“The real history of music is not respectable. Far from it. Neither is it boring. Breakthroughs almost always come from provocateurs and insurgents, and they don’t just change the songs we sing, but often shake up the foundations of society. When something genuinely new and different arrives on the music scene, those in positions of authority fear it and work to repress it.”
-Ted Gioia (from Music: A Subversive History, page 3)
When I was a teenager I decided to devote my life to a career in music. Besides guitar lessons, I spent my 16th summer taking high-school-level courses in theory and ear training at McGill University’s world-renowned Conservatory of Music. When I finished the classes I was sent certificates that my mom quickly snatched up and had framed, prominently displaying them the hallway of our flat and proudly bragging to everyone that her son studied at McGill, which was not entirely untrue. (She neglected to tell them that anyone who paid the easily-affordable tuition was admitted and the classes were not all that advanced, although to this day I still have the aforementioned certificates hanging on my wall.) After failing to get into a CEGEP music program I gave up on the dream, my only barrier being a total lack of talent. The closest I would come to the music business was working at a record store in my 20’s. (And after seeing what has become of that industry, I think I did the right thing.)
However my love of music has yet to wane; to me it is the common denominator of the human race. Music’s long past and its effects on society is the subject of Music: A Subversive History by author Ted Gioia.
Gioia begins his tome literally at the beginning of it all with the Big Bang, and follows the creation and evolution of music throughout natural history right up to present day. In it he explains how the first musical instruments were based on primitive weapons and how our past, our very survival and prosperity as a species, is inexorably intertwined with our use of sound and music.
As the book progresses we learn how what was once scandalous is now acceptable; that many of the great composers of the past who are revered by pretentious snobs were often looked upon in their time the way mainstream society sneered at rock legends like the Sex Pistols in the 70’s (in fact on page 262 Gioia remarks on how a description of Beethoven by a contemporary could just as easily have applied to Lou Reed or Johnny Rotten). It was interesting to discover that even in olden times riots broke out if a concert was cancelled last minute due to the artists’ illness or inebriation. Did you know that stiff and stuffy Johann Sebastian Bach was in fact in his era considered a subversive? I had no idea!
On rare occasions I could tell if a work is a winner simply by reading the introduction. This book had me by page 3. It contains innumerable quotable and memorable passages, and never feels like it was over 450 pages long. Gioia asks all the right questions; his observations are astute and sharp, his asides are witty, and his conclusions are learned and compelling. Reading it I was reminded of books like At Home and A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, and in my opinion Music: A Subversive History it is on par with them; I believe it would make an excellent textbook for a university-level music history course.
In the epilogue, where Gioia claims that his effort is by no means a manifesto, the author lists 40 points that sum up the entire book, something I felt was rather redundant: Any reasonably intelligent person could easily get what he is trying to say.
But I must confess, I can’t get #37 out of my head:
“37. Music entertains, but it can never be reduced to mere entertainment.” –page 469.
*Please note: The preceding review is of an advanced, uncorrected proof of the book Music: A Subversive History. Quotes and page numbers may vary from released edition.*
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