Ralph Alan Dale 1972 Future of Music

The Future of Music: An Investigation into the Evolution of Forms
Author(s): Ralph Alan Dale

Source: The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer, 1968), pp.
477-488
Published by: Wiley on behalf of The American Society for Aesthetics
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/428316
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RALPH ALAN DALE
The Future of Music: An Inv

into the Evolution of Fo
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ushered in a transformations that now engage our

world of new sounds that have been shatter- lives. We must have an ear to the past and
ing the comforting fetishes of the past. to the future if we are to be more than
Who before our century heard music with- puppets of the present. Thus the future of
out melody? What composer of past eras music is not a matter of trivial and wishful
could have conceived of music without speculation; it is today's imperative to grasp
structure or human performers-or its image.
music
without sound? We therefore need to envisage the future
In the non-music world, the new sounds not as fanciful science fiction but in a
have been equally radical: the mechanizedscientific manner. Furthermore, this scien-
sounds of automated factories, the fulmi- tific manner must be imbued with the com-
nating sounds of atomic energy with un-mitted feelings of the poet, yet without
imaginable creative and destructive po- permitting the subjective elements to ob-
tential, the horrorful cries of decadence scure or distort the objective realities.
that have become so familiar we hardly To attempt any scientific judgments
heed or hear them anymore, and the hope-about the future of music requires viewing
ful shouts for freedom that resound in a it so that the processes of historical and
global chorus of determined performers.musical change are revealed. To the extent
that we, today, are part of some ongoing
All of us are thrust into this kaleidoscope
of dissonance and crisis, and we struggle process, we might be able to make some
for values and criteria as bases for decisions. projections of already observable embry-
There is no escape. Our world is changing onic forms. Our preliminary problem,
and we have a choice: to be its creators therefore, is to construct a panoramic view
or its victims. To be creators, to know what of music and its transformations in order
act, what idea, what music is appropriate, to discover the relationship between social
requires more than intuition. One needs and musical change, and thereby to create
an understanding and perspective of those a structural framework for these projec-
tions.
RALPH ALAN DALE, composer, conductor, and author In the most general shape of this evolu-
of Music in the Round (1965) and other works on tion, we can observe three major transfor-
music, is chairman of the department of fine arts,mations: (1) from non-music (sound signals
Hunter College High School, New York City. He
in the animal world) to music as non-art
is now working on a book about the social history
of music. (magical signs and symbols in primitive
* Lecture delivered at Barnard College, November tribal music); (2) from music as magic to
1965. music as art (music from ancient times to
478 RALPH ALAN DALE
the present); and, finally, in our day (3) tive form of communication through sound,
music as art to music once again as non-art, its instinctive character defined its limita-
non-music, and even anti-music. tion. In contrast the sign, liberated from
Before music became an art in ancient this strictly biological mode, became the
times, there were three main stages of first form of culture as well as the first
sound-making that can be differentiated. means for transmitting culture. Its limita-
I call these stages: 1. signal, 2. sign, and 3. tion, in turn, derives from the primitive
symbol.l nature of Paleolithic socialization. Rela-
tively unstructured and non-specialized,
THE SIGNAL the first societies produced a-systematic
singing, speech, bodily movement, and
The signal is an instinctive paintingform
long beforeof sound-
they acquired struc-
making practiced by insects and language,
ture in music, lowerdance, formsand art.
of vertebrates as communicative means to The sign is characterized, therefore, by its
sustain the life of the species. The mating direct, imitative, particularistic, and sub-
signal of the male cicada, for example, is reflection of reality. Its imitativeness
jective
made by vibrating membranes on the assumes under the form of naturalism, while its
side of his abdomen so as to attract and subjectiveness is expressed in its magical
seduce the female. The cicada does not function.
vibrate membranes because his parents Because at this stage of human develop-
taught him to, nor because he discovered ment, man still has a direct relationship
it to be pleasurable, nor because he found with nature, his imagery is direct and
out that the more he sings, the more oppor- naturalistic. Song-speech very likely was
tunities he has for copulation. He vibrates imitative not only of nature's sounds, but
because he is a cicada. It is an involuntary of emotional shapes and qualities. However,
biological act. only the visual signs are extant, and pro-
A more advanced stage of signal-making vide us with concrete verification of this
may be observed among lower vertebrates- stage. The early cave paintings, such as
such as birds, tigers, and monkeys-which those at Altamira, are good examples of
are capable of some learning, but whose this Upper Paleolithic stage of naturalism.
main behavior is largely, though at this Unfortunately, Paleolithic man was not as
