Chernoff: A Reading by Antriksh Bali

A lot of what John Chernoff talks about reminds me of how Indian music
is interpreted and played in various parts of the world. The fact that not
everyone can distinguish the patterns is indeed an intriguing idea.
To begin with, what Chernoff starts with is the fact that someone that
grew up listening to African music would perceive it differently than
someone from say, Iceland is another interesting point that he raises. I
feel that it is valid. However, I also find it interesting to notice that
sometimes how people from different backgrounds and experiences
perceive music very differently. Perhaps, the same way I sometimes see a
few parallels between African music and Indian music, perhaps someone
from Iceland would somehow relate it to certain ancient Scandinavian
tones.
The fact that African music is a lot about free form again brings me to a
parallel between what we did in class over the course of this semester.
Where we started from was this concept of non-linearity which when
thought of, at a micro level is really not following a set pattern, and really
being free rather than being constricted by the rhythms. I think African
music does embrace that, however counterintuitive it may seem at first
thought
Regarding what is aesthetically significant, I think Chernoff arrives at
some deep internalizations. I really see two systems as an influence of
reading what he said. I see that perhaps music systems are the
consequences of seeing art in two different ways. One being that
everything is equally aesthetically significant, which if we applied to say
something like pitches in music could end up creating a well-tempered
pitch system. However, there is also another way of looking at it. The
system of thinking where you assign more priority and deem a certain
number of things more aesthetically significant than the others. I believe
that if you applied something like that to a pitch system again, we would
arrive at all various unequally tempered pitch systems. I think what he
says about significance really rings with me, specifically also that he
mentioned that sometimes people forget where they are when some
music really has an impact on them. To me, I dont think it is wrong to
clap your hands to a symphonic piece of music and I believe if people
would really start doing something like that it could perhaps it would lead

to the emergence of a new artform, or if not atleast a new technique of

perceiving music perhaps.
I think African music connects with me in that way. There is nothing
permitted or not permitted and you make and break your own rules as
you go along, much like the drummer that goes off time in a number of
ways but it leads to some interesting perceptual shifts in how the music is
being perceived.

27/03/15 1:50 PM

27/03/15 1:50 PM