Misc. Thoughts on the Nature of Taste

Not a personal essay. This is sub-personal essay. This is more of a extended text message I would send to my mum (Ah, the blog post). Perhaps you will find some of my thoughts interesting or relatable:

I used to be afraid that my taste in what was visual and literary was more naturally perceptive than my taste in what was auditory, aural, and sonic. That is, I could form a personal opinion on say, a photograph or a novel and trust in that opinion. But to decisively say that the second bar of this Bach piece is fantastic slurred and ridiculous with a crescendo? Beyond me.

Which is, of course, an insecurity without much sense. It’s all a matter of exposure and experience. Once I listened to and played more Bach, I could gradually interpret more of it for myself. This insecurity made Year 12 and 13 me constantly second-guess my decision to pursue classical singing at university-level.

I don’t know how I couldn’t see that simply listening more and thinking more would make it obvious to me what was cheesily melodramatic, or dull, or plain old mediocre and cliche, or not my taste — and what was genuinely beautiful, or interesting, or to my taste. But now I see. Aren’t we glad I’ve character developmented my understanding of the authority of a personal opinion?

Now we move on to correct grammar in music. The other day, our church choir sight-read Oh, How Good It is and happily observed that the arrangement (by Keith Christopher) sounded very nice. And a friend said, it was because everything was correct — no parallel fifths, correct voice leading, all that jazz (not actually jazz). That’s why it sounded so good.

And that simple remark shot me to a sudden illuminating realisation of the essential nature of music. I experienced an epiphany — the epiphany that being correct in music was just like having correct grammar in writing. If you write with correct grammar, it reads well because it is understandable and communicates the intended message, emotion, and experience effectively. And so we do the same thing in composition. Misspelt words and poor syntax are to writing what unresolved leading tones and improperly incomplete chords are to composition.

Then that’s when stylistic choices and personal taste come in. It is grammatically incorrect but perhaps stylistically appealing to write in all lowercase letters. It is also a matter of personal preference as to whether you like reading or writing in all lowercase. That’s jazz. That’s like, everything. That’s all music.

Moreover, you can do interesting and groundbreaking work within the rules of correct grammar and composition. The same thing goes for conventional rules of storytelling (think pacing, form, etc.) And ultimately, the quality/artistic merit of everything comes down to personal taste.

This all comes across as very basic information and philosophy, I know. I think my insecurities about not knowing that much music theory just mislead me into thinking I was not very naturally intelligent at music.

Does that make sense?

I look forward to growing up more and developing my thoughts on music and taste so that they ‘re consistent with each other and actually make sense when you prod at them some more.

But yeah mum, that’s all for now. Do you want me to pick anything up from the supermarket for dinner?