stage in the evolution of species no longer considerate of musicologists as he was of
entirely, biologically determined. Both of art historians. He left no recordings of the
these early stages of sound-making referred sounds he made. They must be recon-
to as signalling are entirely or mainly in- structed from our analysis of his life. It is
stinctive means of communication. precisely this analytic method that we
shall apply to develop our construct for the
THE SIGN music of the future.
Singing in Paleolithic times performs a
The second stage of sound-making, the magical function. Before more abstract
sign, was developed by the early hominids, ways of knowing were possible, man learned
the first man-like creatures of the Lower to relate to his environment not only
Paleolithic Age. They were the first living through his direct experience but also by
creatures whose existence was not depend- ceremonially reenacting life processes and
ent primarily upon their instinctive re- interrelationships, feeling himself to be
flexes, but rather upon learned behavior. each and every animate and inanimate part
Here we find sound and gesture emerging of the environment. The magic is a pre-
as incipient language. condition for adequate individual and
A mutual relationship arose between the tribal functioning at this stage of social
act of cooperating and the communicative development. It is the key for learning ap-
means to effectuate it.2 Whereas the signal propriate behavior. It is the primary social
might be called the first and most primi- means for primitive man to develop "con-
The Future of Music 479
fidence in his own powers-to regard him- of the Southwest United States. "Competi-
self as a being who need not simply submit tion for the supply of goods is given no
to the forces of nature but is able by spir- formal expression... Ideally, wealth that
itual energy to regulate them and control has been accumulated is redistributed
them."3 It is the tribe's definition of its among the members of the village either
own existence. Without the magic of theduring the winter-solstice ceremonies or in
primitive ceremonial, the tribal heart could spontaneous gifts. In the economic as well
not beat. It is, therefore, not surprisingas the ceremonial field the aggressive, com-
that every primitive tribe known to us petitive, noncooperative individual is re-
developed magical ceremonial practices. garded as the aberrant type." 5 It follows,
therefore, that among the Zuni "all cere-
THE SYMBOL monials are collective." 6 We also observe
that their "ceremonial performances are
The third stage in the essentially
development of
mild and sober in tone." 7
sound-making and music was the advent
of the symbol in Neolithic times. Symbols
The Hugger-mugger
were the first generalizations. The sign is
not a generalization since The
it merely
breakdown repro-
of tribal life and the
duces its own concrete reference: there are
transition to civilization transforms pan-
as many signs as there are actualities which
tribal symbols into what I call hugger-
they imitate. Symbols, muggers.
however, do not
The hugger-mugger is a covert
re-present; they represent, and are therefore
symbol of an aristocracy in its formative
the first abstractions.
stage. When a cooperative tribal structure
Three main symbolicchanges
forms emerge
into a competitive one, the social
which we refer to as ideograms,
character of the ideo-
ceremonial dances and
motions, and ideosounds.
musicIdeograms areexclusive, and
tends to become more
visual symbols including the painting
its emotional of ecstatic and
character more
face, body, tools, weapons, pottery, and
convulsive.8 The Kwakiutl Indians of Van-
walls. Ideomotions are bodily movement
couver Island, a class divided tribal society
symbols. Ideosounds take two main forms:
with noblemen, commoners, and slaves,
ideotones (songs) and ideowords (language).
"make ecstatic frenzy the high point of
their religious ceremonies. The chief
The Transformation of Signs dancer, to Pan-Tribal
at least, is expected to become
Symbols violent, to froth at the mouth, to break into
an ecstatic fit in which he thfeatens to do
The qualitative change from Paleolithic
violence and must be restrained by men
to Neolithic times derives from the intro-
who have the hereditary privilege of doing
duction of planting. The consequent settle-
so." 9 Dance and music also tend to become
ment on the land, and the development of
more structured forms of existence mark
the exclusive property of a privileged
the real beginnings of human societies.4
group or person. "If a (Kwakiutl) man
met the owner of a dance and killed him,
This structuralization of life demands and
he could assume the right to give the dance
makes possible a new kind of thinking in
himself. A commoner would hardly avail
which interrelationships are signified. Such
himself of this method of rising in status
signification defines symbolism in music, in
unless he had enough property to validate
language, in decoration, and in gesture.
his assumption of the dance prerogatives." 10
Because they are shared and utilized equally
When a privileged group emerges within
by all members of the tribe, I refer to them
as pan-tribal symbols. the tribe, it maintains its position through
Pan-tribal symbols are products of a force and through ideology. The hugger-
mugger represents the first ideological use
communal organization of tribal life such
of music, by which is meant a music whose
as that observed among the Zuni Indians
former magical function has been inverted
480 RALPH ALAN DALE
so as to serve an anti-magical, inherent superstitious

