The Appeal of the Artist

Wednesday in class we talked about the musicological quest to unite artists and their works on a very personal level. We want to hear struggle and love and anger in the music, for their inner selves to emerge in the notes, chords, melodies. We scrutinize the minutia of artist's lives as meticulously as any historical figures. Their family, behavior, sexuality, personality, everything is under the microscope: the geek version of People. It's big news when a new letter is unearthed or it turns out Handel had a previously unknown girlfriend. Though it is based around and music and eventually comes back to it, we have become obsessed with these figures in a extra-musical way. And i have no problem with this. I LOVE gossip, I love to know everyone's business. I know it's bad, but I'm a teenage girl- what do you expect? It also does enhance the listening experience, especially if you know the composer was expressing himself through his compositions which, I believe, is not always the case. Music and sound have intellectual appeal as well as emotional, and I can't imagine that all of Glass or Haydn's works have deep meaning to them. It also, honestly, was a profession before an art. It is also hard for someone who can barely write a chord progression to imagine being able to hear a melody or feel a symphony in a creative way, without thinking about going from ii to V to I. I am both envious and in awe of those so fluent in the language of music that it can be a form of expression. I feel like I have gotten to a point where I'm beginning to learn to express myself through music, but it has to be the right piece.
Anyways, I love listening to a piece and knowing what the composer was thinking, especially when I can't connect with the piece solely aurally. To listen in an informed way, with specifics in mind, helps me understand what they were trying to accomplish and appreciate the artistry.
I love musicology.