To start off, we'll go over some vocabulary pertaining to realm of music. If you're a musician yourself, you might be familiar with most of these terms. Although it's hard to pick out a single musician or style to deal with, I've chosen this interview with Stanley Crouch, who, in this interview with Tom Ashbrook, talks about his book on Charlie Parker. It is indeed hard to cater for all tastes, so for those of you who might be more into earlier twentieth century music, here's a link to a text on the Twelve-tone Technique (AKA twelve-tone serialism or dodecaphony) by Gary Bachlund.
On the other hand, describing music is by no means far from challenging. This dictionary includes terms we can use to describe sound and the effect a piece has on listeners, and here's a pianist using them to decribe piano pieces (scroll down), what do you make of her descriptions? Might it be also helpful to make use of images to convey a piece? Do you find these analogies satisfactory? Should we forget about it and just acknowledge that writing about music is like dancing about architecture?
On the other hand, describing music is by no means far from challenging. This dictionary includes terms we can use to describe sound and the effect a piece has on listeners, and here's a pianist using them to decribe piano pieces (scroll down), what do you make of her descriptions? Might it be also helpful to make use of images to convey a piece? Do you find these analogies satisfactory? Should we forget about it and just acknowledge that writing about music is like dancing about architecture?
