, confusing appeals to sound and language that were equal parts entertaining as they were socially incisive. The 42nd Parallel (Dos Passos, John)’s unique approach to the “voice” and everyday language is in part influenced by the tactics of surrealist music: a stream of consciousness in dialogue interspersed with colloquial language - seemingly purposeless at first, but then insinuating American attitudes towards foreigners, art, politics, etc through the delivery of the “voice”/speech of characters. Juxtaposition, as mentioned before, is the tying factor between the two - while surrealist music used airplane propellers and random bursts of sirens, Dos Passos utilized slang phrases and loosely-structured dialogue - but nevertheless both groups scrutinized an economically turbulent America all the same.
Therefore, surrealist music influenced political artistry in the 20th century in a significant manner - giving it both a vehicle for covert criticism as well as a new method of artistic expression. Surrealist music intrigues not only musical aficionados, but also students of history - by weaving perspectives of criticism, randomness, and musical expression in a single thread.
Case Study Analysis:
Key Info: Ballet Mecanique (1924), with George Antheil (Piano, Sirens, Alarm Bells, Propellers)
Analysis: Instruments used reflect chaos of post-WW1 trauma. Note juxtaposition of images of happy smiles with erratic, offbeat, slightly eerie music - leads to well-veiled extract of life for average Americans in a fiscally-stressed, Modernist America. Note the stream of consciousness used - random images with impacting cymbal sounds/sirens with dramatic gusto. Intended to provide emotional blueprint/impression, rather than cohesive picture.
Q:
1. Is all surrealist music inherently cynical about the the state of America?
2. Does surrealist music emphasize Modernism and forward thinking, or emphasize scrutiny over progression?
1. Is all surrealist music inherently cynical about the the state of America?
2. Does surrealist music emphasize Modernism and forward thinking, or emphasize scrutiny over progression?
Works Cited
- Waite, Michael. Memnon, a Musical Score for Ballet: Together with a Study of Twentieth-century Tonality and Line through Analysis of Debussy's Fetes Galantes Book II, Stravinsky's Agon and Tippett's Sonata No. 3 for Piano. Leicester: U of Leicester, 1994. Print.
- Daniel, Albright. "Modernism and Music." University of Chicago Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2016.
- Calkins, Susan. "The Modern Sincerity of Erik Satie's Musical Style."Academia.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
- Fernand Leger - Ballet Mecanique (1924). Perf. George Antheil. YouTube, 20 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
Your post was great and interesting concerning surrealist music. In my point of view, I think surrealist music was an attempt to capture the era and indeed the experimentations done with music was an attempt to also portray particular opinions of America. I do agree with you that, perhaps, surrealist music was an attempt to criticize the U.S. and also could have been portrayed to capture the opinion of Americans concerning particular actions that the U.S. has taken. In terms of surrealist music and its relationship with Modernism, I think surrealist music attempted to capture the particularities of the era and used particular technologies and incorporated real life sounds of airplanes and bells, as you mentioned, to show the world in the new modern era and to incorporate the daily lives of Americans and technologies' presence in the modern era.
ReplyDeleteToday, we typically think of music as solely a listening behavior, so the fact that your music clip also contains images that contribute to the mood is very interesting. Because the speed of the music brought about such a strong emotion of stress and being overwhelmed in me, I do believe that this particular piece has a cynical view on the life of the American as perhaps too modernized or too rapid.
ReplyDeleteReally interesting material! I think that there is a lot of value in surrealist art as it focuses on the 'feeling' of an experience rather than the situation in which the experience takes place. I do agree with you that in some ways certain pieces can be critiques of society at large, but I think that the value of surrealist works in particular is found in the reflection of the artist's voice. Perhaps in many ways, the two are not mutually exclusive, like in the case of The 42nd Parallel, and should be interpreted as such.
ReplyDeleteSurrealist music reminds me of the psychedelic music of 1960's; both of them tried to incorporate the sound made by random objects into music, and tried to experiment with sound. I wonder whether the latter movement was influenced at all by the former. In any case, it's interesting that the psychedelic music movement was seen as revolutionary despite it's similarities to a movement that preceded it by forty years.
ReplyDeleteYour connection between surrealist music and modernism is very interesting - I definitely see similarities between the two. I do think that surrealist music emphasized modernism and forward thinking, as there is no certain interpretation of the music. Similar to modernist literature, the pieces allow you to experience something new and different, and its interpretation is completely dependent on the listener.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool topic! I really like the way you tied this in with Dos Passos. The first things I thought of were the News Reels and the Camera Lens which almost seemed to show up in the middle of a story and always seemed a little out of place and random, but your connection to surrealistic music gave me another way to look at it! Great post.
ReplyDeleteI think your analysis of surrealist music in conjunction with the modernist era was very good- I especially like how you mentioned the use of other, non-conventional instruments that played a part in creating surrealist music. This is particularly powerful, considering that the modernist era was about breaking away from tradition and exploring the unknown.
ReplyDeleteI think that surrealistic music allowed for further grounds for experimentation, as oftentimes there weren't really an set expectations and what resulted may have often been unknown. Your relation of modernism to this surrealistic music is also really interesting, especially how both may have been a type of "Stream-of-consciousness" type of expression".
ReplyDeleteYou raise an interesting questioning regarding whether or not surrealist music is a criticism of American Culture. I know that surrealist filmmakers like Bunuel and Dali claimed to love Hollywood culture, specifically slap-stick comedy and streamlined studio production, but when you look at their films, like Chien Andalou, it’s completely dismantles mainstream conventions with its discontinuous music score and nonlinear narrative. It almost seems like a mockery of U.S culture. It is interesting that you used Ballet Mecanique as an example, which i believe is a part of the" Cinema Pur” movement with an original score composed by George Anthill. Extreme close-ups of rotating machines and jump-cuts are used to emphasize the plastic properties of the machine in a way that is meant underly classical ideals of beauty. In that sense, “Ballet Mecanique” seems praise the technological innovations of its time.
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DeleteIts interesting how much modernists influenced one another, not just the writers like Stein, Hemingway and Fitzgerald who were actually in direct contact with one another in Paris but all different sorts of artists, musicians, painters and writers drew inspiration from each others work and that why its called a Movement rather than an era of art that happened to be similar.
ReplyDeleteIts interesting how much modernists influenced one another, not just the writers like Stein, Hemingway and Fitzgerald who were actually in direct contact with one another in Paris but all different sorts of artists, musicians, painters and writers drew inspiration from each others work and that why its called a Movement rather than an era of art that happened to be similar.
ReplyDeleteIt's not uncommon to use unusual instruments or forms to express something new, but it is interesting how you connected this back to the text saying things that seem to have no purpose actually make commentary in a subtle way. I think this aspect of subtlety and disguised purpose is unique to modernism. No one wants to say what everyone else is saying, they want to use strange new mediums (like airplane sounds).
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