and inextricable interdependen-
role. The hugger-mugger by
cies. its very
However, with thenature
introduction of
is expressed as the exclusive slavery inproperty of total
ancient Greece,l3 a engage-
privileged minority andment is used to perpet-
with nature and the communality of
uate their status. man no longer defined life. The necessities
Observe, then, that magic and super- of life were no longer provided by the
stition are opposites. Magic was a non- unmitigated participation of every tribal
rational but functional practice that led member. No longer, then, was the in-
to social adequacy. It expressed relation- dividual's mental, sensual, and physical
ships and meanings through the intuitive health naturally and organically main-
and wholistic1l praxis of what Pavlov tained. Instead, the polarization and frac-
referred to as the first signal system ofture of social life became expressed as
higher nervous activity in man.12 Super-alienation. It is this experience that man-
stition, on the other hand, is an irrational ifests itself as the separation of feeling from
belief often leading to social inadequacy thought, thought from sensuality, sen-
and individual paralysis. It represents an suality from behavior, emotion from sen-
aberration of our "signals of signals," our suality, behavior from thought, and emo-
language rooted system of logical thinking tion from behavior. Among the aristocracy,
whose non-aberrated reality-expressing each aspect of the personality now devel-
form and socially functional product is oped as a fractured segment of the new
consciousness. Thus magic, preceding the social order, a psychological particle with
development of social consciousness, repre- its own motion and structure. Social emo-
sents its incipient form. Consciousness tions became separated out as individuated
emerges as science, and becomes pitted, feelings. Thinking became abstract and
from the outset, against its antithesis: took the form of science, mathematics, and
false consciousness, one of whose forms is philosophy-for example, a theory of music.
superstition. Sense response became introspective and
self-consuming, that is, sensuality for its
own sake. Behavior, divorced from social
MUSIC AS ART: THE GENESIS
emotions, became coercive and potentially
OF THE AESTHETIC EXPE- neurotic and psychotic. The individual
RIENCE now became subject to fragmentation,
desensualization, and dehumanization. In-
The hugger-mugger is a transition from deed, he was in grave danger of experi-
tribal music to music as art. Our music encing the disintegration of his very hu-
today is also transitional, and is both a manity. What did he do? He created Art.14
development from, and a negation of, the That is, he created a way to respond whol-
entire history of music from the age of the istically through a dynamic engagement
hugger-mugger to the present. These conten- of his now abstract mind and separated
tions require analysis. feelings. Response, then, to tonal or visual
In primitive tribal times (before the design developed a new dimension: the
advent of the hugger-mugger) there was an aesthetic experience. Its cathartic function
organic relationship between the individual was to reintegrate, resensualize, and rehu-
and his environment, and between the manize the individual by temporarily
individual and the tribal whole. To main- purging his mind and emotions of the
tain his health, the tribal person simply alienated world which generated disloca-
engaged in those activities that sustained tions of the psyche. Its method was to make
life. It was those activities, including the the tones or the visual media behave in a
ceremonial, that guaranteed his mental more sensualizing, socially meaningful, and
alertness, his sense of acuity, and his phys- integral manner than his social experience.
ical vigor. His emotions, thoughts, sense During periods of extreme alienation
responses, and actions all functioned as such as the late Roman period of antiquity
or today, the aesthetic experience becomesness by developing a world society in which

less and less capable of bridging the widen-
abundance replaces scarcity, fraternity re-
ing gulf between the arts and the malev- places hostility, and co-action replaces
olence of everyday life. Under these con- coercion.
ditions, music as an aesthetic phenomenon There are three interdependent mani-
gives way to music as entertainment, di- festations of the present at this pregnant
version, and escape. Music thereby negates moment for the attainment of full human
itself as it emerges as a mirror of those very emancipation. First, we have finally come
fragmentizing experiences which it for- to the point in human history when it is
merly functioned to negate. scientifically and technologically possible
to produce enough to satisfy the material
THE NEW MUSIC AND THE
needs of all people. Second, we have si-
UNIQUENESS OF THE PRESENT multaneously reached that stage, indicated
HISTORICAL MOMENT by the demands of the world's peoples,
when all will fully participate in the deter-
In one sense, we are living today
mination of theirinownthe last
futures. Third, we
stages of a social process that began in an-
have developed the social and scientific
cient Greece. The entire period is one in means to guide us in this emancipation
which civilization was created and recreated
process. We have begun to understand the
through the exploitation of the majority nature and laws of social development and
for the benefit of the minority. During this change, and of human psychology so that
period, the coercive forms changed from it is now possible to pilot our own recon-
slavery to serfdom to free labor, and each stitution toward the realization of the
stage was a step in the emancipation of once-utopian dreams of philosophers, and
humanity as a whole. The enormous ex- of social and religious leaders, of past cen-
plosions of our time appear as tumultuousturies. Our era, then, reveals not only man's
accompaniments to the final stage in this greatest alienation, but also his greatest
relatively short phase of social evolution.
consciousness of that alienation precisely
We can speak of this phase as relatively because now he can overcome and transcend
short, for man has been on earth about a it.
million years, but stratification of societyThe creative artist, sensing this reality,
into social classes has existed only a few apperceives the music, art, and the men-
thousand years. However, such enormous
tality of the past as inappropriate for him.
progress was made in this period, particu- Specifically, this means that the aesthetic
larly in this century, that today it serves attitude appears anachronistic for his own
as the catapult to launch us into a new
creative work. The enormity of the con-
cooperative social process, perhaps againtemporary experience of disintegration,
a very long one. Such a conception of the desensitization, and dehumanization, as
historical canvass views pre-history and
well as demoralization, makes any attempt
the future of man as vast periods extending
to recreate beauty, harmony, and unity,
in both time directions and in which man's
or stability and symmetry in music, a self-
social structures and his social nature are
deception. The twentieth century composer
consonant. In contrast, the period of re-
finds himself in rebellion against any
corded history can be seen as the bridgemusic which repeats the old patterns as
between tribal and universal communality,
though nothing has changed. He gropes
a period in which man temporarily and desperately for alternatives that can dis-
necessarily violated his own nature by compose complacency and pierce illusions.
sacrificing members of his own species and
his own wholeness. These sacrifices culmi-
Atonal Music
nate in today's extraordinary and propi-
tious moment when our generations stand Perhaps the most significant alternative
at the threshold of regaining that whole- to classical musical structures has been
482 RALPH ALAN DALE
Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone row tech- creativity-and perhaps, in our way of

