There can be no harder-working group than a symphony orchestra. A good orchestra in full-flight is a near-miracle of precision, teamwork, and collective elegance. This is achieved through an exacting regimen of practice and rehearsal that hones the skills of the players to razor sharpness. Orchestra conductors are sometimes despised as tyrants but they know that they must drill the players relentlessly to do justice to the music they perform.

It might be thought that this passion for precision is fit for the cultured people of the concert stage, but it has no place among the free spirits of popular music. Many pop and jazz artists seem almost to take pride in their lack of musical knowledge and discipline, in the belief that these would spoil their spontaneity. On the other hand, some of the most successful popular artists, including the Beatles, have been uncommonly conscientious musicians. Also, it is no coincidence that the man known as the most consistently inventive of all jazz soloists, clarinetist Benny Goodman, was also famous for the long hours of practice and rehearsal he imposed on himself and his band.

 Sound Affects

There is so much talent among humans; it is phenomenal that we have harvested the ability to create melodic sounds from things as simple as wood, metal, plastic, or strings. There is not a day that passes that I don't listen to one of my favorite CD's or turn on the radio, even if it's just for a few minutes. I find it a shame however, that some of the music of my generation, or what people call music, is nothing more than a cacophonous compellation of bad language or the popsy regurgitated whine of a pubescent teen/teen group.

-- Student at the University of California at Santa Barbara

When it comes to different types of music, one man's trash is truly another man's treasure. Classical music lovers have been known to be physically sick from listening to rock. The argument over what is music and what is mere noise will simmer as long as people turn on a radio or put on a record, especially if those people are of different generations and live in the same household. It would be better to remember the words of American composer Aaron Copland in this contest: "Music that is born complex is not inherently better or worse than music that is born simple."

Copland also said that "music is a language without a dictionary whose symbols are interpreted by the listener according to some unspoken Esperanto of his emotions." This leads us back to the theory that the music is within the listener; if so, it follows that different kinds of music will pique different emotions in different people, according to their conditions of life at a given time.

Links and Further Reading
Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music
by Simon Frith (ISBN 0674661966)
The Musical Temperament: Psychology and Personality of Musicians
by Anthony E. Kemp (ISBN 0198523629)