Schoenberg aids in old age debate of rap music being classified as music

Schoenberg aids in old age debate of rap music being classified as music

Rap
music has been around longer than we thought. In the arts everything is
recycled (many times stolen and recycled). We have had bell bottoms make a
return in fashion, the bringing back of muscle cars on the road, big haired
metal bands making come backs in concert and Neo-soul
music
which is…new soul music. Of course many are aware that the Hip
hop culture and its music started
in the boogie down Bronx in the 70’s but the
style or monotonous melody delivery may have been grand fathered even
further
back. The likes of social movement groups such as the Last Poets who
released a Billboard Charting album in the 1970’s, rhythmic vocals
precedes the combining of lyrics over DJ breaks by delivering a lyrical
flow of poetry to
the beat of ethnic drums and instrumentation. The style which
resembles closely the
current Def Jam Poetry series or other earlier African American poets
is not far off
the beat of rap. You can link traces of both to the African Griots oral tradition.

Years
ago rap music was considered a fad to vanish like the cabbage patch kids. The
genre of rap music has thoroughly spread throughout the entire world and not only reaches, but affects and relates to every
culture. Many cultures histories are connected and deeply rooted in some
influence of music, and the gap may be bridged closer.

Before attending the University of Southern California, I grew up in Long Island, NY.
I was a product of the renaissance age of rap music. I grew up along side many
earlier influential names of hip hop icons such as Rakim,
Groove B Chill and Sweety G. Rakim himself was fond of jazz music and played Baritone sax along side me in marching and jazz band. My own interest and
love for music ironically (‘cause that’s a whole
‘nother saga explained in the future) lead me
to study music at U.S.C. as an undergrad taking a few classes in jazz and
classical music history. I once had a debate with a professor and chairman
of the Jazz studies program, who refuses to believe and admit that rap is music.

On the other side in classical history, I had just learned that Arnold Schoenberg’s Sprechstimme
is
similar to a monotonous chant rap style flow in which there was no
present melody just
like that of rap. This style of music dates back to the early 1900’s
and
is thoroughly supported to be music so much it was kept record of,
appreciated, analyzed and taught throughout out the years as part of
the expressionist movement in German poetry and art.

Music
is studied and broken down. Many composers and musicians learn to write
scores of music by dissecting, studying and analyzing music of other
composers and musicians. Music theory is derive from the analysis based
on common practices of that music’s time and genre. Typical elements that are analyzed in music is it’s form, such as intros
and cadences, harmonies, rhythm patterns, tempo changes tonality or
atonality and melody which are all present in rapping. My highly
educated world renown
professors tells the class that Rap is not music because it does not
contain a melody. Rap is certainly not musically dissonant as the likes of
Pierre Schaeffer’s Musique Concrète, who’s
genius attempt at innovated music technology was difficult to notate
on paper like traditional classical music, but it may resemble more the
expressionistic era as that of music theorist Arnold Schoenberg.
Schoenberg’s Sprechstimme was
singing in a restricted way to maintain a constant pitch unlike the ups
and downs melodic contour most melodies would have when they are played
or sung. An example of this would be in Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder or later works by Pierrot Lunaire.


Rap can be notated the same as Schoenberg did for Sprechtstimme.
However, rap actually has inflection in its speech delivery. This is
relative to some exotic scales in which a micro tonality exist like
Burmese or Indonesian music. Today’s rappers like 50 cent and Ja
Rule have distinctive melodic flow. Groups like Bone Thugs and Harmony
are actually harmonizing in their rap flow. Rappers like Nelly are
practically borderline singing or sprechgesang-ing. Not to mention, all of the above named have won music Grammies.

It
is always said “to know where you are going, you must know where you are
from.” Rap is today’s urban music. Its techniques are deeply rooted for over 100 years in
American music. History serves as a blueprint that has been forged for
us to learn
from. Does this mean that Germany is the
birthplace of rap music? Not quite, though Schoenberg is Austrian he is
a well known early American composer, but it puts an end to the debate
for
historians or ignorant professors on whether the fad of rap is indeed
at all music. In a world in which music is a huge part of every one’s
life, many cultures have been influenced by and incorporate rap into their own native
language and music. Billions of profitable dollars have been earned from
rap, it is not only grandfathered in as a style of music to last, but worthy of
and honorary degree in which the success of hip hop can now afford to buy.

Copyright 2008 JackDazey

Currently
JackDazey is working on The JackDazey
Project: Project E5, due to be release early 2009. E5 currently performs
throughout Long Island and New York
City. He currently develops a website for the
empowerment of musician with resources that are helpful to entertainment
careers. You can subscribe and view his site for updates at www.jackdazey.com