The Wagner Connection

I've been listening to a lot of classical music. I've found myself listening to more and more classical music after my vacation to Chicago last year, where I saw a quartet (from DePaul University) perform Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time (check out my review for that performance here). That changed my attitude towards classical music and expanded my musical horizons. Messiaen is much different composer, albeit just as amazing as Richard Wagner. However, it has been Wagner's music that really strikes a chord with me.

Where do I start? I first heard various parts of the Ring Cycle in college, around 2011, however I didn't listen to it seriously until recently. I'm partial to favoring the instrumentals-the Overtures, Preludes, but the actual opera itself is quite a masterpiece. I plan on listening to the entire opera (many hours long) soon when I have enough time away from work, which proves to be extremely difficult this summer. 

Anyways, Wagner's music opened new doors. I've been reading the score for Tristan and Isolde, trying to decipher it, figure out how he gets the Tristan chord sound, how he arranges, how the melodies intertwine with the bass and the melodies. Serious stuff you know. I'll never look at heavy metal the same way again. Wagner's music sounds like heavy metal to me, that's what initially got me interested in college. The music is heavy but there's beauty in the melody, sometimes dark and other times tugging at the heartstrings, not just crushing chords. 

Because Frank Abbinanti, a new music composer that has been mentoring me from Chicago has sent me some pretty difficult scores for me to work on and play, I've been able to read music much better to the point where I can read and understand Wagner's score, albeit in a much less refined way than a classical musician or composer. I think about the chord voicings, how it would sound on guitar, piano, try to imagine the sound in my head as I read the notes. One of my goals is to one day be able to look at a score and know what it sounds like without hearing it on record or playing the notes on an instrument. I may never get there. But its a goal.

Wagner's music has much emotion. I tried to explain Wagner's music to my co-worker when he saw me reading the score on my break. He asked, "What does Wagner's music sound like?" I thought for a long time and explained as best as I could. I said that the music has a heavy feeling to it, like a lot in your head, but melodies that make you see the beauty in that which you didn't know exist. I told him to listen to the Tannhauser Overture and that he would know what I mean. 

I've gone down a very untypical path for a guitarist that first learned to play by playing the Ramones and Black Sabbath. My tastes have evolved eclectically and I'm all the better and smarter for it. My interest in jazz is still strong but now I have the entire classical canon to refer back to, a gift that I didn't know I had access to until recently. 

Most of the music my friends and associates listen to is not classical, nor jazz, or classic rock even. None of the stuff I'm into. Like regular young adults, they listen to whats popular, new, current and "hip", for lack of a better term here I use the word hip rather loosely because for me what's popular will never be hip in my traditional jazz musician's sensibility. I've realized that music for most people is just background noise. Co-workers listen to rap on earbuds while they work. My friend listens to death metal when he's driving fast down the freeway. My other friend listens to indie rock as he drives casually down the boulevard. I've realized that music for me is much greater, and more profound. Music for me is art, nothing to snicker or sneer at, and definitely not background music. In fact, I only listen to music on my computer when I'm sitting down, either reading , or just listening doing nothing else. 

I've found out that to be a musician is a hard life. I can't even get a band of guys together that are willing to meet once every week, let a lone a jazz group. I had a death metal band a while ago but when we didn't make money within three months the singer and bassist called it quits. As Frank Zappa used to say, "Strictly commercial." Most music these days is cheap (hence why the singles thing has become the new medium), just like our culture. We want things fast, hard, and easy. This is what I've come to find out. Life isn't easy, and making money with your art is even harder. 

Even if I never fulfill my childhood dream of becoming a famous hotshot guitar player or make a ton of money playing music I will be happy knowing that the music served it purpose, it opened the path for great artistic achievement and endeavors. And for that I am entirely indebted.