nique which has been adopted and adapted life. On the other hand, this music also
by countless composers all over the world. reveals an obsessive search for spontaneity
The system rebels against-and attempts in a world that tends to confine the creative
to violate-our tendency to hear music in spark to well-worn channels. Furthermore,
the traditional tonal schema that creates a by rejecting musical consciousness, chance
tonic center from which all other tones de- music empties the mind and the emotions
rive their tension and function. Schoen- of all known musical content, implying
berg's dodecaphonic technique effectively
that a "clean slate" can facilitate the writ-
shatters tonality by establishing the pro-
ing of a new music.
cedure whereby no tone may be repeated This tendency of the present to empty
until all the other eleven tones have in turn itself of the past as a prelude to a new
been expressed. In this way, the dictator- future may be seen even more literally in
ship of the tonal center is overthrown, and John Cage's piece "written" for the pian-
an egalitarianism of tonal relations is es- ist David Tudor. In its premiere, the "per-
tablished. Contemporary reality, however, former" came on to the concert stage with
does not as yet express such structural re- a stopwatch, opened the keyboard, set the
lationships. Atonality arises, then, not as watch, and sat for two timed minutes of
an expression of life experience, but rathersilence, after which he took his bow.
as an idealized construct. Response to Though not immediately apparent, there
atonal music, therefore, tends to be intel- is a serious implication: the best music is
lectual, and does not appear significant to that which each individual composes for
the public as a whole. himself. Here again we find the superim-
position of the degenerative-regenerative
The Degenerative-Regenerative Polarities polarities that characterize our time and
our music. When each person in an audi-
ence is hearing a different piece, and com-
The rebellion against past forms of music
has contradictory implications. Perhaps itmunication from one human being to an-
is too myopic to see Schoenberg's atonalityother ceases to be relevant, "music" has
as the death knell for the Western musical achieved maximal fragmentation. Maximal
tradition. At the same time, it is too hy- cynicism is also achieved when composer
peropic to see it as the glorious open door and performer are reduced to time dis-
to a future classicism. It seems to be neither pensers who only provide each member of
one wholly-and partially both. The new the audience with silence for his own
musical forms of our century demonstrate thoughts! Yet, antithetically, how signifi-
this tendency to appear simultaneously as cant that the form of expression should
degenerative and regenerative phenomona be an improvisation by each individual,
expressing the sharp polarities of the social thereby abnegating the consumer role of
crisis from which they spring.
the audience that has been inherent in
A literal example of contemporary mu- music since the time of ancient Greece!
sical ambivalence is aleatory, music which This "music," in effect, says to each of us,
is concocted with neither the composer's "it is time for you to be a creative per-
conscious nor intuitive decisions intruding sonality!"
into the choice of tones. Decisions are made
by chance, by nature, by the performer, by
SUMMARY OF HISTORICAL CONSTRUCT
anyone or anything except the composer.15
Again, observe the degenerative-regenera- To summarize, we have so far recon-
tive polarities. On the one hand, the un- structed the evolution of sound-making
willingness of the composer to be decisive as a four-stage development from (1) the
in the creative act is an abdication of con- non-music of the animal world's biological
sciousness as well as intuition that is indica- signaling to (2) the non-art music of the
tive of a bankruptcy in modern musical primitive to (3) the art music of civilization
from ancient times to the present, and the need for aesthetic and religious ex-
finally to (4) the breakdown of art music perience. A separate music for each social
in our day as a prelude to a new music. class now appears in the eras of alienation.
Our analysis has already shown that art The third differentiation involves our
music, or the aesthetic experience, arises concept of future man. The overcoming of
as a result of, and as an attempt to mod- alienation does not imply any reversion to
ify the effects of alienation. If it is true prehuman undifferentiability from nature.
that the present world turmoil may be On the contrary, a growing consciousness
resolved in the dissolution of the last should define future forms of human exist-
coercive forms of social existence and the
ence. The overcoming of those contra-
establishment of a world community based dictions that inhibit cooperation and self-
upon the cooperative efforts of a highlyrealization will lead to social forms and
advanced and non-alienated humanity, mental-emotional expressions that are more
integral yet more complex and abstract.
there are many implications for the future
of music. We have known music as an It is likely that we will exhibit ever-
aesthetic haven from a fragmentizedwidening
and "psychic distance" 16 while psychic
contradictory social reality. But what schisms-neuroses
would and psychoses-may be
