The End of Music History (Part 1)
It has become something of a commonplace to say that, in the 21st century, “serious music” (a term that I use reluctantly) has entered a definite period of decline, if not its death throes. In truth, it has even become something of a commonplace to say that such a statement has, indeed, become a commonplace. Thus, when I read the title of a lecture by Tom Service, who writes on music for The Guardian and presents BBC Radio 3’s “Music Matters,” I thought that it surely must be more of the same; surely meant to be eye-catching, the title of the lecture, presented in Aberdeen on October 23 last, was “So long, and thanks for all the noise: 2010 and the end of musical history”.
With all that I have read recently, and with my own experience with the various pockets of resistance and elitism in the small parts of the music world that I know, I hope I may be forgiven when I confess that my initial reaction to such a title was, “Oh, not again!” I am happy to report that my fears were unfounded. To quote Mr. Service’s lecture, in part: “…there’s nothing new in the idea of the end of music history. Indeed, it’s one of the privileges of modernity—any modernity—to imagine that your particular generation is dancing at the end of time. So to be clear: what I’m talking about is the end of what some call the ‘master narrative’—with all the patriarchy that suggests—of music history, the idea that each generation of composers steps on the shoulders of its gigantic predecessors, processing in seamless consequential order to a panacea of musical paradise and betterment.”
