The Musical March in Step
The Loss of the Musical-Artistic Power
The Deterioration of Originality in Music
The Historical Climax of Homophony
The Musical Misuse of Mental-Spiritual Energies
The Dual Musical Glorification of Mental Limitation
Homophony is analogous to soldiers marching in step; it has a strong, superficial effect on the outer ear and on the physiological aspects of hearing. So much beauty, however, is displayed in the integrated and harmonious movement of even a centipede, compared to such an artificial, forced march in step!
Historically, the
concept of homophonic music arose from the inability to think and act from
the innermost level of feeling in a simultaneously differentiating and integrating
manner.
In our technological age, this concept of marching in step culminates in rock
and pop music where everything moves in step: the melody, the rhythm, as well
as all the accompaniment.
In homophony the melody is hampered so much by the mass of supporting voices, that no one believes its freedom in spite of even the most skilled instrumental manipulations. Thus, in homophony, the melody resembles the grotesque Don Quixote who, clad in full armour, seriously fights the windmills. Amidst a mass of "supporting voices" the melody simply cannot unfold itself naturally and thus cannot develop any genuine originality.
Homophony in the widest sense means "the sounding march in step," and it therefore finds its climax in marches, in party dance music, and in the entertainment music of the masses, including the rock and beat music which, strange enough, aims at encouraging every listener to move, mentally and physically, to the same fixed pattern. Quotation
Thus, the mental-spiritual energies of the musicians and of the listeners do not flow to the head as would seem appropriate but rather down to inferior regions of physiology, thus letting the true human qualities languish.
However, homophony not only represents the marching in step of many people, but also the monotonous repetition of a single fixed pattern of step.
© AAR EDITION INTERNATIONAL 1982