As to classification: It seems to me that the most important of our reflections on classification is to classify facts or events in such a way that the categories which we are using in their classification have a true bearing upon our theoretical interest. The categories of our classification ought not to be »neutral« ones. They ought not to be chosen from a merely statistical point of view, nor ought they to derive from a mere division of the empirical material we have to deal with. We ought to express our theoretical interest by means of the categories which we are using. This means that we may try to translate as many of our theoretical categories into categories or headings of the classification with the aim of checking them by the result which we are achieving. If we start, as Dr. Lazarsfeld and I agree, from the simple theory and, on the other hand, believe that every theory which we carried through our investigation ought to be checked empirically, then I see in the conscious choice of classificatory concepts one of the principal tools of interconnecting our theoretical aims and our empirical material.
But if we seriously consider the aim of checking our theory by empirical material, this also has its consequences for our classificatory concepts. That is to say, when it comes out that some of our headings of classifications do not correspond with the material which we are actually obtaining, then it would not be sufficient to leave empty the columns which are under these headings, but it would be necessary to try to find out methods by which these results are to be used in the process of classification itself. In other words, the classifications ought not to be rigid, but they ought to express the process of development of our knowledge itself. Another means for this purpose is the use of different schedules concerning the same matter in the way I suggested schedules of production, reproduction, and intended reception for the classification of music. Of course, these schedules are not independent of each other, and it is even certain that some points of one’s schedule will reappear in another one, although I should regard it as one of the aims of a more elegant classification to avoid such repetitions as far as possible. But more important than this is its elaborate method which allows us to interconnect the schedules with each other and so to close the gaps which necessarily exist between them. The way of interconnecting and of correcting each schedule by another one seems to me one of the concrete means of expressing theoretical results – that is to say, modifications of the categories from which we started in a way which allows us to use the classification as a means for theoretical purposes and not as an aim in itself. I should like to know how far it would be possible to elaborate theoretical methods for »dynamic« classification – that is to say, for the translation of one classification into the terms of another one.
It also appears to me that if one takes into account the interest of the theory, there might be cases when one has the freedom of a certain logical inexactness of which one is fully conscious. In my draft of musical entertainment, for instance, I gave several classes of entertaining music, such as »dance music«, »songs and hits«, »character pieces«, »salon pieces« and so on. Another section which I suggested is »musical arrangements and transcriptions«. This certainly is not on the same logical level as the others, that is to say, each transcription might belong to one of the other groups mentioned before. Nevertheless, according to my theory of the perusal of music, these transcriptions and arrangements of serious music for the purpose of making it entertaining music is so decisive that from a theoretical point of view it is indispensable to get a certain survey of this type of musical entertainment which, on the other hand, could not appear anywhere else but under the main heading of entertaining music. Thus I believe that I am justified from a highly theoretical point of view in using this category here in spite of its logical inconsistency with the other parts. I should like to add, however, that these suggestions are mainly concerned with a method of a first approach. If we can ever reach classifications which are to be published as results of our investigation, I should strongly advocate trying to elaborate them in such a way that such inconsistencies are to be avoided. For the present purposes, however, I regard the classification of the whole as a means of getting theoretical results and not as a goal in the sense of the representation of statistical results.
During the time between half past two and half past four, Damrosch comments on the universally known songs of the Barlachi Volga Singers, calling it an old folk song.1 This song has definitely been made known all over the world by the Arti-crafti Variety Theater of Jushny’s »The Bluebird«.2 It is very doubtful to me whether it ever was a genuine folk song, and it had definitely gotten the character of a commodity before it was ever presented to audiences as a folk song. Again he presents the German song, »Muß i’denn, Muß i’denn zum Staedtlein hinaus« as an old folk song, giving it the same sort of archaic dignity, although I am almost certain that this song is no older than one hundred years and in fact, an art song of early romanticism which became popular. Damrosch comments on it with a very sentimental voice, using the words, »There has never been written anything lovelier.«
The singer who sings the Volga song is imitating Chaliapin in an obvious and slavish manner. It is, so to speak, the trademark article, »Chaliapin’s Volga Song«.3
At 3:00 P.M. I heard over WHYN a whole program of transcriptions in exactly the sense I anticipated, consisting mainly of songs played on the fiddle with an accompanying orchestra. One of the selections was the »Preislied« of the Meistersinger played by a solo violin in an unbearably sentimental way, accompanied by full orchestra. At the same time I heard over 1190 the »Serenade« by Schubert, and at about wave length 1180,4 a concert given by a Wurlitzer organ. As a whole such a brief survey of the simultaneously played music differs astonishingly little from the European programs which we are used to. The only remarkable difference is this: That the level of jazz orchestras is remarkably higher than in Europe.