be the nature of music if the content of expected to close. This third and future
differentiation, then, is a function of man's
reality itself became the source of those
kinds of satisfactions that have until now
new creative relationship to the universe
been found only outside of mundane exist-
in a post-alienated world. Its music might
ence? Would there be any music at all? be termed, synergistic, implying a new syn-
There would be no music at all if music thesis between music and life in which
is defined as that aesthetic and pseudo- music might help to clarify and explore
aesthetic sanctuary that it has been since the dynamic interrelationships that man
ancient times. However, if we refer to discovers and generates. Clearly, such a
primitive song as music, even though it synergistic tonal systematics is not music
was an entirely different phenomenon from as we know it any more than was primitive
our art music, we could also refer to the song.
future use of sound as a new music. The Our contemporary scene, as the transition
question that still remains is: why should
stage, already carries the seeds of synergistic
we expect that there be any continued music. Some of its characteristics may be
need for some kind of tonal systematics discerned from an analysis of the implica-
when, assumedly, it will no longer servetions and directions of current practice and
any compensatory function? from the principles outlined above.
Music in the broadest sense can be
viewed as an expression of self-differen-
POSTULATED CHARACERISTICS
tiation. The first such differentiation is
OF MUSIC IN THE FUTURE
the separation of self and nature that ac-
companies the evolution of Homo sapiens.(1) If the present period repre
Man becomes the first creature who, by sition to a very high level of
distinguishing himself from nature, be- then music too is likely to lea
comes capable of acting upon and changing craft origins well behind-thou
it for his own purposes. This stage repre- clear that music is among the
sents the advent of human consciousness of man to do so. This tenden
whose first forms are signs and, later, sym-
many forms. For example, the
bols. Music arises then as a magical andof electronic instruments inau
functional expression of the primitive's decline of the handicraft stage
estrangement from nature. ance while a new technology
The second differentiation is the separa-
and writing music is evidenced in recent
tion of man from man, and man from experimental techniques such as calli-
himself which leads to the capacitygraphic
and composition in which sound wave
484 RALPH ALAN DALE
configurations are directly drawn on tape era. When scientific and artistic worlds
or film. merge in the life and character of each
(2) This utilization of science should not individual, spontaneity and consciousness
be conceived as a technical transplant-as should permeate each other. The wall
most of our electronic music now appears between improvisation and composition
to be. It is not very far-fetched to envisage, might then crumble. The de-frustrating,
as Huxley does,l7 that our future music unfettering, and integrating of the mind
and art may be organically imbued with and emotions might release such extra-
science, just as our science may becomeordinary energies that the abilities, ca-
poeticized. This implies the healing of the pacities, and achievements of the "new
breach between the objective and the sub- man" will, by contrast, minify all the crea-
jective, a condition which seems to be tive work of past ages.
rooted in the dichotomy between the in- (6) The universalization of the artistic-
dividual and his society. The reunification scientific fusion also leads to the merger of
of the self and the social could objectivize creative and recreative functions. The
the subjective and subjectivize the ob- bundling boards between theory and prac-
jective. It could terminate the division of tice, concept and consequence, composer
the world into scientists and artists and and performer, will tend to rot away. As in
lead to man as an artist-scientist. primitive times, man once again might
(3) The dissolution of coercion as the engage in an integral and self-realized
pump of human power could effectuate creative process. However, the new syn-
the disappearance of conformity and non- thesis of composition and performance in
conformity, those dwarf twins of the in- this future moment of the recapitulated
dividual's suppression and frustration. historical spiral would be expressed
When there is freedom to develop and through an advanced consciousness and
express himself fully in everyday life, man technique.
will not continue desperately inventing (7) The potential reconjugation of mind
non-conformist devices to express his ego. and emotion, intellect and feeling, could
It seems likely then, that the traditional lead to the anachronization of the music
focus upon soloism, virtuosity, and "ge- we know. Romanticism and mannerism,
nius" will gradually give way to musi- in particular, are likely to become musical
cal ensemble-ism in composition and per- styles which are relegated to a solely musi-
formance. cological sphere as reminders of artistic
As for the demise of conformism in schizophrenia in a former era of man. All
music, see the discussion below in (11).
other music of our time will probably suffer
(4) For the same reasons, we could ex-
the same fate, though not as quickly. If
