In the past 30+ years of performing music, I am proud of the fact that I have performed music of many genres.  I was fortunate to have been raised in a family of musicians who exposed me to live music of all kinds.  I was an adult beginner in the classical world and learned to read and play classical music while attending college.  I now have a Master of Music degree, perform with the local orchestras and as much chamber music as possible while at the same time perform fiddle music with friends, in my own groups and semi-professionally.

Over the years I have heard the old saw that “music is the universal language”.   I have never doubted its wisdom, but have come to see it expressed more clearly every day.  Yet, I am always taken aback at the jabs of snobbery that arise from musicians of all genres directed at musicians of all other genres.  I suppose we are a subculture and can expect no more respect than any other culture has toward its fellow humans.

Performers of popular music assume that written art music is emotionless.  Printed notes on a page to be played exactly to the composer’s specifications, much like a technical schematic.  No room for expression from the artist, no room for improvisation.  And, the tempo is strict – even metronomic.  Moreover, people who read music cannot play a note without the written page in front of them.  

Folk musicians instruct that folk performers can do “anything” they want to with the music – there are no rules.  The performer, ideally, should not read music or be trained in music, because, it is assumed, that musical training removes intuition, expression, and any ability to improvise or play from memory or by ear.  Feel is above all the most important skill of the folk musician, taking precedence over intonation and sound quality.

Trained classical musicians see folk music as simple and simple-minded.  Classical musicians wince at the thought of folk music since it is presumably always out of tune and the performers are not expected to have anything but the simplest technique.

In reality, folk music is an expression of a culture just as art music is.  Printed notes, if any, provide only an outline or skeleton for the musician to improvise on.  Folk performers may not play in other but simple keys, but the technique is very complex.  And, classical music is anything but expressionless.  In fact, it conveys the entire palette of human emotion.  Try putting a metronome to a symphony orchestra recording.  You will quickly find there is much more room for variations in tempo than there is in folk music.  Clearly, in classical music, technique and sound are of utmost importance, taking precedence over feel.

In preaching to my colleagues on both sides of the fence, I often find myself comparing reading music with reading words from a page of poetry or prose.  Literacy simply allows a person to learn and to learn more quickly.  Our society advocates literacy and reading as the gateway to all future learning.  Similarly, in music, a literate musician is simply able to learn more music more quickly and to be exposed to all kinds of music through the written notes on a page. 

Does reading words from a page of poetry prevent the reader from injecting emotion?  Do two readers reciting the same page of poetry sound exactly the same? Does knowing a foreign language somehow remove one’s ability to communicate with expression in the native tongue?  Certainly the answer is no.  Similarly, musicians performing music from a written score is similar to readers performing written poetry or prose.  The comparison I draw with literature and music is that of folk music being passed from generation to generation learning music by ear as oral folklore and legend is passed down through the generations by memory.

In my teaching of jazz, I explain to students who are eager to learn the language quickly, that jazz is a language of its own.  While in conversation with others, we have no script to follow, we can carry on a conversation with no problem.  When we are young, we know some words and can have simple conversations.  As we mature and build vocabulary, we can have more meaningful conversations about more complex issues and topics.  The very same is true in jazz.

Written music, just as written poetry and prose, simply allows more complex ideas to be written and preserved through time.  Folklore is passed from generation to generation with the expectation that while the main idea is intact, the messengers will interject their own inflections and tangents along the way.