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One has to analyze the special role which is played by humor in programs. It appears to me that humor is one of the main tools for overcoming the alienation and merchandising of the mechanism of radio by making fun of it oneself, not taking it seriously, and so to trying to close the gap between the musician or speaker and the audience by means of the same mechanism which creates this gap. Here also one ought to analyze very carefully the role of humor for advertising. It seems to me that humor has a definite function in today’s broadcasting, mainly to create a certain atmosphere of conformism and to belittle at the same time all the obvious flaws and faults which are inherent in the procedures of present-day business radio life. We ought to analyze the part which is played by humor in general and the proportion of »humorous« and »serious« productions. This seems to me to be applicable to all faults of radio translation, that is to say, of dramatic and literary transmissions as well as its musical ones. Perhaps one could build up a system of classification according to categories such as »humorous«, »touching«, »moving«, »serious«, and so on.
As far as I heard the Damrosch Hour, Mr. Damrosch did not give any truly analytical comment upon music. He said nothing about style, about compositional technique, or even about the most elementary musical facts. Instead of that he told some stories, for example, about the general musical level in Elizabethan England, which he certainly exaggerated to a great extent. It appears to me that the succcess of this Damrosch Hour, as it is now, is due mainly to the fact that Mr. Damrosch repeats with a certain touch of authority and an expression of being personally moved by the facts, the very current and romantic ideas about musical compositions and musical standards – that folk songs, which are newly fabricated, are derivations of the very sources of the community of people – that in better times, such as in Elizabethan England, every barber shop was full of artists who were able to play and entertain and sing at the same time that they were being shaved, etc. The mere repetition of these romantic prejudices, without any attempt even to criticize or of any analytical approach, seems to be the reason for his success. Mr. Damrosch states and affirms the ideas which everyone has more or less consciously about music and that is what makes him so popular.
The analysis of his Hour has to be carried further and one also has to see if this Hour really has as great a success as it is supposed to have.
Possibly part of his success is also due to the fact that Mr. Damrosch is a very old man, so that people might regard him as a sort of musical wizard who utters sacred or authoritative opinions already out of his tomb. It is the voice of death which is obtained through the medium of the radio transmission.
Miss Kohn tells me that in her school days the name of Damrosch and classical music were practically synonymous.
Instead of real analysis of the works of music, he gives biographical sketches of the composer. We shall have to check this because it is very important.
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One of the most remarkable features of American broadcasting on a first approach seems to me the fact that the broadcasting of music of the lowest type and the most trivial things are practically always on an exceedingly high level of performance. The interest seems to be absorbed much more by the way of performing things than by the selections which are actually performed. This seems to affirm the tendency which was already to be noticed in jazz, namely that the reproduction of music has a tendency of replacing to a greater and greater extent the production. Even the worst jazz orchestra, the worst accordion music, is performed on a virtuoso level. This perfection applies first of all to the elements of rapidity and clarity of the individual tone rather than to the rhythmical elements, and finally to all elements of sound. In the present stage, in any case, one seems to try everywhere to get the most full, rich, so to speak »fattish« sound, the model of which seems to be drawn from the tutti of the string orchestra. But jazz at the present moment seems to obey the same tendency of a rich, vibrating sound. Possibly the conception of swing music, at present opposed to what music derives from this preponderance of the mere quality of vibrating sound. Instruments such as the vibraphone aim to constitute an integral part of this sound. One of the effects of this general tendency towards a rich and vibrating sound seems to me to be the perusal of expressive elements because this vibrating sound specializes in the Wagnerian style and was the means of the highest subjective expression. But now, by the hundred- and thousand-fold reproduction and the ubiquity of this sort of expressive sound, it loses completely its original meaning of agitation. The gesture of being agitated and being moved replaces any actual being moved and anything of that sort. The gesture of expression, effectively replaces the emotion itself. It is a sort of behaviorist process in which isolated attitudes of emotion replace the total emotion of a total individual as a whole. Very similar tendencies to this are to be found in moving pictures where it is much less the function of present day film actors to express personality through emotions as a whole, but where they have much more to illustrate their ideas of certain emotions, such as love, or terror, by special gestures which are regarded as representing these emotions. The way of using musical means of expression for these things has exactly the same basis.