pect that musical content too will tend to
we project ourselves far enough into the
lose its egocentricity. Esoteric styles of
future, even the music of our dearest and
composition and interpretation are likely
most sacred masters might be heard only
to yield to a social and naturally "selfful"
as tonal memories of a curious way of life
music which no longer has need to call
rather than as music that will have any
attention to itself and its creators for com-
"contemporary" relevance.
pensatory psyche sustenance. Such a natural
(8) The elimination of social and eco-
music would be individually unique with-
out being individualistic. Its self-conscious- nomic class, and of the distinctions be-
ness would be a manifestation of a higher tween those who labor by head and those
consciousness rather than a psychic path- by hand, could extend participation in the
ology. creative process from a professional and
(5) Music may become more spontaneous amateur elite to every man and woman.
as well as more conscious. The contradic- The productive and originative engage-
tions between these two qualities may be ment of the population as a whole could
seen as a temporary condition of our own lead to the erasure of the producer-con-
sumer demarcation that began in the age duce art for a mass public," 18s may undergo
of the hugger-mugger. further radical change, perhaps toward
It should be noted that what is sug- a greater humanization, flexibility, and
gested here is opposite to the current pro- dynamism. One direction may be toward
pensities for viewing future life and music. expressing the uniqueness of each partic-
The latter look forward to a world of max- ular viewing. The merger of live and film
imal leisure and to the increasing con- forms offers one method of achieving this,
sumption of music as a lofty manner of along with a greater spontaneity and hu-
easing time's heavy-handedness. It is con- man immediacy. It also provides a way of
siderably more optimistic as well as more overcoming the alienated character of the
realistic to look forward rather to the ter- technology itself. The exploration of such
mination of those evils which beget leisureadvanced experimental techniques is al-
as a safety valve for time-energy one is ready underway. It may be seen, for exam-
obligated to give in exchange for the ple, in Czechoslovakia's Laeterna Magica.
right to live and to enjoy "time for one- A still more advanced form would shift
self."
the responsibility and enjoyment of the
An alternative way of life is self-realiza-
creative role from the writer-director coterie
tion through creative social engagement. to the actors, and even further to the audi-
When labor is no longer coercively defined, ence itself.
work will find its own relief in meaning- (10) To the extent that the bifidity of
fulness and variety. Then music-to-fill- society is transformed into a communal
leisure-by, as well as leisure itself, will living condition with no common people
cease to have any raison d'etre. and no aristocracy, the division of music
If, instead, a leisureful world is ever into folk and art forms should also dis-
attained, man will have need for salvationsolve. It is quite clear that since the eight-
in magnitudes beyond the multiplied eenth century there has been a growing
claims of all past evangelists. Such a world cross-pollination between art and folk
(in which the poverty of social effort sires music to the extent that increasing de-
poverty in all its pseudo-social subroga- mocratization, mass education, and in-
tional satisfactions) will require a new dustrialization have modified the bipartite
religion whose god is Society, for society insularity of aristocracy and peasantry.
will no longer have any material reality; The complete disappearance of such cleav-
and it will require a new music whose
ages in the social structure should lead, it
composers are deprived of creative well-
would seem, to the development of com-
springs and whose audiences lack any ca-
pacity for response. Indeed, at this point, mon and universal forms of music making.
even the medium will cease to be the mes- This implies not only the termination of
sage, for neither medium nor message is separate art and folk streams of music, but
self-regenerative. of separate national forms as well.
(9) There is evidence today that we are (11) If music is no longer expressed
moving toward a new fusion not only of through the two main cultural streams,
science and music, the objective and the what will happen to their respective
subjective, the creative and recreative, the pseudo-forms? The reference here is to
producer and consumer of music, but also the pseudo-folk music that most people call
of the arts themselves. Such a tendency has popular music, the dominant current form
been present since the days of early opera, of which is rock-'n-roll, and to pseudo-art
with a further synthesis in Wagnerian music which is generally known as semi-
music-drama, and a still further coaduna- classical.
tion in contemporary forms-particularly As long as the world frustrates individ-
film. The film itself, which "signifies the ual social satisfaction, pseudo-satisfactions
first attempt since the beginning of our will be sought. However, when life ex-
modern individualistic civilization to pro-
perience becomes socially and psychologi-
486 RALPH ALAN DALE
cally satisfying, we no longer should have There is no intent to deny the c

