more about music theory & practice

The principles that make up music theory are the same for all listeners and musical traditions, no matter what the nationality, culture, or historic era in which music is produced. theyare the same because they are innate; they are fashioned out of the human psyche, which is unchanging.

In contrast with principle, the practice of music is a matter of how these innate principles are applied when music is composed or performed. Practice varies with nationality, culture, or era.

theory

Music theory is the branch of music that deals with the principles or methods of music. Music theory is the set of principles that guide, describe, and underlie the composition and performance of music. The ory explains the whys and wherefores of the musical sounds one hears, whether jazz, classical, popular, or otherwise. It also attempts to explain why and how music has the effects it does on a listener's psyche.

Music theory also explains how musical sounds are organized and why they achieve the effects they do. From this perspective, music and the theory behind it involves physical phenomena—music is a matter of the physics involved in producing sound with instruments.

Sound isn't music until it's heard. The sounds produced by instruments must be heard by people or other animals before they can be called music. Therefore, music theory is also a matter of physiology, neuroscience, emotionality, and mind.

Technique and performance

Music technique is the manner with which a musician employs his technical skills to produce music using an instrument. Technique is a method of performance, a way of accomplishing or producing music by means of instruments, including the voice. It involves the technical skill of a musician, the musician's ability to apply correct playing procedures or methods so as to effect a desired musical result with the aid of his instrument.

Music theory and music technique go hand in hand. Playing music well is a matter of using technique to put theory into practice.

At least one musician is always directly involved in a performance. Therefore, performance is also a matter of physiology, neuroscience, emotionality, and mind. In live performances, performers and audiences interact directly; a complex feedback interaction between performer and audience takes place which theory and practice take into account. In a recorded performance or even in computer-programmed music, the musician and the audience are not in direct contact but the musician anticipates the reactions of his audience. The ory and practice take this interaction into account, as well.

theory and composition

Theory is as fundamental to composers and compositions as practice is to performers and performances, and is equally crucial. Theory is bound to composition as it is to performance because music is composed to be performed. Even if he writes to please himself, a skillful composer uses his command of theory to anticipate how his music will sound when it is performed; he writes music to have a calculated effect on listeners.

Whether or not they consciously employ it, theory governs the work of all composers, even those not formally trained in it; it accounts for why their music is good or bad. For example, Woody Guthrie was a "natural" who, as far as we know, never received a formal musical education and never gave theory a thought; but his writing can be analyzed according to musical principles because he unselfconsciously employed them.

Irving Berlin, the renowned and hugely successful song writer, taught himself to play the piano. He only played it in the key of C. He had a piano specially crafted for him that would automatically convert what he played from one key to another. He couldn't read or write music, either; he employed a musical secretary to do this for him. Despite these limitations of theory and practice, Irving knew how to put together a damn fine song. As one observer commented, he not only changed American music; he was American music.

Other examples—the legions of anonymous composers who gave us folk ballads from places like Appalachia (country folk), Renaissance England balladeers, folk tunes from the Auvergne (Songs of the Auvergne), folk songs from Languedoc (the original balladeers), 16th century Portugal (La Folia), and many more, including the ship captain turned cleric who wrote Amazing Grace and the aristocrat turned soldier who wrote La Marseillaise. Professional artists like Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rogers, and Bob Dylan all put theory into practice, whether or not they have had formal training in music theory.

theory, composition, and performance

Two anecdotes illustrate how theory, composition, and performance go hand in hand:

Some of the greatest composers are or were brilliant performers also. During their lifetimes they played their own works as well as the works of others. Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt are only three examples of musicians who were legendary for their unrivaled multiple abilities as composers and pianists.

The ability of such musicians to perform was synergistic with their ability to compose. For example, classical compositions of the 18th century often contain a cadenza, a section in which the score directs the orchestra to remain silent while the solo performer plays. Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt saw the cadenza as an opportunity to display their brilliance as pianists by outshining lesser performers of their works. theyalso saw the cadenza as an opportunity to display their brilliance as composers, since the material they played in their cadenzas was of their own invention. The composer often made up his cadenza on the spur of the moment but sometimes prepared it in advance and kept it out of sight until "show time."

Of course, not every musician can play and compose superlatively; many do one well and not the other. But Mozart, Beethoven, and Liszt illustrate how mastery of theory underlies both performance and composition.

Beethoven's Ninth Symphony provides us with a second anecdote:

In his later years, Beethoven grew deaf. When he took the podium to conduct the first performance of his Ninth Symphony, he was totally without the ability to hear. As a result, he could not keep track of his place in the score; without a conductor to keep time, the orchestra lost its place, as well. Each musician soon was playing at a different place and soloists were coming in on the wrong beat. The musicians grew panicky. A friend in the wings who tried to rescue the situation began to beat time loudly in a frantic but fruitless attempt to reunite the orchestra. Beethoven was unaware of what was happening until the end of the performance, when he turned to face the audience. Nor was he aware of the tumultuous roar of applause until the moment he could see it. Beethoven's audience was applauding him for his composition, not his disastrous performance.

The point? There is little doubt that Beethoven had "heard" the music in his head while he composed the Ninth Symphony. As a master of theory, he knew exactly how it to construct it so it would sound the way he wanted. There is little doubt that, as a master of performance, he knew exactly how it should and would sound to his audience when played correctly, the way he intended. No doubt he "heard" the symphony "in his head" as he performed it that night, and "in his head" it sounded right. His only problem was that he couldn't detect the place in the score where the orchestra was playing because he couldn't hear it.