On the surface, one might not think that the great Italian opera La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi and the acclaimed indie group Dinosaur Jr. have much in common. One concert, for instance, took place in an intimate performing arts center to an attentive and quietly reverent audience while the other in a loud, rough-and-tumble rock venue to a lively and informal audience. Indeed, there may appear to be no similarities between the effortlessly skilled classical stylings of the UNT College of Music and the deliberately ramshackle indie sound of Dinosaur Jr. However, with these two concerts, we see Christopher Small’s concept of “musicking” in full effect and, critically, two different forms of the same musical elitism.
In his novel Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening, Small famously (and controversially) derided concert halls as “a place where middle-class white people can feel safe together” (Small 42). If that is indeed the case, and I wager that it is, we can expand his description of a concert hall to include rock venues much like the one that Dinosaur Jr. performed at. I observed that both of these concerts skewed towards the middle-class white side. Not only that, but they had incredibly similar-looking audiences of the “hipster” variety. It can then be concluded that although the Dinosaur Jr. concert may appear to be more obviously “alternative” in nature, an equal amount of the alternative lifestyle can be seen at the La Traviata performance. After all, attending the opera is hardly a mainstream affair; it attracts much of the same sort of musical elitism and superiority that the critical darlings Dinosaur Jr. do. Before discussing the concerts themselves and their meaning to audiences, however, it is important to delve into the background of the performers and composers. Described as one of the most distinctive and influential bands of the 1980s, Dinosaur Jr. have been fine purveyors of “loud, sprawling rock and roll driven by J Mascis’ offhand vocals” (Erlewine) for close to thirty years now while their imitators (Nirvana, for instance) found the mainstream recognition they had so long craved. They have released classic album after classic album, from 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me to last year’s Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not. Almost 200 years previous, by contrast, the renowned Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera often considered to be his masterpiece, La Traviata. It tells the dramatic life story of Violetta, a courtesan, and “features some of the most challenging and revered music in the entire soprano repertoire” (Schwarm and Cantoni). It was a risque, edgy opera for the time, similar to the musical edginess that Dinosaur Jr. pioneered in the 1980s. Now, I don’t claim to be familiar with opera music, and I’ll admit that I stifled a groan when I saw that I would be attending an …show more content…
The usual stereotypes came into mind: the fancy dress, the unintelligible lyrics, the opera glasses, the stifling formality and pretension, and the deep, unmitigated boredom of the proceedings. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the intimacy of UNT Opera’s interpretation of La Traviata. The acoustics in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, for instance, were great. Immediately, I could sense a strong sense of reverence towards the proceedings, as the audience were clearly familiar with the work and the composer. Although a lot of the audience leaned towards the older side, there was a fair amount of young, hip people at the show. Many of them clearly knew each other from past UNT Opera performances. Some were dressed formally, but most were dressed casually. The lights dimmed, and a hush instantly fell over the …show more content…
In true 1990s grunge style, the song relies on “loud-quiet-loud” dynamics. The verses are quiet and understated, while the chorus increases in tempo and loudness. It also makes full use of J. Mascis’ laconic, nasally drawl to contrast with the fullness of the sound. The song also plays with consonance and dissonance; while the verses are consonant, the guitar in the chorus becomes much more distorted and therefore more dissonant. Although the song is homophonic, the primary melodic line is not driven by the vocals. Instead, it is the blistering lead guitar, which plays several improvised solos throughout the course of the
In his novel Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening, Small famously (and controversially) derided concert halls as “a place where middle-class white people can feel safe together” (Small 42). If that is indeed the case, and I wager that it is, we can expand his description of a concert hall to include rock venues much like the one that Dinosaur Jr. performed at. I observed that both of these concerts skewed towards the middle-class white side. Not only that, but they had incredibly similar-looking audiences of the “hipster” variety. It can then be concluded that although the Dinosaur Jr. concert may appear to be more obviously “alternative” in nature, an equal amount of the alternative lifestyle can be seen at the La Traviata performance. After all, attending the opera is hardly a mainstream affair; it attracts much of the same sort of musical elitism and superiority that the critical darlings Dinosaur Jr. do. Before discussing the concerts themselves and their meaning to audiences, however, it is important to delve into the background of the performers and composers. Described as one of the most distinctive and influential bands of the 1980s, Dinosaur Jr. have been fine purveyors of “loud, sprawling rock and roll driven by J Mascis’ offhand vocals” (Erlewine) for close to thirty years now while their imitators (Nirvana, for instance) found the mainstream recognition they had so long craved. They have released classic album after classic album, from 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me to last year’s Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not. Almost 200 years previous, by contrast, the renowned Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi wrote the opera often considered to be his masterpiece, La Traviata. It tells the dramatic life story of Violetta, a courtesan, and “features some of the most challenging and revered music in the entire soprano repertoire” (Schwarm and Cantoni). It was a risque, edgy opera for the time, similar to the musical edginess that Dinosaur Jr. pioneered in the 1980s. Now, I don’t claim to be familiar with opera music, and I’ll admit that I stifled a groan when I saw that I would be attending an …show more content…
The usual stereotypes came into mind: the fancy dress, the unintelligible lyrics, the opera glasses, the stifling formality and pretension, and the deep, unmitigated boredom of the proceedings. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the intimacy of UNT Opera’s interpretation of La Traviata. The acoustics in the Murchison Performing Arts Center, for instance, were great. Immediately, I could sense a strong sense of reverence towards the proceedings, as the audience were clearly familiar with the work and the composer. Although a lot of the audience leaned towards the older side, there was a fair amount of young, hip people at the show. Many of them clearly knew each other from past UNT Opera performances. Some were dressed formally, but most were dressed casually. The lights dimmed, and a hush instantly fell over the …show more content…
In true 1990s grunge style, the song relies on “loud-quiet-loud” dynamics. The verses are quiet and understated, while the chorus increases in tempo and loudness. It also makes full use of J. Mascis’ laconic, nasally drawl to contrast with the fullness of the sound. The song also plays with consonance and dissonance; while the verses are consonant, the guitar in the chorus becomes much more distorted and therefore more dissonant. Although the song is homophonic, the primary melodic line is not driven by the vocals. Instead, it is the blistering lead guitar, which plays several improvised solos throughout the course of the