any need to seek pseudo-social substitutes. relevance of the classics, for, a
Many of us indeed look forward to the living in an age of transition, we
dissolution of that unfortuitous marriage have need for the music of tran
between the profit needs of the commercial emphasized here, but also for the
music producer and the pseudo-social needs experience which helps to stabi
of the present-day music consumer. nourish our still alienated emotions. We
There are signs already in the latest continue in varying ways and degrees to
popular music of the younger generation, be our old selves as we seek those forms,
folk-rock, of a new realism, rebelliousness,those actions, which can begin to recreate
social criticism, and satire which, of course,
us in that image which until now appeared
appear as contradictions to the traditional only in our mind's eyes and ears through
accommodation and escapism of popular idealized music, art, and philosophy. Until
music.19
that re-creation is fully realized, we will
(12) The question of the future rela- continue to renew our humanity, our in-
tionship between music and language is a tegrity, and our sensuality in the aesthetic
fascinating one.20 Modern European lan- experience.
guages long ago were shorn of their musi- Conceding this, our greatest need today
cal elements, and became logical, static, would seem to be for a contemporary music
hierarchic, and hegemonic. The tendency
which, while rejecting the past as an ac-
for the objective and subjective to merge ceptable condition for the present, senses
could lead to the supplantation of all mod- its relevance. In this respect, existentialism,
ern languages by an entirely different and for example, fails to provide an appropriate
universal communications system which philosophical basis for our music. Our
could more adequately express the ever- need is for a music which exposes the old
changing, interrelated, and multifarious traditional forms as ideological shackles
character of reality. One of the means for while abstaining from exorcising the roots
realizing this more dynamic and more sub- of the present's forward motion. It is for a
tle language expression could be musical- music with a bold open ear attuned to the
ity: pitch and rhythmic differentiation. greatest social clashes in the history of
Music and language thereby might evolve mankind, without engulfing us in those
once again as an organic unity. dissonances as their victims. It is for a
music which can touch our conscience,
MUSIC FOR TODAY
deepen our consciousness, awaken our sen-
Having completed our projection of sualities, give expression to our ideals
music's future, we return to the problemsand aspirations, and stoke the fires of our
that make such an excursion relevant. We optimism, determinism, and our audacious-
need to know what music is appropriate for ness, when they burn too low.
today, and what criteria should be used Our individual as well as social salvation
for our own creative, recreative, and listen- lies in our ability to function as creative
ing judgments and attitudes. midwives to a new world at birth. We
The uniqueness of the present condition should therefore crave a music which can
lies in our ability to find solution in actual- accompany us in this greatest of all historic
ity to those inadequacies in our social life endeavors, inspiring us to moments of
from which we used to find temporary aes- great clarity, of courage, and success, so
thetic escape. But that goal is only in the that some day these virtues may be ex-
process of being realized. The present as a perienced by all people as natural expres-
sions of their humanity.
transition period, therefore, is one whose
primary needs are neither for an aesthetic
music nor for a futuristic form.
1The distinction between sign and symbol that
The emphasis here is on primary needs. is made in this paper is similar to that of Susanne
Langer's in her discussion of "The Logic of Signs lov uses the term signal here to designate what we
and Symbols" in Philosophy in a New Key. Langer, have referred to as sign. His second signal system
however, tends to employ a broader definition of represents what in this paper is called symbol in its
both terms. What is here designated as signal and earliest phase.
as sign are both included in her definition of sign. 1 There are two main phases in the develop-
The term, symbol, which is also less inclusively de- ment of slavery in ancient Greece: (1) the enslave-
fined in this paper, corresponds more with Hegel's ment of war prisoners in pre-Homeric times, and
usage in the Philosophy of Fine Art; see also foot- (2) the introduction of debt slavery around the
note 12. eighth century B.C. when some members of the
2 Both, in turn, are dependent on the prior evo- internal population were themselves enslaved. It is
lution of the hand, brain, and speech organs. How- the contention here that it was the institutionaliza-
ever, once the biological and environmental condition of these internal cleavages and of proprietary
tions nurtured the first social efforts, the early inequities that gave rise to alienation which, in
hominids had the opportunity and the necessity to turn, mothered aesthetics as well as a theory of
transform their signals into signs. music.
Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (New Haven, I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to
Conn., 1944), p. 92. Karl H. Niebyl for his analysis of this development.
4 We might differentiate among at least three A more general discussion of these views may be
stages in the development of social structures. The found in Alban Winspear, The Genesis of Plato's
first stage evolves in the dawn of man, and is repre- Thought (Russell, 1940), chap. 1.
sented by those relationships which Paleolithic cave 14There is no implication of process conscious-
man spawned from the earliest cooperative efforts ness in this evolvement of art in ancient times. It
of collecting, hunting, and distributing his food. may be noted that at this same historical juncture,
The second and higher stage is developed by Neo- and in order to serve very similar functions, though,
lithic man some eight thousand years ago in the again, not deliberately, man also created religion in
transition to an agricultural tribal existence, and the modern sense.
the emergence of the first (sexual) division of work 165John Cage's experiments in aleatory music are
activities and of totemic forms. In contradistinction well known, for example, his piece for twelve
to the first stage of migratory human hordes, this radios, or his composition based upon the imper-
second stage represents the formation of settled fections of the piece of paper on which he was
tribal societies. The third stage, modern social writing, and his use of the ancient Chinese, I
structures, developed ever greater tendencies to- Ching, The Book of Changes, as the means to de-
ward alienation, fragmentation, and specialization,termine the choice of tones.
all of which, paradoxically, represent both the 16 Cf. Edward Bullough, "'Psychic Distance' as
means that in the past effectuated enormous social a Factor in Art and Aesthetic Principle," in The
progress, as well as formidable obstacles that todayBritish Journal of Psychology, V (1912-13).
inhibit the further evolution of man. 17See Literature and Science (Harper and Row,
Irving Goldman, "The Zuni Indians of New 1963).
Mexico," in Cooperation and Competition among 18 Arnold Hauser, The Social History of Art,
Primitive Peoples, ed. Margaret Mead (Beacon "The Film Age" (Vintage Books, 1959), IV, chap. 8,
Press, 1961), p. 314. 250.
6 Goldman, p. 336. 19 See Michael Orth, "A Crack in the Consensus,"
'Irving Goldman, "The Kwakiutl Indians of in The New Mexico Quarterly (Spring 1966).
Vancouver Island," in Cooperation and Competition 20 C. M. Bowra suggests in Primitive Song (World
among Primitive Peoples, referring to the Zuni Publishing
In- Co., 1962), that before there were songs
dians, p. 200. with words, that is, before there was language or
8 Curt Sachs, World History of Dance (Norton, music, there must have been a kind of song-speech
that, looking backward, may be seen as an incipient
1937), differentiates between "dances out of harmony
root of both.
with the body" and "dances in harmony with the
When music and language developed as distinct
body." It is the contention of this paper that the
forms of communication, songs with words emerged;
former tend to emanate from societies in which the
song acquired language, while language, on its part,
individual experiences disharmonious relationships,
still maintained significant intonational and rhyth-
whereas communal tribal relationships will tendmic components.
to produce harmonious dance and music forms.
Bruno Snell, discussing the changes in Greek in
9 Goldman, "The Kwakiutl Indians of Vancouver
post-Homeric times in his The Discovery of the
Island," p. 200.
Mind (Harvard U. P., 1953), and Poetry and Society
10Goldman, "The Kwakuitl Indians," referring (Indiana U. P., 1961), points out that language be-
to the Kwakuitls in contrast to the Zunis, pp. 195- gan to lose its tonal differentiations as it became
196.
more symbolic. Still later, a further decline of in-
11"Usually spelled holistic; however, the meaning tonational differentiation can be observed when
is more apparent using this less orthodox spelling. Latin replaced Greek as the universal language of
Ia. P. Pavlov, Complete Works, III, Bk 2. Pav- the West. Music too lost its inextricability from the
488 RALPH ALAN DALE
word. As alienation increased, music became further music served as the emotional medium, par excel-
and further separated from language. This develop- lence, for art.
ment received a progressively stronger impetus dur- Any projection into the future that assumes the
ing the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, overcoming of alienation might also assume the
overcoming of that breach between reasoned and
and from the nineteenth century on, instrumental emotional communication that derived from that
music appeared as the dominant form. Language alienation, thus returning us once again to song-
thus became the logical medium of science, while speech, but on a higher evolutionary level.

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Ralph Alan Dale 1972 Future of Music

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The Future of Music: An Investigation into the Evolution of Forms

Author(s): Ralph Alan Dale

The Future of Music: An Inv

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ushered in a transformations that now engage our

so as to serve an anti-magical, inherent superstitious

or today, the aesthetic experience becomesness by developing a world society in which

Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone row tech- creativity-and perhaps, in our way of

cally satisfying, we no longer should have There is no intent to deny the c

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